Gary Cooper

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2024

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gary Cooper was one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history. His strong, understated, good-natured characters established a paradigm, especially for Western heroes. He won two Oscars for Best Actor, while acting in 84 films over 36 years. But his off-screen life wasn’t quite as virtuous and praiseworthy. He had a significant problem with philandering, which continued even after he got married. His wife, Veronica “Rocky” Balfe, was Catholic, and eventually her strong faith, and that of their daughter Maria, encouraged him to consider becoming Catholic and turning over a new leaf. By the time cancer came for him in 1961, he had become Catholic, left his womanizing ways behind, and embraced fully the life of the Sacraments.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.
0:11.0	If you like this podcast and would like to support our work, please visit American Catholic History.org slash support.
0:18.9	I'm Noelle Heister Crow.
0:20.3	And I'm Tom Crow.
0:21.6	Today we're talking about the screen legend Gary Cooper.
0:25.6	Koop was one of the biggest stars in the golden age of Hollywood, and for a few years,
0:29.8	he was the highest paid person in America.
0:32.4	Yeah, I've had putting on the rits going through my head all week as I've been working on
0:36.3	this episode, dressed up like a million dollar trooper, trying hard to look like Gary Cooper, super duper.
0:45.6	Come, let's mix, blah.
0:46.9	Anyway.
0:48.2	Yeah, you've been singing it all week.
0:50.6	Yes, I can't help it.
0:51.8	But Cooper was included in that song just because of how iconic he was
0:55.4	even in his own day. He was the picture of strong, understated, classy masculinity. Yeah,
1:02.1	Fristair recorded Putting on the Ritz with that lyric in 1930. Cooper was only five years into his
1:08.6	film career at that time. He had 31 more years to go, but he was a big
1:13.5	star from early on. So you're the film buff. Tell us what made him such a big star and what he did
1:19.5	or had that set him apart. Well, when people talk about his acting, the thing people notice the most
1:25.1	is how natural he was in his roles. He didn't try to do or be too much.
1:30.8	He allowed his own low-key personality to come through the characters he was playing.
1:35.4	He relied on the very subtle changes in his own posture, facial expression, and his eyes to communicate what was going on inside.
	...

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