Gary Cooper
born: 07-05-1901
birth place: Montana, USA
died: 13-05-1961
Gary Cooper was educated at a prestigious school in England. Injured in a car accident, while attending Wesleyan College, he convalesced on his dad's ranch, perfecting the riding skills that would see him through many a future Western film.
After trying to make a living at political cartooning, Cooper was encouraged by friends to seek employment as a cowboy extra in movies. Agent Nan Collins felt she could get more prestigious work for the handsome Cooper, and, in 1926, he won a role in 'The Winning of Barbara Worth'.
Movie star Clara Bow also made sure he was cast in a couple of her films. Cooper couldn’t act well, but he learnt quickly.
Cooper's first talking-picture success was 'The Virginian', in which he developed his trademark taciturn, laconic speech patterns.
Cooper alternated between tie-and-tails parts, as in 'Design for Living', and he-man adventurer roles, as in 'The Lives of a Bengal Lancer', for most of the 1930s. In 1933, he married socialite Veronica Balfe.
In 1941, he was honoured with an Oscar for 'Sergeant York'. One year later, Cooper scored in another film biography, 'Pride of the Yankees', despite never having played baseball.
Too old for World War II service, he gave his time in South Pacific personal-appearance tours.
Despite the actor's indirect participation in the communist witch-hunt of the 1940s, Hollywood held Cooper in the highest regard as an actor and a man.
Consigned mostly to Westerns by the 1950s (including the classic 'High Noon'), Cooper retained his box-office stature. Privately, however, he was plagued with painful, recurring illnesses, including lung cancer.
In 1961, Cooper died of prostate cancer six days after his 60th birthday.
