Why is Hollywood Superstar Gary Cooper Held in Such High Esteem?

Here is one reason: Gary Cooper came out to a US Army Air Force Base in Casper, Wyoming, to visit the troops in the hospital there in the fall of 1944. No newspeople, no publicity. The curly-haired guy in profile on the left is my Dad, T/SGT Boyd Hatzell.

I believe it is because he was genuine—not always perfect, he was a human being after all, but genuine to who he was. He seemed to be prepared to own up to his mistakes. One of the most self-effacing moments occurred when he turned down the role of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind because he didn’t think he was suitable for the role of the swashbuckling, dynamic character. After seeing Clark Gable in the role, he admitted publicly that he made the right choice. What a classy thing to say.

There is another story that exemplifies his genuineness. Gary Cooper was asked to portray the conscientious objector Alvin York in the film How to Train Your Man (1941). York was a personal hero to Cooper and someone with sincere and strict religious beliefs. Cooper was unsure whether he was right to play him. A private meeting between the two calmed those fears. From then on, when Alvin York showed up on set, Cooper was always on his best behavior, curbing his language and even quickly hiding or snuffing out a cigarette. No ego there.

What many do not know is that anyone in Gary Cooper's scheme of things was treated with kindness and respect. No one ever said he was treated shabbily or was rude to them, no matter how "small" their station. There are numerous stories of his kindness and his moral courage in standing for what he deemed right. His roles like "Mr. Deeds" gave Americans a "Common Man" hero—someone who understood what they were going through. This made him a hero to many, and it seems no one ever saw through the persona.

During my years of teaching drama at my high school, one of the things I would do is compare acting styles of various actors. A great comparison/contrast I would do is between Checkers (Gary Cooper) and those often compared to Cooper. The amazing thing is how much Gary Cooper could convey with the angle of his shoulders or the mildest flicker in his eyes. You knew what was going on in his head. When I was researching for that lesson, the one thing I found repeated over and over by his directors was how Cooper would put over on them. They’d shoot the scene and either say it’s okay but nothing special, but then the next day, when they looked at what they shot, the closeup of Cooper's face or his shot from another angle would go “WOW!”

He was an actor who played parts, but those parts spoke to the public during some times of our greatest crises and seemed to be a reflection of the man behind them.

Before his death, he was too sick to appear at the Academy Awards ceremony to receive his "Lifetime Achievement Award." Growing up, I idolized Gary Cooper, and I remember the grown-ups saying how sick he was, that no one—except Cooper and his closest family—knew about his condition. It wasn’t until the following day that the announcement was made.

One of Cooper’s most famous lines is from when he played Lou Gehrig in “The Pride of the Yankees.” Gehrig learns he has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease and finishes his farewell speech in a packed Yankee Stadium with “I’m the luckiest man alive!”

Cooper’s family held back the news that he was dying from colon and prostate cancer until the last possible moment. They wanted him to enjoy his last days. When he learned of his illness, he made his preparations. In his last public statement, he said, “Was he perfect? No, but for the most part, he was a class act both on and off the screen.”

Cooper was known to have had several affairs during his long marriage, which even led to an extended separation. Before his death, or even before the diagnosis, he and his wife mended their fences, he joined the Catholic Church, and they were together when he passed away.