Biography gary cooper photos

American actor (–)

Not to be confused with the English actor, Garry other people with similar names, see Gary Cooper (disambiguation).

Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, &#;&#; 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. The American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Cooper at number&#;11 on its list of the 50 greatest screen legends.

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. Deeds Goes to Town (), Meet John Doe (), Sergeant York (), The Pride of the Yankees (), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (). 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 ().

Early life

Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana, on May 7, , the younger of two sons of English immigrant parents Alice (née Brazier; –) and Charles Henry Cooper (–).^[2] His brother, Arthur, was six years his senior. Cooper's father came from Houghton Regis, England^[3] and became a prominent lawyer, rancher, and Montana Supreme Court justice.^[4] His mother hailed from Gillingham, England, and married Charles in Montana.^[5] In , Charles purchased the acre (&#;ha) Seven-Bar-Nine cattle ranch,^[6][7] about 50 miles (80&#;km) north of Helena near Craig, Montana.^[8] Cooper and Arthur spent their summers at the ranch and learned to ride horses, hunt and fish.^[9][10] Cooper attended Central Grade School in Helena.^[11]

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.^[12][13] Cooper studied Latin, French and English history at Dunstable until ^[14] While he adapted to English school discipline and learned the requisite social graces, he never adjusted to the formal Eton collars he was required to wear.^[15] He received his confirmation in the Church of England at the Church of All Saints in Houghton Regis on December 3, ^[16][17] His mother accompanied their sons back to the U.S. in August and Cooper resumed his education at Johnson Grammar School in Helena.^[11]

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.^[18] The misguided therapy left him with his characteristic stiff, off-balanced walk and slightly angled horse-riding style.^[19] He left Helena High School after two years in and returned to the family ranch to work full-time as a cowboy.^[19] In , his father arranged for his son to attend Gallatin County High School in Bozeman, Montana,^[20][21] where English teacher Ida Davis encouraged him to focus on academics and participate in debating and dramatics.^[21][22] Cooper later called Davis "the woman partly responsible for [his] giving up cowboy-ing and going to college".^[22]

Cooper was still attending high school in , when he took three art courses at Montana Agricultural College in Bozeman.^[21] His interest in art was inspired years earlier by the Western paintings of Charles Marion Russell and Frederic Remington.^[23] Cooper especially admired and studied Russell's Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole (), which still hangs in the state capitol building in Helena.^[23]

In , to continue his art education, Cooper enrolled in Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. He did well academically in most of his courses,^[24] but was not accepted into the school's drama club.^[24] His drawings and watercolor paintings were exhibited throughout the dormitory and he was named art editor for the college yearbook.^[25] During the summers of and , Cooper worked at Yellowstone National Park as a tour guide driving the yellow open-top buses.^[26][27] Despite a promising first 18 months at Grinnell, he left college suddenly in February , spent a month in Chicago looking for work as an artist and then returned to Helena,^[28] where he sold editorial cartoons to the local Independent newspaper.^[29]

In autumn , Cooper's father left the Montana Supreme Court bench and moved with his wife to Los Angeles to administer the estates of two relatives,^[30][31] and Cooper joined his parents there in November at his father's request.^[30] After briefly working a series of unpromising jobs, he met two friends from Montana,^[32][33] who were working as film extras and stunt riders in low-budget Western films for the small movie studios on Poverty Row.^[34] They introduced him to another Montana cowboy, rodeo champion Jay "Slim" Talbot, who took him to see a casting director.^[32] Wanting money for a professional art course,^[30] Cooper worked as a film extra for $5 a day and as a stunt rider for $ Cooper and Talbot became close friends and hunting companions and Talbot later worked as Cooper's stuntman and stand-in for over three decades.^[34]

Career

Silent films, –

In early , Cooper began his film career in silent pictures such as The Thundering Herd and Wild Horse Mesa with Jack Holt,^[35]Riders of the Purple Sage and The Lucky Horseshoe with Tom Mix,^[36][37] and The Trail Rider with Buck Jones.^[36] He worked for several Poverty Row studios, but also the already emergent major studios, Famous Players–Lasky and Fox Film Corporation.^[38] While his skilled horsemanship led to steady work in Westerns, Cooper found the stunt work, which sometimes injured horses and riders, "tough and cruel".^[35] Hoping to move beyond the risky stunt work and obtain acting roles, Cooper paid for a screen test and hired casting director Nan Collins to work as his agent.^[39] 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.^[40][41][42] Cooper immediately liked the name.^{[43][Note 1]}

