Jackie Cooper

Data di nascita
15 settembre 1922 · Los Angeles, California, Stati Uniti
Data di morte
3 maggio 2011 · Santa Monica, California, Stati Uniti (imprecisato)
Nome alla nascita
John George Cooper Jr.
Soprannome
- America's Boy
Altezza
1,75 m

Claimed in his autobiography that, while directing some of the first season episodes of MASH (1972), the only two actors there who weren't a pain to work with were Larry Linville and Wayne Rogers.
When his first son was to be signed to a long-term contract with MGM, Cooper's studio at the height of his fame as a child, he intervened and persuaded his ex-wife (the boy's mother) to decline: "It's no way for a kid to grow up." Adamantly opposed to children acting to the exclusion of a normal upbringing, based on his own life experiences. None of Cooper's four children were performers.
Interred with full honors in Arlington National Cemetery on November 22, 2011.
Walked away from the industry in 1989 during his wife's brief illness, and never returned: "I'm sixty-seven, and worked sixty-four years." Had enjoyed retirement ever since, and refused to participate in industry retrospectives which dwelt too wistfully on the so-called good old days.
As of 2010, he holds two Oscar records: Youngest performer nominated in a leading role (this record has stood for 79 years); and oldest nomination (1931) in any and all Academy categories for an individual still living.

[In 1976] Sometimes I'll wake up in the middle of the night and I'll hear a voice that sounds familiar . . . my wife has fallen asleep with the tube on, and I'll finally start recognizing the dialogue, look up, and Jesus Christ, it's me at 14, or 12, or 9, or whatever. Sometimes I'll sit there and watch it and I can tell myself what's coming next . . . I remember the dialogue, the scene and the set very well, and then there'll be a part of the picture I never remembered at all. Because there were times as a kid, as a teenager especially, when I'd be terribly occupied with what I was doing--with my boat, or on a circuit of rodeos and horseshoes, or with my car--very often on some of this stuff when I'd have to go to work. I'd just give the script a cursory glance. I had no training, and I was a quick study, so nobody knew how involved or not involved I was. But I look at that stuff now and I can see I wasn't involved, and I wasn't very good.
[on Jackie Coogan] Of all the actors, I think Jackie was the most genuine and unsung hero in World War II.

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