Silent films, 1925–1928 '', 1926 In early 1925, Cooper began his film career in silent pictures such as
The Thundering Herd and
Wild Horse Mesa with
Jack Holt,
Riders of the Purple Sage and
The Lucky Horseshoe with
Tom Mix, and
The Trail Rider with
Buck Jones. While his skilled horsemanship led to steady work in Westerns, Cooper found the stunt work, which sometimes injured horses and riders, "tough and cruel". Knowing that other actors were using the name "Frank Cooper", Collins suggested he change his first name to "Gary" after her hometown of
Gary, Indiana. Cooper immediately liked the name. Cooper also found work in a variety of non-Western films, appearing, for example, as a masked
Cossack in
The Eagle (1925), as a Roman guard in
Ben-Hur (1925), and as a flood survivor in
The Johnstown Flood (1926). As a featured player, he began to attract the attention of major film studios. On June 1, 1926, Cooper signed a contract with
Samuel Goldwyn Productions for $50 a week. Cooper's first important film role was a supporting part in
The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) starring
Ronald Colman and
Vilma Bánky, Cooper's experience living among the Montana cowboys gave his performance an "instinctive authenticity", according to biographer Jeffrey Meyers. The film was a major success. Critics singled out Cooper as a "dynamic new personality" and future star. Goldwyn rushed to offer Cooper a long-term contract, but he held out for a better deal – a five-year contract with
Jesse L. Lasky at
Paramount Pictures for $175 a week. Paramount paired Cooper with
Fay Wray in
The Legion of the Condemned and
The First Kiss (both 1928), advertising them as the studio's "glorious young lovers". Their on-screen chemistry failed to generate much excitement with audiences. With each new film, Cooper's acting skills improved and his popularity continued to grow, especially among female movie-goers. and receiving 1,000 fan letters a week. Looking to exploit Cooper's growing audience appeal, the studio placed him opposite popular leading ladies such as
Evelyn Brent in
Beau Sabreur,
Florence Vidor in
Doomsday, and
Esther Ralston in
Half a Bride (all 1928). Around the same time, Cooper made
Lilac Time (1928) with
Colleen Moore for
First National Pictures, his first movie with synchronized music and sound effects. It became one of the most commercially successful films of 1928. According to biographer
Jeffrey Meyers, the romantic image of the tall, handsome, and shy cowboy hero who embodied male freedom, courage, and honor was created in large part by Cooper in the film. Unlike some silent-film actors who had trouble adapting to the new sound medium, Cooper transitioned naturally, with his "deep and clear" and "pleasantly drawling" voice, which perfectly suited the characters he portrayed on screen. Looking to capitalize on Cooper's growing popularity, Paramount cast him in several Westerns and
wartime dramas, including
Only the Brave,
The Texan, ''
Seven Days' Leave, A Man from Wyoming, and The Spoilers (all released in 1930). Norman Rockwell depicted Cooper in his role as The Texan
for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post'' on May 24, 1930. and Cooper in
Fighting Caravans, 1931 One of the most important performances in Cooper's early career was his portrayal of a sullen
legionnaire in
Josef von Sternberg's film
Morocco (also 1930) with
Marlene Dietrich in her introduction to American audiences. During production, von Sternberg focused his energies on Dietrich and treated Cooper dismissively. Despite the tensions on the set, Cooper produced "one of his best performances", according to Thornton Delehanty of the
New York Evening Post. After returning to the Western genre in
Zane Grey's
Fighting Caravans (1931) with French actress
Lili Damita, Cooper appeared in the
Dashiell Hammett crime film City Streets (also 1931), co-starring
Sylvia Sidney and
Paul Lukas, playing a westerner who gets involved with big-city gangsters to save the woman he loves. Cooper concluded the year with appearances in two unsuccessful films:
I Take This Woman (also 1931) with
Carole Lombard, and
His Woman with
Claudette Colbert. The demands and pressures of making 10 films in two years left Cooper exhausted and in poor health, suffering from
anemia and
jaundice. He had lost , and felt lonely, isolated, and depressed by his sudden fame and wealth. In May 1931, Cooper left Hollywood and sailed to