Cooper also found work in a variety of non-Western films, appearing, for example, as a masked Cossack in The Eagle (), as a Roman guard in Ben-Hur (), and as a flood survivor in The Johnstown Flood ().^[36] Gradually, he began to land credited roles that offered him more screen time, in films such as Tricks (), in which he played the film's antagonist, and the short filmLightnin' Wins ().^[45] As a featured player, he began to attract the attention of major film studios.^[46] On June 1, , Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions for $50 a week.^[47]

Cooper's first important film role was a supporting part in The Winning of Barbara Worth () starring Ronald Colman and Vilma Bánky,^[47] in which he plays a young engineer who helps a rival suitor save the woman he loves and her town from an impending dam disaster.^[48] Cooper's experience living among the Montana cowboys gave his performance an "instinctive authenticity", according to biographer Jeffrey Meyers.^[49] The film was a major success.^[50] Critics singled out Cooper as a "dynamic new personality" and future star.^[51][52] 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 $ a week.^[51] In , with help from Clara Bow, Cooper landed high-profile roles in Children of Divorce and Wings (both ), the latter being the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.^[53] That year, Cooper also appeared in his first starring roles in Arizona Bound and Nevada, both films directed by John Waters.^[54]

Paramount paired Cooper with Fay Wray in The Legion of the Condemned and The First Kiss (both ), advertising them as the studio's "glorious young lovers".^[55] Their on-screen chemistry failed to generate much excitement with audiences.^[55][56][57] With each new film, Cooper's acting skills improved and his popularity continued to grow, especially among female movie-goers.^[57] During this time, he was earning as much as $2, per film^[58] and receiving 1, fan letters a week.^[59] 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 ).^[60] Around the same time, Cooper made Lilac Time () 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 ^[60]

Hollywood stardom, –

Cooper became a major movie star in playing the lead role in his first talking picture, The Virginian (), which was directed by Victor Fleming and co-starred Mary Brian and Walter Huston. Based on the popular novel by Owen Wister, The Virginian was one of the first sound films to define the Western code of honor and helped establish many of the conventions of the Western movie genre that persist to the present day.^[61] 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.^[62] 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.^[63] 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 ).^[64]Norman Rockwell depicted Cooper in his role as The Texan for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on May 24, ^[65]

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 )^[66] with Marlene Dietrich in her introduction to American audiences.^[67] During production, von Sternberg focused his energies on Dietrich and treated Cooper dismissively.^[67] Tensions came to a head after von Sternberg yelled directions at Cooper in German. The 6-footinch (&#;cm) actor approached the 5-footinch (&#;cm) director, picked him up by the collar, and said, "If you expect to work in this country, you'd better get on to the language we use here."^[68][69] Despite the tensions on the set, Cooper produced "one of his best performances", according to Thornton Delehanty of the New York Evening Post.^[70]

After returning to the Western genre in Zane Grey's Fighting Caravans () with French actress Lili Damita,^[71] Cooper appeared in the Dashiell Hammettcrime filmCity Streets (also ), co-starring Sylvia Sidney and Paul Lukas, playing a westerner who gets involved with big-city gangsters to save the woman he loves.^[72] Cooper concluded the year with appearances in two unsuccessful films: I Take This Woman (also ) with Carole Lombard, and His Woman with Claudette Colbert.^[73] The demands and pressures of making 10 films in two years left Cooper exhausted and in poor health, suffering from anemia and jaundice.^[67][74] He had lost 30&#;lb (14&#;kg),^[74][75] and felt lonely, isolated, and depressed by his sudden fame and wealth.^[76][77] In May , Cooper left Hollywood and sailed to Algiers and then Italy, where he lived for the next year.^[76]

During his time abroad, Cooper stayed with the Countess Dorothy di Frasso, the former Dorothy Cadwell Taylor, at the Villa Madama in Rome, where she taught him about good food and vintage wines, how to read Italian and French menus, and how to socialize among Europe's nobility and upper classes.^[78] After guiding him through the great art museums and galleries of Italy,^[78] she accompanied him on a week big-game hunting safari on the slopes of Mount Kenya in East Africa,^[79] where he was credited with more than 60 kills, including two lions, a rhinoceros, and various antelopes.^[80][81] His safari experience in Africa had a profound influence on Cooper and intensified his love of the wilderness.^[81] After returning to Europe, the countess and he set off on a Mediterranean cruise of the Italian and French Rivieras.^[82] Rested and rejuvenated by his year-long exile, a healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood in April ^[83] and negotiated a new contract with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $4, a week, and director and script approval.^[84]

