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Post by Coopsgirl on May 10, 2009 12:04:15 GMT -6
Now that we've got a few members I'd like to say hi to everyone and welcome to the site . As you have probably noticed, I'm a pretty big Gary Cooper fan (boy is that an understatement ) and I'm glad to see so many other fans too. I got hooked in December 2006 when Gary was Star of the Month on TCM and my very favorites of his films are Meet John Doe, High Noon, and Pride of the Yankees. I love his films and find him to be an endlessly fascinating person. So pull up a comfy chair and I hope everyone enjoys the site! Angie
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Marina
Talking Picture Star
My favorite cowboy
Posts: 111
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Post by Marina on May 11, 2009 16:53:38 GMT -6
It's great to have a special place for all of us, crazy about Coop, to chat. It'll be just fun! No doubt about it!!! Great idea, Coopsgirl! I hope everybody starts talking... He looks so beautiful and cute on that pic... 'sigh!'
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Post by Coopsgirl on May 12, 2009 19:57:28 GMT -6
I love that pic too. It's from a series of shots done in 1934 by C.S. Bull, one of the best of the old Hollywood glamour photographers. I hope this will be a fun site too and that everyone will enjoy it .
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Marina
Talking Picture Star
My favorite cowboy
Posts: 111
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Post by Marina on May 13, 2009 17:14:13 GMT -6
He's so photogenic! He has this perfect face that looks amazing in every single pic of him... He's the most handsome man I've ever seen...I always say that. Just beautiful... This is one of my favorite photos too.
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Post by maggiejones on Jun 24, 2009 0:03:03 GMT -6
I watched his early films as a child with my mother in the late 1950's & 60's and then remember seeing him in High Noon and being sad that he had gotten older. Even then as a child of about 9 or 10 I could see that he was just the same Gary Cooper with that boyish charm.
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Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 24, 2009 7:23:28 GMT -6
I think that’s one of the things that make his films so comforting to watch; he was always just that same old good guy from Montana, like an old familiar friend. I think it’s funny when I read where someone is talking about classic actors and they say something like they don’t feel they know Gary or just don’t quite have a handle on who he really was even though they may have seen several of his films and such as that. I kinda feel that way about Cary Grant, (I love his films and know a little about his personal life but I don’t feel like I could really describe what kind of person he was) but I never felt that way about Gary. His daughter has said many times that what you see is what you get. He was very similar to many of the characters he played and I think that comes through in his films. He was so much more too though which to me, is what makes him so fascinating. He was smart, had a great business sense, a dry self-deprecating sense of humor, he did like to read sometimes even though he often joked that he hadn’t read more than a handful of books in his whole life, had an incredibly diverse range of friends, had many talents outside of his wonderful acting skills like sketching, painting, being a great shot and a fairly good singer even though he usually sang bad for comedic effect. He’s somebody that I would have been very honored to have as a friend (or more ). Oh if I only had a time machine! All these qualities combined just seem to make him stand out over everyone else. He also seems to have made a deep and positive lasting impact on so many people who knew him which is just another sign of how special he was. I recently saw TCM’s Private Screening with Anthony Quinn who worked with Gary in The Plainsman and Blowing Wild. It was so sweet b/c he admired Gary very much and he said several times “I just love him, he was great, I just love him”. Then look at Patricia Neal. She and Gary were together for about four years (’48-’51), 58 years ago and she stills loves him as deeply now as she did then. In her autobiography she wrote about how at first after the series of strokes she had, she couldn’t remember her children’s names but she remembered Gary’s. People like him don’t come along very often and I’m glad he chose a profession where we could all “get to know him” b/c he is someone well worth knowing and I hope this site will help people feel like they know him a little better. As for his looks, I'm a little backwards I guess. I like 40s-50s Gary the best and seeing him as Will Kane in High Noon just turns me into a puddle of goo . My mom teases me about that b/c she likes 30s Gary in a tux and I prefer "old cowboy Gary". Either way they're both hot ;D.
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Post by bellapisces on Jun 26, 2009 2:41:19 GMT -6
Speaking of... it's disappointing that he tends to be written off as an actor, and is more often only seen as a personality star. Robert Osborne, of Turner Classic Movies, even mentioned it. He said even though he [i.e. Gary Cooper] was a huge movie star... acting wise, he was underrated. I mean, yes, there was recognition -- he was nominated for an Oscar five times, and won twice -- but there were a lot of stellar performances throughout his career [like in Meet John Doe and Friendly Persuasion, for examples] that went overlooked.
I like watching the progression. He's gorgeous in the 30s, sexy in the 40s, and handsome in the 50s. And he keeps his utterly endearing boyish charm throughout.
John Wayne can suck it, 'cause Gary Cooper as Will Kane is the ultimate Western hero. And I'm generally not even a fan of Westerns.
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Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 26, 2009 8:51:31 GMT -6
It is frustrating when people say stuff like he didn’t act, he was just always himself. I think there was a good bit of similarity between his real character traits and many of the parts he played but if you watch his whole body of work, you can see how varied his characters were.
In Morocco he played a cavalier soldier who was more interested in the local hookers than in his military service. Then in Sergeant York we see the epitome of a heroic soldier who is also very shy and sweet with the woman he loves. Quite a difference. In one of his silent films The Last Outlaw he plays a sheriff who seems to believe he in invincible as he shows no fear or trepidations about facing the bad guys alone. Contrast this with his performance as the emotionally tortured Will Kane in High Noon who is scared and actually shows it.
In real life he was not a soldier, a doctor, a ship captain, or a baseball player, yet he’s totally believable as all of these things and that’s because he was an exceptionally gifted actor.
As for Meet John Doe, which is one of my very faves and the one that got me hooked, he did get a lot of critical praise for it at the time and everyone expected he would get an Oscar nod for that one until Sergeant York was released a few months later and then the general consensus was it would be for that one.
You summed up his looks quite well. He’s almost too good to look at in the 20s and 30s and then when he hit his 40s and 50s he was super sexy. The funny thing is that despite how unbelievably attractive he was, he still seems like he was a very approachable person.
You’re last comment about Wayne cracked me up!! My dad loves his movies and I grew up with them but I never liked him. To me he seemed more like a caricature instead of a character. I’ve never been a fan of Westerns either but I love the ones Gary did (and some of Barbara Stanwyck’s) and they are some of my faves of his films and usually the ones I watch the most often.
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Post by bellapisces on Jun 28, 2009 0:12:22 GMT -6
Carpozi Jr.'s biography makes an interesting observation about how, in a way, he [i.e. Gary Cooper] was pigeonholed into playing the roles that were closer to his real self, because that's what was popular with his movie public. They saw him as their everyman American hero/Man of the West [Longfellow Deeds, Alvin York, Will Kane, etc]; when he veered away from that, the response wasn't always favorable. For instance, his role as a sophisticate in both Design For Living and Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. I was surprised to read in Homer Dickens' book that his performances in these movies garnered, at best, mixed reviews. Same for his portrayal of the bumbling cowboy in Along Came Jones; according to Carpozi Jr., Cecil B. DeMille told Gary Cooper, "That's not you up there on the screen." I mean, I found him convincingly funny and charming in all three roles.
It's a shame he wasn't/isn't always given credit for his versatility; for the scope of his roles. I'd add his performance in Ball Of Fire to your list. He was very convincing as a reserved scholar/professor. His proposal to Barbara Stanwyck's Sugarpuss O'Shea -- "I thought I was married to my books... dust just piles up on their hearts, and it took you to blow it away." -- is so touching. And the physical comedy he utilizes when she first "yum yum"s him, and when he fights Dana Andrews, is superb.
Whereas Gary Cooper gets you invested in his characters to the point where you care and root for them.
