Gary Cooper Biography

Fast Facts

• Once considered becoming a political cartoonist
• His father was a Montana State Supreme Court Justice
• Took the first name Gary at the suggestion of his agent, Nan Collins, who grew up in Gary, IN
• Started his film career as a cowboy extra in silent Westerns
• U
• S
• Treasury Department claimed he was the highest paid American in 1939
• Was WWI hero Alvin York's personal choice to portray him in 1941's Sergeant York, for which he won Best Actor
• Played Major League great Lou Gehrig in 1942's The Pride of the Yankees despite not being able to play baseball, and not being a left-hander
• Was good friends with Ernest Hemingway and starred in two films, A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, based on the author's novels
• Pictured on a 25-cent commemorative U
• S
• postage stamp in 1990