Oscar Profile #411: Jackie Cooper

Born September 15, 1922 in Los Angeles, California, John (Jackie) Cooper (Jr.) was the nephew of actress Julie Leonard, writer Jack Leonard and by marriage, director Norman Taurog. His father abandoned the family when he was just two years old. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother who was an extra in films. She took him on her daily casting calls which led to his first job at the age of three when both he and his grandmother were cast as extras in a film.

Cooper continued in shorts until he was cast in bit parts in two 1929 features, Fox Movietone News and Sunnyside Up. Recommended by David Butler, the director of those two films, to Leo McCarey who cast him in the Our Gang comedies beginning with Boxing Gloves that same year. His most notable Our Gang comedies were Teacher’s Pet, School’s Out and Love Business exploring his crush on his schoolteacher, Miss Crabtree. He was loaned to Paramount in the spring of 1931 to star in Skippy, directed by his uncle, Norman Taurog.

Skippy catapulted Cooper to superstardom, earing him an Oscar nomination at the age of nine, making him the youngest actor nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, a record he still holds.

Hal Roach, the producer of the Our Gang comedies sold his contract to MGM in mid-1931 where he prospered as the most popular child star of the 1930s aside from Shirley Temple whose career began in 1932.

Cooper’s 1930s successes included The Champ, Treasure Island, Peck’s Bad Boy, The Devil Is a Sissy, White Banners and That Certain Age. His early 1940s films included Seventeen, The Return of Frank James and Syncopation. Then came World War II service in the U.S. Navy and marriage to first wife June Horne from 1944-1949, during which his film output slowed. An early convert to TV in 1949, he was married briefly to writer-producer Hildy Parks from 1950-1951. He married third wife Barbara Rae Kraus in 1954, remaining with her until her death fifty-five years later in 2009.

The actor’s best-known TV work was as the star of the comedy series, The People’s Choice from 1955-1958 opposite Patricia Breslin and Hennessey from 1960-1962 opposite Abby Dalton for which he was twice nominated for an Emmy. A TV director from 1956 on, he won Emmys for his direction of a 1974 episode of M*A*S*H and the 1978 pilot of The White Shadow.

Cooper became widely known to a younger generation with his portrayal of Daily Planet editor Perry White in the four Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve, made between 1978 and 1987. He retired in 1989.

Jackie Cooper died of natural causes on May 3, 2011. He was 88.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SKIPPY (1931), directed by Norman Taurog

The only film based on a comic strip ever to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, nine-year-old Cooper’s performance still holds the record for the youngest nomination ever in the Best Actor category. The original comic strip ran from 1923-1945. A radio serial based on the film ran from 1932-1935. The character was responsible for a lot of merchandising, but allegedly not Skippy Peanut Butter which launched in 1933. In order to get Cooper to cry in a key scene, director Taurog, who was his uncle, had an assistant pretend to shoot Cooper’s dog, an act of terror for which he never forgave him.

THE CHAMP (1932), directed by King Vidor

Wallace Beery as the washed-up boxer of the title came in second to Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Oscar voting, but because he was only one vote behind it was declared a tie and both actors received Oscars. Cooper, as his son, would certainly have been nominated in the supporting actor category had there been one. Although they would make several more films together including 1934’s Treasure Island, Beery and Cooper did not like one another. Beery accused Cooper of upstaging him while Cooper accused Beery of being jealous of him.

WHITE BANNERS (1938), directed by Edmund Goulding

Fay Bainter became the first performer to be nominated for Oscars in both lead and supporting categories in the same year for her performances in White Banners and Jezebel, winning in support for the latter. In this far-fetched but interesting drama, she plays a woman who shows up at the home of Claude Rains, Kay Johnson and Bonita Granville and becomes their cook. She’s really there to keep an eye on science teacher Rains’ pupil and assistant, Cooper, who is the illegitimate child she gave up for adoption sixteen years earlier. James Stephenson is the wealthy industrialist who was the boy’s father.

SUPERMAN (1978), directed by Richard Donner

A household name on TV in the 1950s and 60s, Cooper was known mostly as a TV director in the 1970s when he returned to acting as Daily Planet editor Perry White in this box-office behemoth. Cooper was the fourth choice for the role behind Jack Klugman and Eddie Albert, both of whom allegedly asked for too much money and Keenan Wynn who had to withdraw because of exhaustion. The film, which spawned three sequels through 1987, starred Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent and Superman and Margot Kidder as Lois Lane. Cooper was in all four of them.

ROSIE: THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY STORY (1982), directed by Jackie Cooper

One of the many TV productions Cooper directed from 1956-1989, this made-for-TV film starred Sondra Locke as Clooney who ages from 17 to 40 during the course of the film. Clooney. Who personally chose Locke to portray her, was on set through all of the filming which highlights her difficult upbringing, her early sister act, her marriage to José Ferrer (Tony Orlando), her drug addiction and nervous breakdown and recovery. Penelope Milford plays her sister Betty, Katherine Helmond her mother, Kevin McCarthy her psychiatrist and Richard Quinn her son Miguel.