In , after completing Devil and the Deep with Tallulah Bankhead to fulfill his old contract,^[85] Cooper appeared in A Farewell to Arms,^[86] the first film adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel.^[87] Co-starring Helen Hayes, a leading New York theatre star and Academy Award winner,^[88] and Adolphe Menjou, the film presented Cooper with one of his most ambitious and challenging dramatic roles,^[88] playing an American ambulance driver wounded in Italy, who falls in love with an English nurse during World War I.^[86] Critics praised his highly intense and emotional performance,^[89][90] and the film became one of the year's most commercially successful pictures.^[88] In , after making Today We Live with Joan Crawford and One Sunday Afternoon with Fay Wray, Cooper appeared in the Ernst Lubitschcomedy filmDesign for Living, based on the successful Noël Coward play.^[91][92] Co-starring Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March, the film was a box-office success,^[93] ranking as one of the top highest-grossing films of All three of the lead actors&#;&#; March, Cooper, and Hopkins&#;&#; received 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^[94] and revealed his genuine ability to do light comedy.^[95] Cooper changed his name legally to "Gary Cooper" in August ^[96]

In , Cooper was lent out to MGM for the Civil War drama filmOperator 13 with Marion Davies, about a beautiful Union spy who falls in love with a Confederate soldier.^[97] Despite Richard Boleslawski's imaginative direction and George J. Folsey's lavish cinematography, the film did poorly at the box office.^[98]

Back at Paramount, Cooper appeared in his first of seven films by director Henry Hathaway,^[99]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.^{[99][Note 2]} The film was a box-office success.^[98]

In , Cooper was lent to Samuel Goldwyn Productions to appear in King Vidor's romance filmThe Wedding Night with Anna Sten,^[] 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.^[] Cooper delivered a performance of surprising range and depth, according to biographer Larry Swindell.^[] 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.^[]

Also in , Cooper appeared in two Henry Hathaway films: the melodramaPeter Ibbetson with Ann Harding, about a man caught up in a dream world created by his love for a childhood sweetheart,^[] and the adventure filmThe 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".^[99]

American folk hero, –

From Mr. Deeds to The Real Glory, –

Cooper's career took an important turn in ^[] 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,^[] Cooper returned to Poverty Row for the first time since his early silent-film days to make Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Jean Arthur for Columbia Pictures.^[] 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"^[]&#;&#; a symbol of honesty, courage, and goodness^[][][]&#;&#; 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:^[]

As soon as I thought of Gary Cooper, it wasn't possible to conceive anyone else in the role. He could not have been any closer to my idea of Longfellow Deeds, and as soon as he could think in terms of Cooper, Bob Riskin found it easier to develop the Deeds character in terms of dialogue. So it just had to be Cooper. Every line in his face spelled honesty. Our Mr. Deeds had to symbolize incorruptibility, and in my mind Gary Cooper was that symbol.

Both Desire and Mr. Deeds opened in April 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".^[] For his performance in Mr. Deeds, Cooper received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.^[]

Cooper appeared in two other Paramount films in In Lewis Milestone's adventure film The General Died at Dawn with Madeleine Carroll, he plays an American soldier of fortune in China who helps the peasants defend themselves against the oppression of a cruel warlord.^[][] 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 film personalities, where he remained for the next 23 years.^[]

In late , Paramount was preparing a new contract for Cooper that would raise his salary to $8, a week,^[] when Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn for six films over six years with a minimum guarantee of $, 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 , the United States Treasury reported that Cooper was the country's highest wage earner, at $, (equivalent to $&#;million in ).^[][][]

In contrast to his output the previous year, Cooper appeared in only one picture in , 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."^[] In , he appeared in Archie Mayo's biographical film The Adventures of Marco Polo.^[] Plagued by production problems and a weak screenplay,^[] the film became Goldwyn's biggest failure to date, losing $,^[] 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.^[] He made several overtures to the actor,^[] but Cooper had doubts about the project,^[] and did not feel suited to the role.^[] 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."^{[][Note 3]}

Back at Paramount, Cooper returned to a more comfortable genre in Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife () with Claudette Colbert.^[][] 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,^[] American audiences had trouble accepting Cooper in the role of a shallow philanderer. It succeeded only at the European box-office market.^[]