Algiers and then Italy, where he lived for the next year. After guiding him through the great art museums and galleries of Italy, where he was credited with more than 60 kills, including two lions, a rhinoceros, and various antelopes. His safari experience in Africa had a profound influence on Cooper and intensified his love of the wilderness. Rested and rejuvenated by his year-long exile, a healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood in April 1932 and negotiated a new contract with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $4,000 a week, and director and script approval. in
A Farewell to Arms, 1932 In 1932, after completing
Devil and the Deep with
Tallulah Bankhead to fulfill his old contract, Cooper appeared in
A Farewell to Arms, the first film adaptation of an
Ernest Hemingway novel. Co-starring
Helen Hayes, a leading New York theatre star and Academy Award winner, and
Adolphe Menjou, the film presented Cooper with one of his most ambitious and challenging dramatic roles, and the film became one of the year's most commercially successful pictures. Co-starring
Miriam Hopkins and
Fredric March, the film was a box-office success, ranking as one of the top-10 highest-grossing films of 1933. All three of the lead actorsMarch, Cooper, and Hopkinsreceived attention from this film, as they were all at the peak of their careers. Cooper's performance, as an American artist in Europe competing with his playwright friend for the affections of a beautiful woman, was singled out for its versatility and revealed his genuine ability to do light comedy. Cooper changed his name legally to "Gary Cooper" in August 1933. and Cooper in
The Wedding Night, 1935 In 1934, Cooper was lent out to
MGM for the Civil War
drama film Operator 13 with
Marion Davies, about a beautiful Union spy who falls in love with a Confederate soldier. Despite
Richard Boleslawski's imaginative direction and
George J. Folsey's lavish cinematography, the film did poorly at the box office. Back at Paramount, Cooper appeared in his first of seven films by director
Henry Hathaway,
Now and Forever, with Carole Lombard and
Shirley Temple. In the film, he plays a confidence man who tries to sell his daughter to the relatives who raised her, but is eventually won over by the adorable girl. Impressed by Temple's intelligence and charm, Cooper developed a close rapport with her, both on and off screen. who was being groomed as "another
Garbo". In the film, Cooper plays an alcoholic novelist who retreats to his family's New England farm, where he meets and falls in love with a beautiful Polish neighbor. Despite receiving generally favorable reviews, the film was not popular with American audiences, who may have been offended by the film's depiction of an extramarital affair and its tragic ending. and the
adventure film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, about a daring British officer and his men who defend their stronghold at
Bengal against rebellious local tribes. While the former, championed by the
surrealists became more successful in Europe than in the United States, the latter was nominated for seven Academy Awards and became one of Cooper's most popular and successful adventure films. Hathaway had the highest respect for Cooper's acting ability, calling him "the best actor of all of them". After making
Frank Borzage's
romantic comedy film
Desire with Marlene Dietrich at Paramount, in which he delivered a performance considered by some contemporary critics as one of his finest, In the film, Cooper plays Longfellow Deeds, a quiet, innocent writer of greeting cards who inherits a fortune, leaves behind his idyllic life in Vermont, and travels to New York City, where he faces a world of corruption and deceit. Capra and screenwriter
Robert Riskin were able to use Cooper's well-established screen persona as the "quintessential American hero"to create a new type of "
folk hero" for the common man. Commenting on Cooper's impact on the character and the film, Capra observed: Both
Desire and
Mr. Deeds opened in April 1936 to critical praise and were major box-office successes. In his review in
The New York Times,
Frank Nugent wrote that Cooper was "proving himself one of the best light comedians in Hollywood". Written by playwright
Clifford Odets, the film was a critical and commercial success. In
Cecil B. DeMille's sprawling frontier epic
The Plainsman, his first of four films with the director, Cooper portrays
Wild Bill Hickok in a highly fictionalized version of the opening of the American western frontier. The film was an even greater box-office hit than its predecessor, due in large part to Jean Arthur's definitive depiction of
Calamity Jane and Cooper's inspired portrayal of Hickok as an enigmatic figure of "deepening mythic substance". That year, Cooper appeared for the first time on the
