Gary Cooper

by David Thomson

"Cooper was heroic, of course, in his own mind as much as in his scripts. He was manly, tall, ruggedly handsome. He was a man for a fight." On screen he was the ultimate all-American lean, laconic, and masculine, a lone sheriff battling his enemies in High Noon , or a tough individualist in The Fountainhead . Off-screen he bedded a host of leading ladies and carefully honed his image, making hundreds of movies and winning two Oscars in the process. The acclaimed film writer David Thomson explores the career and the contradictions of "Coop," the star who lived the dream in the golden age of Hollywood.

121 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2009

About the author

David Thomson, renowned as one of the great living authorities on the movies, is the author of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, now in its fifth edition. His books include a biography of Nicole Kidman and The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood. Thomson is also the author of the acclaimed "Have You Seen . . . ?": A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films. Born in London in 1941, he now lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

No more elegant writer ever wrote on film and film history than does David Thomson. His analyses (with his own special brand of insight and opinion) as well as his superb novels rooted in American movies (SUSPECTS and SILVER LIGHT) are remarkable in their poetic eloquence and original understanding of not just films themselves, but what films mean as a cultural phenomenon. GARY COOPER is a minor effort in his oeuvre, part of a series of monographs on four major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age (BETTE DAVIS, INGRID BERGMAN, and HUMPHREY BOGART are the other books). Thomson writes biographically but also analytically, investing the work with his lovely prose. It's not the full and deeply investigative biography Cooper deserves (and I don't think yet has), and one can complain that it isn't as rich an experience as it could be. But for a short work of this nature, it is a worthwhile effort, and Thomson's writing is so skillful as to enlarge the experience of reading it.

[mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is very different take on a biographic novel - the author was honest about his view of Cooper's star power and sexual escapades his ability to use his looks to obtain positive results and always come out on top even though he was an adulterer and absent from his family a lot.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and quick book to read on Cooper's life. It is interesting how easily and quickly he rose to fame. The author points out a shift in Cooper's overall demeanor after the movie "Meer John Doe" in 1941. He went from an easy going, relaxed and confident persona to an unsure and untrusting sort. His style of acting was short on verbiage, instead, he emphasized looks and body language, a style that was reflected in many of Clint Eastwood's roles. He didn't demand any particular roles (compared to other actors who fought for specific roles), so he wasn't driven by fame and glory. It is also interesting to read that he grew up in Montana a natural cowboy, but that both his parents were from England. They sent both sons to boarding school in London to be tamed.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The least interesting of Thomson's four short books on movie stars - the ones on Bergman, Bogart and Davies are much richer and engaged. It's lukewarm and never quite catches fire and, so, is untypical.

[R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bored. I lost hours of my life reading this and all respect for Gary Cooper. Yawn.