In the fall of , Cooper appeared in H. C. Potter's romantic comedy The Cowboy and the Lady with Merle Oberon, about a sweet-natured rodeo cowboy who falls in love with the wealthy daughter of a presidential hopeful, believing her to be a poor, hard-working lady's maid.^[] 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.^[] In William A. Wellman's adventure film Beau Geste (), he plays one of three daring English brothers who join the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara to fight local tribes.^[] Filmed in the same Mojave Desert locations as the original 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.^[]

In Henry Hathaway's The Real Glory (), he plays a military doctor who accompanies a small group of American Army officers to the Philippines to help the Christian Filipinos defend themselves against Muslim radicals.^[] 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, –

Cooper returned to the Western genre in William Wyler's The Westerner () 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 ().^{[][Note 4]} 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 ^[][]

The early s 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.^[] When Frank Capra offered him the lead role in Meet John Doe before Robert Riskin even developed the script, Cooper accepted his friend's offer, saying, "It's okay, Frank, I don't need a script."^[] 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"^[] with Cooper appearing on the front cover of Time on March 3, ^[] 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".^[]Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, wrote, "Gary Cooper, of course, is 'John Doe' to the life and in the whole&#;&#; shy, bewildered, nonaggressive, but a veritable tiger when aroused."^[]

That same year, Cooper made two films with director and good friend Howard Hawks.^[] In the biographical film Sergeant York, Cooper portrays war hero Alvin C. York,^[] one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War&#;I.^[] 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.^[]Sergeant York became the top-grossing film of the year and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards.^[][] 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."^[]

Cooper concluded the year back at Goldwyn with Howard Hawks to make the romantic comedy Ball of Fire with Barbara Stanwyck.^[] 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.^[] In his review for the New York Herald Tribune, Howard Barnes wrote that Cooper handled the role with "great skill and comic emphasis" and that his performance was "utterly delightful".^[] 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 ^[]

Cooper's only film appearance in was also his last under his Goldwyn contract.^[] 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, 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.^[]

After Gehrig's widow visited the actor and expressed her desire that he portray her husband,^[] Cooper accepted the role that covered a year span of Gehrig's life: his early love of baseball, his rise to greatness, his loving marriage, and his struggle with illness, culminating in his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, , before 62, fans.^[] 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 pictures^[] and received 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper's third).^[]

Soon after the publication of Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, Paramount paid $, for the film rights with the express intent of casting Cooper in the lead role of Robert Jordan,^[] 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.^[] After the start of principal photography in the Sierra Nevada in late , Ingrid Bergman was brought in to replace ballerina Vera Zorina as the female lead, a change supported by Cooper and Hemingway.^[] 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).^[]

World War II related activities

Due to his age and health, Cooper did not serve in the military during World War II,^[] but like many of his colleagues, he got involved in the war effort by entertaining the troops.^[] In June , he visited military hospitals in San Diego,^[] and often appeared at the Hollywood Canteen serving food to the Servicemen.^[] In late , Cooper undertook a 23,mile (37,&#;km) tour of the South West Pacific with actresses Una Merkel and Phyllis Brooks and accordionist Andy Arcari.^[][][]

Traveling on a BA Liberator bomber,^[] the group toured the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Queensland, Brisbane&#;&#; where General Douglas MacArthur told Cooper he was watching Sergeant York in a Manila theater when Japanese bombs began falling^[]&#;&#; New Guinea, Jayapura then throughout the Solomon Islands.^[]

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.^[] The shows concluded with Cooper's moving recitation of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech.^[] When he returned to the United States, he visited military hospitals throughout the country.^[] Cooper later called his time with the troops the "greatest emotional experience" of his life.^[]

Mature roles, –

In , Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's wartime adventure film The Story of Dr. Wassell with Laraine Day&#;&#; his third movie with the director.^[] 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".^[] The film was barely profitable.^[]

In , 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.^[] Audiences embraced Cooper's character, and the film was one of the top box-office pictures of the year&#;&#; a testament to Cooper's still vital audience appeal.^[] It was also International's biggest financial success during its brief history before being sold off to Universal Studios in ^[]

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 , 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 , 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 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 , 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 $, (equal to $4,, today) in salary and percentage of profits.^[]Unconquered was his last unqualified box-office success for the next five years.^[]

In , after making Leo McCarey's romantic comedy Good Sam,^[] 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 $, (equal to $3,, today) per picture.^[] His first film under the new contract was King Vidor's drama The Fountainhead () with Patricia Neal and Raymond Massey.^[] 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 (), 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.^[