Motion Picture Herald exhibitor's poll of top-10 film personalities, where he remained for the next 23 years. when Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn for six films over six years with a minimum guarantee of $150,000 per picture. Paramount brought suit against Goldwyn and Cooper, and the court ruled that Cooper's new Goldwyn contract afforded the actor sufficient time to also honor his Paramount agreement. Cooper continued to make films with both studios, and by 1939, the
United States Treasury reported that Cooper was the country's highest wage earner, at $482,819 (equivalent to $million in ). In contrast to his output the previous year, Cooper appeared in only one picture in 1937, Henry Hathaway's adventure film
Souls at Sea. A critical and box-office failure, Cooper referred to it as his "almost picture", saying, "It was almost exciting, and almost interesting. And I was almost good." Plagued by production problems and a weak screenplay, the film became Goldwyn's biggest failure to date, losing $700,000. During this period, Cooper turned down several important roles, including the role of
Rhett Butler in
Gone with the Wind. Cooper was producer
David O. Selznick's first choice for the part. but Cooper had doubts about the project, Cooper later admitted, "It was one of the best roles ever offered in Hollywood... But I said no. I didn't see myself as quite that dashing, and later, when I saw Clark Gable play the role to perfection, I knew I was right." In the film, Cooper plays a wealthy American businessman in France who falls in love with an impoverished aristocrat's daughter and persuades her to become his eighth wife. Despite the clever screenplay by
Charles Brackett and
Billy Wilder, and solid performances by Cooper and Colbert, The efforts of three directors and several eminent screenwriters could not salvage what could have been a fine vehicle for Cooper. While more successful than its predecessor, the film was Cooper's fourth consecutive box-office failure in the American market. In the next two years, Cooper was more discerning about the roles he accepted and made four successful large-scale adventure and cowboy films. Filmed in the same
Mojave Desert locations as the original
1926 version with Ronald Colman,
Beau Geste provided Cooper with magnificent sets, exotic settings, high-spirited action, and a role tailored to his personality and screen persona. This was the last film in Cooper's contract with Paramount. Many film critics praised Cooper's performance, including author and film critic
Graham Greene, who recognized that he "never acted better".
From The Westerner to For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940–1943 Cooper returned to the Western genre in
William Wyler's
The Westerner (1940) with
Walter Brennan and
Doris Davenport, about a drifting cowboy who defends homesteaders against
Roy Bean, a corrupt judge known as the "law west of the
Pecos". Screenwriter
Niven Busch relied on Cooper's extensive knowledge of
Western history while working on the script. The film received positive reviews and did well at the box office, with reviewers praising the performances of the two lead actors. That same year, Cooper appeared in his first all-
Technicolor feature, Cecil B. DeMille's adventure film
North West Mounted Police (1940). In the film, Cooper plays a
Texas Ranger who pursues an outlaw into western Canada, where he joins forces with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police who are after the same man, a leader of the
North-West Rebellion. While not as popular with critics as its predecessor, the film was another box-office success, the sixth-highest grossing film of 1940. ,
Barbara Stanwyck, Cooper, and
Walter Brennan in
Meet John Doe, 1941 The early 1940s were Cooper's prime years as an actor. In a relatively short period, he appeared in five critically successful and popular films that produced some of his finest performances. In the film, Cooper plays Long John Willoughby, a down-and-out bush-league pitcher hired by a newspaper to pretend to be a man who promises to commit suicide on Christmas Eve to protest all the hypocrisy and corruption in the country. Considered by some critics to be Capra's best film at the time,
Meet John Doe was received as a "national event" In his review in the
New York Herald Tribune, Howard Barnes called Cooper's performance a "splendid and utterly persuasive portrayal" and praised his "utterly realistic acting which comes through with such authority". In the biographical film
Sergeant York, Cooper portrays war hero
Alvin C. York, one of the most decorated American soldiers in World WarI. The film chronicles York's early backwoods days in
