Gary Cooper, High Noon

Won: Academy Award - Best Actor | Golden Globe (Drama) - Best Actor

Years ago, before Oscargasms came to fruition, I was haphazardly watching and reviewing various movies that piqued my interest. One of those films was Wings. For a picture that had very little surprises outside of Buddy Rogers' drunken hallucinogenic bubble episode, one moment that I can usually recall is that of Gary Cooper’s cameo at the half hour mark. We see Cooper waking up from a nap, hair perfectly coiffed, where in typical old-Hollywood fashion, he then smolders his way through his 2 or so minutes of screen time. Moments later, Cooper's character dies in a plane accident while practicing figure eights. While brief, he had about him a radiant energy in those moments that are effortless yet impactful. I ramble on about this because I find it ironic — and fitting — that my journey with Cooper should end at High Noon. For what Cooper delivers in the film is heavily silent, and there is a forcefulness in his presence I’d not felt since that very cameo in Wings.

Gary Cooper, For Whom the Bell Tolls

as ROBERT JORDAN

The Role: as an American expatriate traveling to Spain to fight for the Republic against fascists and tasked to blow up a key bridge, Gary Cooper is back once again as yet another "noble" and "heroic" figure, and he's really outdone himself this time with the sheer amount of nothingness he brings to Robert Jordan. I have a feeling that it's not entirely his fault this time around--doing some quick background reading on the character, I found a particular website asking: "Robert Jordan: Stud or Dud?" before describing the character as "a piece of cardboard". Even still, to ask Cooper of all actors to play a character that's considered by anyone as a piece of cardboard is not only ironic but kind of agonizing.

Gary Cooper, The Pride of the Yankees

as LOU GEHRIG

In 1942, Gary Cooper solidified his place as the poster child for Americana by following up his Oscar-winning performance in the awfully corny, trite, Pro-Murica biopic of a lovable WWI war hero with an even cornier, triter, Pro-Murica biopic of a lovable baseball icon. As much as I inherently dislike Cooper's pandering to American heartstrings, in a manner so blatant that it's practically insulting (what could possibly be more American than the one-two punch of guns, God, and Baseball?), I surprisingly didn't hate him in this film as much as I hate the actual film as a whole. This is my second time watching The Pride of the Yankees, which is two times too many, and if I'm lucky I'll never have to watch it ever again. But at least this time around Cooper is able to demonstrate some acting chops that weren't really required in Sergeant York.

Gary Cooper, Sergeant York

as ALVIN C. YORK

Won: Academy Award - Best Actor | New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actor

The internet tells me that Gary Cooper moved to Los Angeles from Montana on Thanksgiving day exactly 90 years ago, where he was influenced by a few friends to work as a film extra (what a perfect little coincidence!), and thus a movie star was born. I must admit that I don't "get" Cooper. By now I've seen a handful of his films and I've yet to have a lightbulb moment in which I am able to rationalize his appeal. In spite of my hatred of Spencer Tracy's triple nominations, I still liked him enough in Libeled Lady (and I hear he's great in Fury) to believe that beneath the crappy nominations and wins lies a true-to-heart actor. I may have been indifferent towards Paul Muni, but at least he had a chameleonic schtick he was working with. Clark Gable, probably the closest contemporary I can think of to Cooper in terms of their man! images, had a palpably engaging charm about him. But what of Cooper? What exactly does he bring to the table? I don't know if I can say that he was born to act, and it's not as though he has much versatility. And I don't find Cooper very compelling either...he's kind of just always there--this rather aloof presence, an embodiment of qualities that a 1940's public would embrace...handsome, tall, masculine, Republican, Caucasian. Read his profile on IMDB and he's summed up quite perfectly: "This tall, silent hero was the American ideal for many people of his generation" So it's no surprise that this living, breathing "American ideal" would win an Academy Award for playing a religious WWI war veteran in a time when WWII was unfolding.

Gary Cooper, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

as LONGFELLOW DEEDS

It is said that Gary Cooper was Frank Capra's "first, last and only choice" for the role of Mr. Deeds. I've been trying to figure out why that was, because my perception of Gary Cooper has always been that of a solemn and detached actor. So his casting as an eccentric and gentle man struck me as very strange, because surely there were naturally quirkier alternatives who'd have been more fitting for the role. But I can't fault Capra for knowing what he wanted, and so with that we have Cooper in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, a somewhat interesting yet not very gratifying performance in a somewhat interesting yet not very gratifying film.