Versatile Hollywood Actor Jackie Cooper Dies
Cooper Was Child Star, Successful Director, Navy Officer
Hollywood actor Jackie Cooper died on Tuesday, May 3rd at the age of 88. The first photo here, which was scanned to digital by the Los Angeles Times archive, shows Cooper in one of his most popular roles, from the 1931 film “Skippy.” The 9-year-old Cooper rose to stardom for the role, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Cooper remains the youngest person ever to be nominated for the Academy Award in a leading role. His childhood career continued with “Our Gang,” a series of short films better known as the original “Little Rascals.”
Unlike most child actors who earn fame for uncommon talent and charm, Cooper transitioned easily into a successful career as an adult actor, and later became a director helming popular TV shows ranging from “M*A*S*H” to “Magnum, P.I.” Cooper won two Emmy awards for directing, the first for an episode of “M*A*S*H,” and the second for the pilot episode of “The White Shadow.” Although Cooper never realized his dream of directing big Hollywood movies, he directed over 250 half-hour and hour-long television episodes. Perhaps his best known role from his adult acting career is that of Daily Planet editor Perry White in the four Superman movies made between 1978 and 1987, starring Christopher Reeve.
In addition to his career in show business, Cooper had a distinguished military career. He served in the Navy in the South Pacific toward the end of World War II. Later, in the early 1960s, Cooper played the lead in “Hennesey,” a TV show about a Navy doctor in an onshore office, which garnered praise from the Navy because it enhanced recruiting efforts. Soon thereafter Cooper accepted a position as a line officer in the Naval Reserve, with duties in recruitment, training films, and PR. He advanced in rank, and received many commendations and awards for his service, which included piloting jet planes for the Navy. He remains one of the highest ranked military/showbiz men of all time. Cooper was married three times and had four children.
To see more photos of Jackie Cooper which have been scanned to digital, visit Los Angeles Times.
If you’re a Hollywood buff or photography enthusiast with cash to spare, you could be in for a treat this week. On March 26th and 27th, thousands of classic glamour photographs from Hollywood photographers like George Hurrell will be auctioned off by a respected dealer called Profiles in History, which specializes in vintage signed photographs and manuscripts, historical autographs, letters, and other guaranteed-authentic original documents. Classic photographs of movie stars from Jean Harlow to George Clooney will be available for auction to the public, but don’t expect to nab a classic photo on the cheap. The dealer expects to fetch over $20,000 for Hurrell’s iconic Vanity Fair portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug.