Tennessee, his religious conversion and subsequent piety, his stand as a conscientious objector, and finally his heroic actions at the
Battle of the Argonne Forest, which earned him the
Medal of Honor. Initially, Cooper was nervous and uncertain about playing a living hero, so he traveled to Tennessee to visit York at his home, and the two quiet men established an immediate rapport and discovered they had much in common. Inspired by York's encouragement, Cooper delivered a performance that Howard Barnes of the
New York Herald Tribune called "one of extraordinary conviction and versatility", and that Archer Winston of the
New York Post called "one of his best". After the film's release, Cooper was awarded the Distinguished Citizenship Medal by the
Veterans of Foreign Wars for his "powerful contribution to the promotion of patriotism and loyalty". York admired Cooper's performance and helped promote the film for
Warner Bros. Accepting his first Academy Award for Best Actor from his friend
James Stewart, Cooper said, "It was Sergeant Alvin York who won this award. Shucks, I've been in the business 16 years and sometimes dreamed I might get one of these. That's all I can say... Funny when I was dreaming I always made a better speech." In the film, Cooper plays a shy linguistics professor who leads a team of seven scholars who are writing an encyclopedia. While researching slang, he meets Stanwyck's flirtatious burlesque stripper Sugarpuss O'Shea who blows the dust off their staid life of books. The screenplay by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder provided Cooper the opportunity to exercise the full range of his light comedy skills. Though small in scale,
Ball of Fire was one of the top-grossing films of the year and Cooper's fourth consecutive picture to make the top 20. In
Sam Wood's biographical film
The Pride of the Yankees, Cooper portrays baseball star
Lou Gehrig, who established a record with the
New York Yankees for playing in 2,130 consecutive games. Cooper was reluctant to play the seven-time
All-Star, who had died only the previous year from
ALS (now commonly called "Lou Gehrig's disease"). Beyond the challenges of effectively portraying such a popular and nationally recognized figure, Cooper knew very little about baseball and was not left-handed like Gehrig. Cooper quickly learned the physical movements of a baseball player and developed a fluid, believable swing. The
handedness issue was solved by reversing the print for certain batting scenes. The film was one of the year's top-10 pictures an American explosives expert who fights alongside the
Republican loyalists during the
Spanish Civil War. The original director, Cecil B. DeMille, was replaced by Sam Wood, who brought in
Dudley Nichols for the screenplay. The love scenes between Bergman and Cooper were "rapturous" and passionate. Howard Barnes in the
New York Herald Tribune wrote that both actors performed with "the true stature and authority of stars". While the film distorted the novel's original political themes and meaning,
For Whom the Bell Tolls was a critical and commercial success and received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper's fourth). In June 1943, he visited military hospitals in San Diego, In late 1943, Cooper undertook a tour of the
South West Pacific with actresses
Una Merkel and
Phyllis Brooks and accordionist Andy Arcari. Traveling on a
B-24A Liberator bomber, The group often shared the same sparse living conditions and K-rations as the troops. Cooper met with the servicemen and women, visited military hospitals, introduced his attractive colleagues and participated in occasional skits. In the film, Cooper plays American doctor and missionary
Corydon M. Wassell, who leads a group of wounded sailors through the jungles of Java to safety. Despite receiving poor reviews,
Dr. Wassell was one of the top-grossing films of the year. With his Goldwyn and Paramount contracts now concluded, Cooper decided to remain independent and formed his own production company, International Pictures, with
Leo Spitz,
William Goetz, and
Nunnally Johnson. The fledgling studio's first offering was Sam Wood's romantic comedy
Casanova Brown with
Teresa Wright, about a man who learns his soon-to-be ex-wife is pregnant with his child, just as he is about to marry another woman. The film received poor reviews, with the
New York Daily News calling it "delightful nonsense", and Bosley Crowther, in
The New York Times, criticizing Cooper's "somewhat obvious and ridiculous clowning". In 1945, Cooper starred in and produced
Stuart Heisler's Western comedy
Along Came Jones with
