Gary Cooper born Frank James Cooper ; May 7, β May 13, was an American actor known for his strong, silent screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, as well as an Academy Honorary Award in for his career achievements. He was one of the top film personalities for 23 consecutive years and one of the top money-making stars for 18 years.
Cooper's career spanned 36 years, from to , and included leading roles in 84 feature films. He was a major movie star from the end of the silent film era through to the end of the golden age of classical Hollywood. His screen persona appealed strongly to both men and women, and his range included roles in most major film genres. His ability to project his own personality onto the characters he played contributed to his natural and authentic appearance on screen.
Throughout his career, he sustained a screen persona that represented the ideal American hero. Cooper began his career as a film extra and stunt rider , but soon landed acting roles. After establishing himself as a Western hero in his early silent films , he became a movie star with his first sound picture, playing the title role in 's The Virginian. In the early s, he expanded his heroic image to include more cautious characters in adventure films and dramas such as A Farewell to Arms and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer During the height of his career, Cooper portrayed a new type of hero, a champion of the common man in films such as Mr.
He later portrayed more mature characters at odds with the world in films such as The Fountainhead and High Noon In his final films, he played nonviolent characters searching for redemption in films such as Friendly Persuasion and Man of the West Cooper's father came from Houghton Regis , England [ 3 ] and became a prominent lawyer, rancher, and Montana Supreme Court justice. Alice wanted their sons to have a British education, so she took them back to the United Kingdom in to enroll them in Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable , England.
While there, Cooper and his brother lived with their father's cousins, William and Emily Barton, at their home in Houghton Regis. When Cooper was 15, he injured his hip in a car accident. On his doctor's recommendation, he returned to the Seven-Bar-Nine ranch to recuperate with horseback riding. Cooper was still attending high school in , when he took three art courses at Montana Agricultural College in Bozeman. He did well academically in most of his courses, [ 24 ] but was not accepted into the school's drama club.