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Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 28, 2009 17:18:13 GMT -6
I don't remember which article it was but it's one that I have posted here (either 20s or early 30s) and Gary said that he would like to play a real tough guy some day but he never really got the chance b/c people didn't want to see him in any kind of bad guy role and I think that's probably what he meant by "tough guy". Late in his career he did play characters close to that like in The Hanging Tree and Man of the West but they were still inherently good, they just had shady pasts. Neither Bluebeard's Eighth Wife or Man of the West did well when they were first released b/c people didn't like those characters and didn't believe that Gary was the kind of man who would marry eight women so casually or that he was once a ruthless, killing outlaw. It is a shame when people do get somewhat typecase but Gary seems to have been one of the lucky ones who was still able to play a variety of characters within the same basic mold of "good, decent guy". The best actors are the ones that get you sucked right in and whether they are the good or bad guy, you still gotta watch and see what happens to them. Gary, Clara Bow, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, William Powell, Cary Grant, Ronald Colman, and Carole Lombard are some of my faves (with Gary as the number 1 of course) and they all have this ability. I'm so glad we have their films and can enjoy them anytime we want.
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Post by bellapisces on Jun 29, 2009 1:02:48 GMT -6
I've yet to see The Hanging Tree, but I've had a strong desire to ever since I saw the beautifully poignant ending on YouTube. Speaking of these types of roles he played -- in his final years -- the "coward" he played in They Came To Cordura [which I found yesterday, along with Morocco, in the used (VHS, but still worth it) section of a record store] was certainly one of those. By the way, I think my heart expanded upon watching the scene where Rita Hayworth tells him that he's the bravest man she's ever known. I'm not really a Claudette Colbert fan, and I don't think she had much romantic chemistry with Gary Cooper, but I still enjoyed the movie. Two of my favorite scenes are: when he's at the [movie?] theater, laughing, then checks his watch and leaves, and the scene with him straightjacketed, saying "I feel fine. I feel fine. I feel very fine.", as she kisses his face.
I've only seen Cary Grant in Suspicion, which I bought for Joan Fontaine. [I purchased Rebecca, for Laurence Olivier, at Thanksgiving and instantly adored her.] There's definitely a cool charm to him. But I haven't yet been motivated to search out more of his films. TCM has piqued my interest in Trevor Howard [after an airing of Brief Encounter as part of "Great Directors" (in this case, David Lean) month] and Gene Kelly [upon watching a Christopher Walken narrated profile of him], though. Funnily enough, I never had any interest in classic movies until I started watching Gary Cooper's.
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Post by stonewall on Nov 29, 2009 17:10:40 GMT -6
I saw many of garys movies when I was a kid he was my hero. Too me gary was no actor when he played a part he became that person and made you believe it. I compared his westerns with john wayne and there's no competition. Gary rode a horse like no western actor I ever saw. He also never over did his character. Oh what would have been if he acted in stagecoach and gone with the wind. gary never did impossible things in the movies like they do today. High Noon for example. gary did not stand in the street and out draw and shoot all the bad guys and not get a scratch like they do today. Hundreds of bullets flying and never gets shot or killed. He took cover and picked them off one by one and that would be possible. I was never interested in movies that were not western or military related but gary changed that for me in John Doe and Pride of the yankees. I loved the movie return to paradise for a matter of fact I can't find a film of his I ever disliked. When I saw clint eastwoods movie Unforgiven I said to my friend clints acting like gary cooper. A quite guy who settled down but got pushed too far. The movie was great. nothing far fetched. The real deal!
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Post by stonewall on Nov 29, 2009 17:15:23 GMT -6
Gary was and is my favorite star and one of these days I well own something he autoraphed. He died too soon just think what could have been. Ten more westerns or more.
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Post by Coopsgirl on Nov 29, 2009 18:06:53 GMT -6
Welcome Stonewall, It's always nice to get the male perspective on Gary. It seems a lot of his male fans grew up watching his films and like you saw him as their hero when they were boys. I completely agree with you about his movies being realistic and believable. The only one that seems far fetched is Sergeant York. If we didn't know all those things were true, nobody would believe that one man could do so much . I would love to have something he autographed too and ideally it would be a nice headshot type pic. I do have his daughter's autograph so that's close . I hope you will enjoy the site and visit often.
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Post by pappysgirl on Dec 4, 2009 11:47:30 GMT -6
Angie, i just want to say what a brilliant job you've done with this site. This is really the "go to" website for all things Coop.
Keep up the marvelous work!
April (aka MissG at TCM)
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