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Born Frank James Cooper in Montana, 1901. Cooper briefly attended school in England before returning to Montana, later studying at Grinnell College in Iowa. Before taking up acting he was a guide at Yellowstone National Park, a failed political cartoonist and a door-to-door salesman. He then spent over a year as an extra in numerous Westerns, and subsequently had minor roles in minor films before The Winning Of Barbara Worth (1926), in which Cooper was a last-minute replacement for the second lead. As his star rose he became the archetypal American hero of the era: strong, tall, handsome, and taciturn. He won two Oscars, for Sergeant York and High Noon, plus a special award shortly before his death in 1961.
