Gary Cooper Movies

Want to know the best Gary Cooper movies?  How about the worst Gary Cooper movies?  Curious about Gary Cooper box office grosses or which Gary Cooper movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Gary Cooper movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Gary Cooper (1901–1961) was an American film actor who appeared in over 100 movies from 1923-1961. Unfortunately many of Cooper’s silent movies have been lost forever. So this page will only look at his movie career from his first “talkie” The Virginian (1929), to his last movie, The Naked Edge (1961) which was released a month after his death in 1961.  Just a few quick notes on Gary Cooper’s silent movie career. From 1923 to 1929, Cooper appeared in over 40 movies. Most of his roles, were either bit or uncredited parts. He did however appear in some very popular movies during this time period. He played a Roman guard in the original version of Ben-Hur (1925), he had one scene in the first movie to ever win the Oscar® for Best Picture….Wings (1927), and he was in the 1927 box office hit Children of Divorce.

In 1929, he became a major star with his first sound picture, The Virginian. He followed The Virginian with the blockbuster hit Morocco (1931), co-starring Marlene Dietrich in her first American film. Over the next thirty years, Cooper would appear in over 60 movies, earning 5 Oscar® nominations, two Oscar® wins (1941’s Sergeant York and 1952’s High Noon) and numerous blockbuster hits. Two of his movies, Sergeant York and 1943’s For Whom The Bell Tolls are still ranked in the Top 100 box office hits of all-time when you look at adjusted domestic box office numbers.

His IMDb page shows 118 acting credits from 1923-1961. This page will rank Gary Cooper movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and many of his silent movies were not included in the page.

Gary Cooper in 1952's High Noon.
Gary Cooper in 1952’s High Noon.

Gary Cooper Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Gary Cooper Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Gary Cooper movies by his co-stats
  • Sort Gary Cooper movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort Gary Cooper movies by co-stars of yearly box office rank or trivia if rank not available
  • Sort Gary Cooper movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Gary Cooper movie received.
  • Sort Gary Cooper movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
 
Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds in 1936's Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds in 1936’s Mr. Deeds Goes To Town

Possibly Interesting Facts About Gary Cooper

#1 After failing as an editorial cartoonist and a salesman of electronic signs in his early 20s, Gary Cooper moved from Montana to Los Angeles with his parents. His thinking on the move…”would rather starve where it was warm, than to starve and freeze too.”

#2 The American Film Institute named Gary Cooper as the 11th best male actor of the Classic Hollywood cinema period.

#3 Gary Cooper married Veronica “Rocky” Balfe in 1933. Despite being separated from between 1951 and 1954, she was with Cooper when he passed away in 1961. They had one daughter together, Maria Cooper. Here you go mom….personal information about him.

#4 Gary Cooper made four movies with legendary director Cecil B. DeMille. Those movies were The Plainsman(1936), North West Mounted Police (1940), The Story of Doctor Wassell (1944) and Unconquered (1947).

#5 During the filming of The Plainsman, Cecil B. DeMille wanted to fire a very young Mexican actor who was playing an indian. Gary Cooper talked DeMille out of firing the actor. The actor? Anthony Quinn who would go on to win two Oscars®.

#6 Cooper was the first choice for the role of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. When Cooper turned down the role, he was passionately against it. He is quoted as 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”

#7 Alfred Hitchcock wanted Gary Cooper to star in 1940’s Foreign Correspondent and 1942’s Sabotuer. Cooper later admitted he had made a “mistake” in turning down the director.

#8 Gary Cooper’s reputation as the “strong silent type” goes back to one of his first talking pictures, The Virginian, in which his character had little to say but definitely commanded the respect of those around him. The strong silent type/Gary Cooper was mentioned numerous times in the great HBO series The Sopranos.

#9 Cooper was given a Honorary Oscar® in April 1961, his close friend James Stewart, accepted the award on his behalf. Stewart’s emotional speech hinted that something was seriously wrong, and the next day newspapers ran the headline, “Gary Cooper has cancer.” One month later, on May 13, 1961, six days after his 60th birthday, Cooper died.

#10 Check out Gary Cooper‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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155 thoughts on “Gary Cooper Movies”

  1. LOTS OF COMMENTS COGERSON. The photo of Cooper and Hepburn was a good one – still think that movie was sort of unbelievable as a love story – I agree that Cooper looked old enough to be her grandfather. GOOD MOVIE PAGE THOUGH. THANKS A LOT.

    Reply

    1. Hey BERN1960, Mr. Cooper has gotten a very nice response in the first 10 hours….probably one of the best for my hubs ever…I wonder if it will maintain this pace. As for Love in the Afternoon….Cooper looks like he 60 while Hepburn looks like she is 13….seems like a weird way for a movie to go.

      Reply

  2. Now this is a great movie page! Informative and interesting. Thank you for sharing this information in a well organized and understandable way. Useful, awesome, beautiful and interesting!

    Reply

  3. Another bit of info: Cooper and Patricia O Neal were madly in love. Although his daughter hated her, when O Neal had her series of strokes she got a wonderful letter from his daughter.

    Also: Dietrich was on her way to ensuring that John Gilbert was cured of the depression and alcoholism that was killing him-when she fell for Cooper during the fil ming of morocco and this finished any hope of Gilbert recovering.

