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The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper
Exploring both the public person and the private person, Swindell suggests that the real Gary Cooper was the antithesis of his good-guy screen image, hinting at extramarital affairs and bisexuality
- GenresBiography
343 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 24, 2020
Did I find it interesting? "Yup" Did I learn things I didn't know about the actor? "Yup." Did it make me change my opinions of his films? "Nope." What it did do was show me the confused business that was Hollywood in it's Golden Age. Those artists were both gypsies and slaves at times and the movie moguls their masters. A lot of the legend and rumors in the book like all others have to be taken with "a grain of salt" because that is standard for this type of biography.
Cooper was born in Montana and was the son of a ranch owner and he himself a ranch hand early in his life. His career began as a rider in "Poverty Row" Westerns, taking a fall for $5.00. He was much deeper than the "aw shucks" posture he appeared to have. Hunter, art lover, friend of Hemingway, world traveler, family man and lover of cars (and women). Most importantly, to him especially, was the respect of the motion picture community. In the words of Joel McCrea, another favorite Cowboy of mine, "Gary Cooper was the best there ever was."
Cooper was born in Montana and was the son of a ranch owner and he himself a ranch hand early in his life. His career began as a rider in "Poverty Row" Westerns, taking a fall for $5.00. He was much deeper than the "aw shucks" posture he appeared to have. Hunter, art lover, friend of Hemingway, world traveler, family man and lover of cars (and women). Most importantly, to him especially, was the respect of the motion picture community. In the words of Joel McCrea, another favorite Cowboy of mine, "Gary Cooper was the best there ever was."
March 21, 2018
A detailed biography of a film star now long gone and increasing forgotten.Very interesting but only of interest to the fast disappearing aging film fans of the Golden Age.Nice little study of how they made High Noon from a flop to a classic by skilful editing by Elmo Williams,now completely forgotten.
September 30, 2021
Not quite as well written as the newer biography on Cooper by Jeffrey Meyers, but still an interesting read. Especially about Cooper's relationship with Patricia Neal.
April 22, 2017
If I ingested the necessary amount of salt to be taken with this biography, I would be deeply worried for the health of my heart. So many tropes to be trotted out in 304 pages.
We have the stuff about Clara Bow having been with every man between the ages of 16 and 90; authors never get tired of that, do they? Maybe if the readers did, they'd stop writing it. Oh, and did you know that Gary Cooper might have been gay? Oh yes, the "evidence" is that he had a gay friend who stayed in his home on occasion. By that logic, my vacation in the Florida Keys makes me a sand castle. For the record, I'd love Gary Cooper no matter his sexuality, but if you're going to make a claim, find something more credible to hang it on than "he had a gay friend." That's like the author who posited that Claudette Colbert was a lesbian because she wore trousers to a party once.
It's fairly well known that Gary Cooper was a busy boy between takes, having enjoyed the intimate company of everyone from Clara Bow and Lupe Velez when he was a whippersnapper to Grace Kelly when he was an elder statesman. Time is spent on his relatively lengthy involvement with Patricia Neal, who wrote in her own book about him waiting outside while she endured a back-street abortion (not mentioned here). Gary Cooper's marriage was a complex arrangement, obviously, but I still don't quite understand what was going on there, and reading this book didn't help the tiniest bit.
Further muddying the waters is that this came out in 1980. Mrs. Cooper (who remarried after Gary's passing) was still around, as was Patricia Neal and a host of other people mentioned. I'm left scratching my head as to how Swindell felt safe saying some things, but not others. Or perhaps whatever research he did (another question) didn't reveal the stories that we have heard in the intervening 35+ years since this came out.
I'm still waiting for the definitive biography of Gary Cooper; this isn't it. This isn't as bad as the pile of dreck I'd read previously, but that bar was so low as to be subterranean. Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open and hope the next one is better.
We have the stuff about Clara Bow having been with every man between the ages of 16 and 90; authors never get tired of that, do they? Maybe if the readers did, they'd stop writing it. Oh, and did you know that Gary Cooper might have been gay? Oh yes, the "evidence" is that he had a gay friend who stayed in his home on occasion. By that logic, my vacation in the Florida Keys makes me a sand castle. For the record, I'd love Gary Cooper no matter his sexuality, but if you're going to make a claim, find something more credible to hang it on than "he had a gay friend." That's like the author who posited that Claudette Colbert was a lesbian because she wore trousers to a party once.
It's fairly well known that Gary Cooper was a busy boy between takes, having enjoyed the intimate company of everyone from Clara Bow and Lupe Velez when he was a whippersnapper to Grace Kelly when he was an elder statesman. Time is spent on his relatively lengthy involvement with Patricia Neal, who wrote in her own book about him waiting outside while she endured a back-street abortion (not mentioned here). Gary Cooper's marriage was a complex arrangement, obviously, but I still don't quite understand what was going on there, and reading this book didn't help the tiniest bit.
Further muddying the waters is that this came out in 1980. Mrs. Cooper (who remarried after Gary's passing) was still around, as was Patricia Neal and a host of other people mentioned. I'm left scratching my head as to how Swindell felt safe saying some things, but not others. Or perhaps whatever research he did (another question) didn't reveal the stories that we have heard in the intervening 35+ years since this came out.
I'm still waiting for the definitive biography of Gary Cooper; this isn't it. This isn't as bad as the pile of dreck I'd read previously, but that bar was so low as to be subterranean. Oh well, I'll keep my eyes open and hope the next one is better.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews