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Gary Cooper, an Intimate Biography
He was the handsome, all-American hero-strong, silent, courageous. This is the whole story, his career, the women, his turbulent marriage and his unforgettable roles. The flesh and blood Coop, warm, witty and wild, as told by those who worked with him, slept with him, laughed with him, and sometimes cried.[1901-1961]
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 24, 2015
That Randy Coop, Ruth's Review
There are two anecdotes in Hector Arce’s biography of Gary Cooper that I wish weren’t there.
One is uncouth, the other, vulgar. Some people might find the anecdotes humorous. I didn’t. It took me days to get the vulgar one out of my head, and I felt the entire time an urge to shower. It was something Coop did, probably routinely, and was so beyond the Coop I adore.
The book is advertised as an intimate biography, and so it is. Honest, too, and not particularly salacious, except for the aforementioned anecdote.
I get it, how the stars on the big screen, the stars we think we know, aren’t the real men (or women,) although in many ways, they are. How is it with Coop? Is what we see really what he is? Is he the tall, handsome, laconic cowboy who couldn’t act? If he couldn’t act, and Arce isn't saying he couldn’t, it was alright. Folks went to the movies to see Coop being Coop, and this book makes clear how there wasn’t a lot of disconnect between the man and the legend. Coop really was the laconic cowboy, just not quite the one we thought we knew.
Coop spent a part of his youth on a Montana ranch (and in England, Mom and Dad were immigrants,) and got his start in the movies as a cowboy stuntman. He quickly moved up into small roles, even without anything in the way of training. All Coop had were his looks and his demeanor, and a willingness to work hard, even if it seemed as if he wasn’t working at all. (Sort of how writing went for Coop’s longtime pal, Ernest Hemingway – the harder you work, the easier it looks.) For Coop, it was enough to sustain a long, successful career. And to be fair, it wasn’t always about how the public adored him and the critics didn’t. The critics generally gave him his due, sometimes effusively. They recognized the legitimacy of an actor comfortably portraying himself.
(Portraying himself was what another movie cowboy, Marion Robert Morrison did, and it worked for him too.)
In the late 1920s, in the waning days of the silent film era and the beginning of the talkies, all the actors had to take a voice test, to see if they could transition. Many couldn’t, and it was an abrupt end for them. Coop passed the test. He had a voice! (No jokes here, please.) I imagine Coop’s test was on the order of “nope, yup, mebbe…next!” The earliest talkies were crude and didn’t do much to flatter an actor’s voice, there’s plenty of garble, and in some of those talkies we can see the actor lurching toward the mike, sometimes we even see the mike. Fortunately for Coop, his looks and his laconic demeanor came through.
Coop co-starred with some of Hollywood’s biggest female stars, and here’s the “intimate” part – he dallied with most of them, and with women on the set who weren’t stars, some just for the length of time it took to make a movie, some for a longer time. (Included in the former category, shockingly, to me, was Grace Kelly. I mean, come on, she was a morally upright Quaker woman in her movie with Coop, and in real life, she was a debutantish, future princess.)
Coop, despite the dallying, wasn’t one of those stars who was married 4, 5 times. (Or 8 times, like Mickey Rooney.) Coop was only married once, a rocky marriage to a society girl named Rocky, and although he wasn’t always faithful to her, in the end, they stayed together.
The book gives us a pretty good blend of Coop’s life and his movies, and I especially enjoyed how it pauses on his two biggies, Sergeant York and High Noon (for both of which he received the Oscar, having been nominated 5 times.)
There’s a symmetry between Coop and Sergeant York, a symmetry both men recognized, and is High Noon an allegory trashing the anti-communist witch hunts that were taking place in America at the time the movie was made? (1952.) The movie’s politics, or imagined politics, baffled and angered some, including the aforementioned Marion Robert Morrison, aka The Duke, John Wayne. What the hell was Coop doing, starring in a subversive movie? Some found the politics amusing – was the dumb old Coop sending a lefty message without realizing it? Probably not. Coop was no dummy, and here’s an important fact – Coop may have been a right-winger and an (overly-) staunch anti-communist, but when he was called before HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee,) he, unlike so many others, refrained from naming names. Bravo, Coop!
Coop died at the age of 60, a screen legend, and OK, he wasn’t the most versatile actor and was a philanderer, but I’ll take an honest biography over a hagiography, even with my heartthrobs, and the egregious anecdote I mentioned earlier? It’s not fair to not describe it, I know I should, but I’m sorry. I can’t.
There are two anecdotes in Hector Arce’s biography of Gary Cooper that I wish weren’t there.
One is uncouth, the other, vulgar. Some people might find the anecdotes humorous. I didn’t. It took me days to get the vulgar one out of my head, and I felt the entire time an urge to shower. It was something Coop did, probably routinely, and was so beyond the Coop I adore.
The book is advertised as an intimate biography, and so it is. Honest, too, and not particularly salacious, except for the aforementioned anecdote.
I get it, how the stars on the big screen, the stars we think we know, aren’t the real men (or women,) although in many ways, they are. How is it with Coop? Is what we see really what he is? Is he the tall, handsome, laconic cowboy who couldn’t act? If he couldn’t act, and Arce isn't saying he couldn’t, it was alright. Folks went to the movies to see Coop being Coop, and this book makes clear how there wasn’t a lot of disconnect between the man and the legend. Coop really was the laconic cowboy, just not quite the one we thought we knew.
Coop spent a part of his youth on a Montana ranch (and in England, Mom and Dad were immigrants,) and got his start in the movies as a cowboy stuntman. He quickly moved up into small roles, even without anything in the way of training. All Coop had were his looks and his demeanor, and a willingness to work hard, even if it seemed as if he wasn’t working at all. (Sort of how writing went for Coop’s longtime pal, Ernest Hemingway – the harder you work, the easier it looks.) For Coop, it was enough to sustain a long, successful career. And to be fair, it wasn’t always about how the public adored him and the critics didn’t. The critics generally gave him his due, sometimes effusively. They recognized the legitimacy of an actor comfortably portraying himself.
(Portraying himself was what another movie cowboy, Marion Robert Morrison did, and it worked for him too.)
In the late 1920s, in the waning days of the silent film era and the beginning of the talkies, all the actors had to take a voice test, to see if they could transition. Many couldn’t, and it was an abrupt end for them. Coop passed the test. He had a voice! (No jokes here, please.) I imagine Coop’s test was on the order of “nope, yup, mebbe…next!” The earliest talkies were crude and didn’t do much to flatter an actor’s voice, there’s plenty of garble, and in some of those talkies we can see the actor lurching toward the mike, sometimes we even see the mike. Fortunately for Coop, his looks and his laconic demeanor came through.
Coop co-starred with some of Hollywood’s biggest female stars, and here’s the “intimate” part – he dallied with most of them, and with women on the set who weren’t stars, some just for the length of time it took to make a movie, some for a longer time. (Included in the former category, shockingly, to me, was Grace Kelly. I mean, come on, she was a morally upright Quaker woman in her movie with Coop, and in real life, she was a debutantish, future princess.)
Coop, despite the dallying, wasn’t one of those stars who was married 4, 5 times. (Or 8 times, like Mickey Rooney.) Coop was only married once, a rocky marriage to a society girl named Rocky, and although he wasn’t always faithful to her, in the end, they stayed together.
The book gives us a pretty good blend of Coop’s life and his movies, and I especially enjoyed how it pauses on his two biggies, Sergeant York and High Noon (for both of which he received the Oscar, having been nominated 5 times.)
There’s a symmetry between Coop and Sergeant York, a symmetry both men recognized, and is High Noon an allegory trashing the anti-communist witch hunts that were taking place in America at the time the movie was made? (1952.) The movie’s politics, or imagined politics, baffled and angered some, including the aforementioned Marion Robert Morrison, aka The Duke, John Wayne. What the hell was Coop doing, starring in a subversive movie? Some found the politics amusing – was the dumb old Coop sending a lefty message without realizing it? Probably not. Coop was no dummy, and here’s an important fact – Coop may have been a right-winger and an (overly-) staunch anti-communist, but when he was called before HUAC (the House Un-American Activities Committee,) he, unlike so many others, refrained from naming names. Bravo, Coop!
Coop died at the age of 60, a screen legend, and OK, he wasn’t the most versatile actor and was a philanderer, but I’ll take an honest biography over a hagiography, even with my heartthrobs, and the egregious anecdote I mentioned earlier? It’s not fair to not describe it, I know I should, but I’m sorry. I can’t.
May 27, 2025
Hector Arce writes a friendly biography of Gary Cooper with great emphasis on his work in films. I enjoyed learning how his craft was challenging and yet he was a natural at being himself in any role he agreed to play. Born and raised in Montana, he turned out to be one of the best cowboys on screen. I've enjoyed watching him, the movie star.
October 27, 2012
This is another book that should have 3.5 stars. For the most part it is an interesting biography of the actor who acted in both silent films and talkies. He was a generally decent guy with a few flaws when tempted with all those beautiful co-stars. Also an interesting book about the movie industry from the 20's to the 50's.
March 6, 2008
Another of my Hollywood biographies. Loved Gary Cooper before and after reading it!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews