- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrank James Cooper
- Nicknames
- Coop
- Cowboy Cooper
- The Montana Mule
- Studs
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper. Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa (then called Iowa College). His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a part in a two-reeler by the independent producer Hans Tiesler . Eileen Sedgwick was his first leading lady. He then appeared in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) for United Artists before moving to Paramount. While there he appeared in a small part in Wings (1927), It (1927), and other films.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dave Curbow
- He was born on the 7th of May in 1901 in Helena, Montana and began as a political cartoonist and went to California in the early 20's and found himself playing extra roles and bit parts in Western films. Stardom came in 1926 when he landed the second lead in a big Western The Winning of Barbara Worth. He remained a major star until his death in 1961, He won Oscars for Sergeant York and High Noon. He was married to Veronica Balfe and they had a daughter Marie.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpouseSandra Shaw(December 15, 1933 - May 13, 1961) (his death, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsCharles CooperAlice Cooper
- RelativesArthur Cooper(Sibling)
- Roles in westerns
- Slow, very deliberate delivery
- According to James Garner's autobiography Cooper developed the habit of paying for everything by check, knowing that people would keep it for his signature and never cash it (it was a trick also used by Pablo Picasso, who once said he had seldom paid for anything--from lunches to cars to houses--because of it.
- Was close friends with Ernest Hemingway for 20 years. Hemingway shot himself a month after Cooper's death.
- In 1951, after 25 years in show business, his professional reputation declined and he was dropped from the Motion Picture Herald's list of the top 10 Box Office performers. The following year he made a big comeback at the age of 51 with High Noon (1952).
- In 1925 he befriended another young, struggling, would-be actor named Walter Brennan. At one point they were even appearing as a team at casting offices, and although Cooper emerged in major and leading roles first, they would work together in the good years, too. Most memorably they starred in The Westerner (1940) together, where the general critical consensus was that Brennan's underplayed performance as Judge Roy Bean had stolen the film from Cooper.
- Appeared in 107 movies, 82 of which he starred in. Only 16 of those were filmed in color. And he starred in 14 silent movies.
- Until I came along all the leading men were handsome, but luckily they wrote a lot of stories about the fellow next door.
- If you hit the mark with two out of every five movies you'll keep the wheels of the cycle turning.
- To get folks to like you, I figured you had to sort of be their ideal. I don't mean a handsome knight riding a white horse, but a fellow who answered the description of a right guy.
- People ask me how come you've been around so long. Well, it's through playing the part of Mr Average Joe American.
- [in 1931] I haven't read a half a dozen books in my life.
- The Naked Edge (1961) - $275,000
- The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959) - $275,000
- They Came to Cordura (1959) - $275,000
- The Hanging Tree (1959) - $275,000
- Man of the West (1958) - $295,000
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