    Since you are taking only about his talkie films, I’ll just mention his talkie films. First, what I’ve actually seen:

    You will be dissapointed to know that I have only seen 12. In my defence I have seen more of his silents. One reason is, that he made a large number of war films-not my genre-and a number of westerns-also not my genre,. however, there are some comedies you would be shocked that I haven’t seen. The reason I haven’t seen them is that I really have no patience for comedies where people take advantage of others who are, shall we say, naive? Also, city folks trying to live in the country and vice versa isn’t my genre either. Hence, no Ball of Fire, Meet John Doe, or even Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Really.

    Since there is such a small number I’cve seen I will mention them all in their movie score order:

    The Pride of the Yankees-this was made all the more moving by the fact that thereal athletes played themselves, rather than actors. To give your name to a disease without being the person to discover it. Wow. I have to be in the right mood to watch it, but I’ve seen it several times.

    High Noon-you’ll be surprised to hear this-well maybe not being there is a lot of suspense in it-but this is my fabourite Gary Cooper movie. I love the theme song-different lyrics, by the way, than in the sheet music (quite common, actually) and have it memorized. Grace Kelly’s first major role. lloyd Bridges thought this was his ticket to a great career as he was nominated for an Oscar, but right after he was afoul of the House Un-American Committee. there was also some talk that the screenwriter was writing this abandonment of the sheriff’s help as a metaphor for what happened to the blacklisted writers, but not everyone buys that.

    Morocco-already talked about the background to this

    Garden of Evil-with Richard Widmark, so you know I have seen this and enjoyed it.

    The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell-ah, a courtroom drama. always enjoyable. There are a lot of up and coming actors in small roles in this one, including Peter Graves.

    The Westerner-hmm. I actually don’t rermeber much about this western. I’ve only seen it once.

    The Fountainhead-O neal had to beat out a lot of actresses for this role, and yet this was her debut! She came to the attention of Oscar for a debut film in a lead role. wow. I like the movie better than I like the book. I don’t much care for Ayn Rand.

    Love in the Afternoon-this doesn’t bother me as much as it does you. It’s okay.

    You’re in the Navy Now-just silly fun. A lot of up and coming actors in bit parts in this film too.

    The Bright Leaf-I saw this as part of TCM showing 24 hours of Lauren bacall movies one summer-last year I think. I’m just not interested in tabacco families.stories. I saw it for Bacall as I want to see all of her films. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have bothered.

    City Streets-Coop plays a gansgter in this! And her is very good at it I might add. This is a remarkably good film for an early talkie.

    The Wreak of the Mary Deare-funny you should mention Hitccock in this page. Hitch at one point wanted to make a film version of this novel himself. It is quite enjoyable and suspenseful.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora, evidently Cooper’s daughter had a spitting incident with O’Neal as well. Cooper was very popular with his leading ladies, as most seemed to have off screen affairs with him. Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Patricia O’Neal just to name a few.

      As for your 12 movies…that number far exceeds my number….which is at 4…..I thought Ball of Fire was a re-telling of the Cinderella story? I tried to get more silent films in the hub….but finding box office numbers(which are needed for my Movie Score formula to work)….are almost impossible for movies made before 1930. I have tons of old Variety magazines….and their master list…they have a grand total of 17 movies listed for the entire decade….17! that only leaves about 2000 movies to find. They do have Wings(almost 196 million in 2011 dollars) listed…which would finished 5th for Cooper top movies…but the fact that he was only in the movie for about 2 minutes….I decided to just drop all the silent movies I did find.

      Looking through your list of movies you have seen…not surprised Garden of Evil(the power of Widmark) is high on your list…..somewhat surprised High Noon is your favorite…really surprised you have not seen A Farewell To Arms…which I realize it is a war movie…but the romantic heartbreak is legendary. As always thanks for your very detailed and interesting comments.

      Reply

      1. I plan to see A Farewell to Arms because I love the stars . just haven’t gotten around to it. as for Cinderella-though I’ve seen the animated film and the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, I actually do not like the story. I am going to get around to writing a hub about it some day. It teaches children a very bad lesson-that good is beautiful and evil is ugly. really? There was no reason foe the stepsisters to be ugly. Bad body image time. Since I realized that I haevn’t watched the film, although I still love the music.

        Reply

        1. Hey Flora…I know Hemingway did not like either version of A Farewell To Arms….but he liked Cooper playing the Hemingway part much better than Rock Hudson playing the part…Hemingway and Cooper became friends until the end of their lifes after the 1932 movie was made. Sounds like an interesting hub on Cinderella….I look forward to reading it.

          Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by Meisjunk…thanks for the compliment and I am glad I was able to provide some information on one of the Hollywood greats.

      Reply

  5. Loved those old Gary Cooper movies. Hemingway shot himself a month after Cooper’s death, didn’t he?

    Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by Jeff. Cooper died on May 13th 1961, and Hemingway shot himself on July 2nd 1961…so about 6 weeks between their deaths. Hemingway started showing signs of mental illness before Cooper show signs of the cancer….I think their last big game hunting trip was in 1958…..and Cooper was trying to turn another Hemingway novel into a movie when he became to ill to do the movie…and the movie deal fell through.

      Reply

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