Loretta Young for International. In this lighthearted parody of his past heroic image, Cooper plays comically inept cowboy Melody Jones, who is mistaken for a ruthless killer. It was also International's biggest financial success during its brief history before being sold off to
Universal Studios in 1946. Cooper's career during the postwar years drifted in new directions as American society was changing. While he still played conventional heroic roles, his films now relied less on his heroic screen persona and more on novel stories and exotic settings. In November 1945, Cooper appeared in Sam Wood's 19th-century period drama
Saratoga Trunk with Ingrid Bergman, about a Texas cowboy and his relationship with a beautiful fortune hunter. Filmed in early 1943, the movie's release was delayed for two years due to the increased demand for war movies. Despite poor reviews,
Saratoga Trunk did well at the box office and became one of the top moneymakers of the year for Warner Bros. Cooper's only film in 1946 was
Fritz Lang's romantic thriller
Cloak and Dagger, about a mild-mannered physics professor recruited by the
Office of Strategic Services during the last years of World War II to investigate the German atomic-bomb program. Playing a part loosely based on physicist
J. Robert Oppenheimer, Cooper was uneasy with the role and unable to convey the "inner sense" of the character. The film received poor reviews and was a box-office failure. In 1947, Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's epic adventure film
Unconquered with
Paulette Goddard, about a Virginia militiaman who defends settlers against an unscrupulous gun trader and hostile Indians on the Western frontier during the 18th century. The film received mixed reviews, but even long-time DeMille critic
James Agee acknowledged the picture had "some authentic flavor of the period". This last of four films made with DeMille was Cooper's most lucrative, earning the actor over $300,000 (equal to $ today) in salary and percentage of profits.
Unconquered was his last unqualified box-office success for the next five years. Cooper sold his company to Universal Studios and signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. that gave him script and director approval and a guaranteed $295,000 (equal to $ today) per picture. In the film, Cooper plays an idealistic and uncompromising architect who struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism in the face of societal pressures to conform to popular standards. Based on the
novel by
Ayn Rand, who also wrote the screenplay, the film reflects her philosophy and attacks the concepts of
collectivism while promoting the virtues of
individualism. For most critics, Cooper was hopelessly miscast in the role of Howard Roark. In his review for
The New York Times,
Bosley Crowther concluded he was "Mr. Deeds out of his element". Cooper returned to his element in
Delmer Daves' war drama
Task Force (1949), about a retiring
rear admiral, who reminisces about his long career as a
naval aviator and his role in the development of aircraft carriers. Cooper's performance and the Technicolor newsreel footage supplied by the United States Navy made the film one of Cooper's most popular during this period. In the next two years, Cooper made four poorly received films:
Michael Curtiz' period drama
Bright Leaf (1950), Stuart Heisler's Western melodrama
Dallas (1950), Henry Hathaway's wartime comedy ''
You're in the Navy Now'' (1951), and
Raoul Walsh's Western action film
Distant Drums (1951). while
Katy Jurado stares at them in
High Noon, 1952 Cooper's most important film during the postwar years was
Fred Zinnemann's Western drama
High Noon (1952) with
Grace Kelly and
Katy Jurado for
United Artists. In the film, Cooper plays retiring sheriff
Will Kane, who is preparing to leave town on his
honeymoon when he learns that an outlaw he helped put away and his three henchmen are returning to seek their revenge. Unable to gain the support of the frightened townspeople, and abandoned by his young bride, Kane nevertheless stays to face the outlaws alone. During the filming, Cooper was in poor health and in considerable pain from stomach ulcers. His ravaged face and discomfort in some scenes "photographed as self-doubt", according to biographer Hector Arce, and contributed to the effectiveness of his performance.
High Noon received enthusiastic reviews for its artistry, with
Time placing it in the ranks of
Stagecoach and
The Gunfighter. Bosley Crowther, in
The New York Times, wrote that Cooper was "at the top of his form", The film earned $3.75million in the United States Following the example of his friend James Stewart, Cooper accepted a lower salary in exchange for a percentage of the profits, and ended up making $600,000.
