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 He was born Frank James Cooper in Helena, Montana, but as a child lived in Dunstable, England, with his mother Alice, and elder brother Arthur Le Roy. Both two boys attended Dunstable School, a Public School (this term is used in England for a prestigious, and usually old, private school) between 1910 and 1913.
When he was thirteen years old he was injured in an automobile accident, and had to move to his father's cattle ranch in Montana to recuperate, which is where he gained his riding skills. During this time he became friendly with 10-year-old Myrna Loy, who lived nearby. He attended Grinnell College and graduated in the class of 1926.
 (img left: Paulette Goddard with Robert Preston and Gary Cooper in "North West Mounted Police")
In 1923 Gary Cooper moved to San Andreas with the intention of becoming an artist for advertisements, but was not very successful. After three months he became an extra in the motion picture industry and one year later he had a chance at a real part in a two-reeler with actress Eileen Sedgewick as his leading lady. After the release of this short film he was called to Paramount Studios and offered a long-term contract, which he accepted. He changed his name to Gary in 1925, following the advice of his agent, who felt it evoked the "rough, tough" nature of Gary, Indiana.
"Coop", as he was called by his peers, went on to appear in over 100 films. He became a major star with his first sound picture, The Virginian, in 1929. In the 1939 film Gone with the Wind for the role of Rhett Butler, he was producer David O. Selznick's first choice. When Cooper turned down the role, he was passionately against it. He is quoted saying, "Gone with the Wind is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me".
Alfred Hitchcock wanted him to star in Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942). Cooper later admitted he had made a "mistake" in turning down the director, and for the former film Hitchcock cast look-alike Joel McCrea instead.
In 1941, He won his first Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as the title character in Sergeant York. Alvin York, the soldier Cooper portrayed in Sergeant York, refused to authorize a movie be made about his life unless Gary Cooper was the actor who would portray him.
In 1952, Cooper won his second Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Marshal Will Kane in High Noon, considered his finest role. He wasn't present to receive his Academy Award in February 1953. He asked John Wayne to accept it on his behalf.
 (img left; Doc Joe Frail in The Hanging Tree, 1958)
Gary Cooper testified before HUAC as a friendly witness in October 1947, although he did not name names. Although Cooper was politically conservative, his vague, evasive statements have raised questions about his agreement with the proceedings. His most famous film, High Noon, was intended as a statement against the blacklist.
After high-profile love affairs with actresses Clara Bow, Lupe Vélez, and the American-born socialite-spy Countess Carlo Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor, formerly wife of British pioneer aviator Claude Grahame-White), Cooper finally married. He wed Veronica Balfe, a New York Roman Catholic socialite who worked briefly as an actress under the name of "Sandra Shaw". They had one child, Maria (also known as Maria Cooper Janis), and eventually his wife persuaded Cooper to become a Roman Catholic in 1958.
After he was married and prior to his conversion, Cooper had affairs with several famous co-stars, including Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly and Patricia Neal. He pressured Neal to have an abortion in 1950, since fathering a child out of wedlock could have destroyed his career. Cooper's daughter Maria famously spat at Neal when she was a little girl, but many years later the two reconciled and became friends. British photographer and designer Cecil Beaton in his autobiography and diaries also claimed to have had an affair with Cooper.
He was friends with Ernest Hemingway, and spent many vacations with the writer in the winter wonderland of Sun Valley, Idaho.
In 1961, Cooper died of lung cancer six days after his 60th birthday, and was interred in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. Years later, his body was moved to Sacred Heart Cemetery, Southampton, New York. He had undergone surgery for prostate cancer and colon cancer in the previous year, but as there were no means of monitoring the progress of cancer in those days it spread first to his lungs and then, most painfully, to his bones. Cooper was too ill to attend the Academy Awards ceremony in April 1961, so his close friend James Stewart accepted the honorary Oscar on his behalf. Stewart's emotional speech hinted that something was seriously wrong, and on the next day newspapers all over the world ran the headline, "Gary Cooper has cancer." One month later, the revered star was dead. It is believed that the cancer was caused by Cooper's heavy cigarette smoking and unhealthy, high-protein diet.
For his contribution to the film industry, Gary Cooper has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6243 Hollywood Blvd. In 1966, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His name has also been immortalized in Irving Berlin's song "Puttin' on the Ritz" with the line, "Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper, (super duper)."
Charlton Heston often cited Cooper as a childhood role model, and later got to work with him on The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Heston praised Cooper for doing his own stunts despite his age and poor health following forty years of cigarette smoking.
He has been briefly mentioned a few times on the HBO drama, "The Sopranos," when the main character, Tony Soprano, remarks that he admired Gary Cooper for being the strong, silent type.
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