Later films, 1953–1959 After appearing in
Andre de Toth's Civil War drama
Springfield Rifle (1952)a standard Warner Bros. film that was overshadowed by the success of its predecessorCooper made four films outside the United States. In
Mark Robson's drama
Return to Paradise (1953), Cooper plays an American wanderer who liberates the inhabitants of a
Polynesian island from the puritanical rule of a misguided pastor. Cooper endured spartan living conditions, long hours, and ill health during the three-month location shoot on the island of
Upolu in
Western Samoa. Despite its beautiful cinematography, the film received poor reviews. Cooper's next three films were shot in Mexico. In 1954, Cooper appeared in Henry Hathaway's Western drama
Garden of Evil, with
Susan Hayward, about three soldiers of fortune in Mexico hired to rescue a woman's husband. That same year, he appeared in
Robert Aldrich's Western adventure
Vera Cruz with
Burt Lancaster. In the film, Cooper plays an American adventurer hired by Emperor
MaximilianI to escort a countess to
Vera Cruz during the
Mexican Rebellion of 1866. All these films received poor reviews, but did well at the box office. For his work in
Vera Cruz, Cooper earned $1.4million in salary and a percentage of the gross. in
Friendly Persuasion, 1956 During this period, Cooper struggled with health problems. He suffered a severe shoulder injury during the filming of
Blowing Wild when he was hit by metal fragments from a dynamited oil well, as well as his ongoing treatment for ulcers. Some critics felt Cooper was miscast, and that his dull, tight-lipped performance did not reflect Mitchell's dynamic and caustic personality. In 1956, Cooper was more effective playing a gentle Indiana
Quaker in
William Wyler's Civil War drama
Friendly Persuasion with
Dorothy McGuire. Like
Sergeant York and
High Noon, the film addresses the conflict between religious pacifism and civic duty. For his performance, Cooper received his second Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor. in
Love in the Afternoon, 1957 Cooper traveled to France in 1956 to make Billy Wilder's romantic comedy
Love in the Afternoon with
Audrey Hepburn and
Maurice Chevalier. In the film, Cooper plays a middle-aged American playboy in Paris who is pursued by—and eventually falls in love with—a much younger woman. Despite receiving some positive reviews, including from Bosley Crowther, who praised the film's "charming performances", most reviewers concluded that Cooper was simply too old for the part. While audiences may not have welcomed seeing Cooper's heroic screen image tarnished by his playing an aging
roué having an affair with a young girl, the film was still a box-office success. In the film, which was based on the
novel by
John O'Hara, Cooper plays an attorney whose life is ruined by a double-crossing politician and his own secret affair with his daughter's young roommate. '', 1958 Despite his ongoing health problems and several operations for ulcers and
hernias, Cooper continued to work in action films. In 1958, he appeared in
Anthony Mann's Western drama
Man of the West (1958) with
Julie London and
Lee J. Cobb, about a reformed outlaw and killer who is forced to confront his violent past when the train in which he is riding is held up by his former gang members. The film has been called Cooper's "most pathological Western", with its themes of impotent rage, sexual humiliation, and sadism. Mostly ignored by critics at the time, the film is now well-regarded by film scholars and is considered Cooper's last great film. In Delmer Daves' Western drama
The Hanging Tree, Cooper plays a frontier doctor who saves a criminal from a lynch mob, and later tries to exploit his sordid past. Cooper delivered a "powerful and persuasive" performance of an emotionally scarred man whose need to dominate others is transformed by the love and sacrifice of a woman. In
Robert Rossen's historical adventure
They Came to Cordura with
Rita Hayworth, he plays an army officer who is found guilty of cowardice and assigned the degrading task of recommending soldiers for the Medal of Honor during the
Pancho Villa Expedition of 1916. While Cooper received positive reviews,
Variety and
Films in Review felt he was too old for the part. In
Michael Anderson's action drama
The Wreck of the Mary Deare with
Charlton Heston, Cooper plays a disgraced merchant-marine officer who decides to stay aboard his sinking cargo ship to prove the vessel was deliberately scuttled and to redeem his good name. Like its two predecessors, the film was physically demanding. Cooper, who was a trained scuba diver, did most of his own underwater scenes.what
Joseph Conrad in
Lord Jim called the "struggles of an individual trying to save from the fire his idea of what his moral identity should be". ==Personal life==