Editing Gary Cooper (section)

==Personal life==
===Marriage and family===
[[File:Gary Cooper and Veronica Balfe 1933.jpg|thumb|alt=Photo of Veronica Balfe and Gary Cooper|[[Veronica Cooper|Veronica Balfe]] and Cooper, November 1933]]

Cooper was formally introduced to his future wife, 20-year-old New York [[debutante]] [[Veronica Cooper|Veronica Balfe]],{{refn|Balfe worked briefly as an actress in 1933 using the professional name Sandra Shaw.<ref name="meyers-100">Meyers 1998, p. 100.</ref> She appeared in uncredited bit parts in ''[[No Other Woman (1933 film)|No Other Woman]]'', ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'', and ''[[Blood Money (1933 film)|Blood Money]]''.<ref name="meyers-100" />|group=Note}} on Easter Sunday 1933 at a party given by her uncle, art director [[Cedric Gibbons]].<ref>Janis 1999, p. 22.</ref><ref>Meyers 1998, p. 98.</ref><ref>Arce 1979, p. 121.</ref> Called "Rocky" by her family and friends, she grew up on [[Park Avenue]] and attended [[finishing school]]s.<ref name="meyers-99">Meyers 1998, p. 99.</ref> Her stepfather was Wall Street tycoon [[Paul Shields (businessman)|Paul Shields]].<ref name="meyers-99" /> Cooper and Rocky were quietly married at her parents' Park Avenue residence on December 15, 1933.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 102.</ref> According to his friends, the marriage had a positive impact on Cooper, who turned away from past indiscretions and took control of his life.<ref name="meyers-103" /> Athletic and a lover of the outdoors, Rocky shared many of Cooper's interests, including riding, skiing, and skeet-shooting.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 104.</ref> While she organized their social life, her wealth and social connections provided Cooper access to New York high society.<ref name="meyers-106">Meyers 1998, p. 106.</ref> Cooper and his wife owned homes in the Los Angeles area in [[Encino, Los Angeles|Encino]] (1933–36),<ref name="meyers-103">Meyers 1998, p. 103.</ref> [[Brentwood, Los Angeles|Brentwood]] (1936–53),<ref name="meyers-103" /> and [[Holmby Hills, Los Angeles|Holmby Hills]] (1954–61),<ref name="meyers-271">Meyers 1998, p. 271.</ref> and owned a vacation home in [[Aspen, Colorado]] (1949–53).<ref name="meyers-214-215">Meyers 1998, pp. 214–15.</ref>{{refn|After their wedding, Cooper and his wife lived on a {{convert|10|acre|ha|adj=mid}} ranch at 4723 White Oak Avenue in Encino, from 1933 to 1936.<ref name="meyers-103" /> In 1936, they built a large white Bermuda-Georgian house at 11940 Chaparal in Brentwood, where they lived from 1936 to 1953.<ref name="meyers-103" />

In 1948, they purchased {{convert|15|acre|ha}} of land in Aspen, Colorado, and built a four-bedroom house, where they vacationed from 1949 to 1953.<ref name="meyers-214-215" /> In July 1953, they began building a lavish, {{convert|6000|sqft|m2|adj=mid}} mansion on {{convert|1.5|acre|ha}} of land at 200 North Baroda Drive in Holmby Hills, a modernistic four-bedroom house with an open floor plan, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a sculpted garden.<ref name="meyers-271" /> They lived there from September 1954 until his death.<ref name="meyers-271" />|group=Note}}

Gary and Veronica Cooper's daughter, Maria Veronica Cooper, was born on September 15, 1937.<ref name="meyers-128">Meyers 1998, p. 128.</ref> By all accounts, he was a patient and affectionate father, teaching Maria to ride a bicycle, play tennis, ski, and ride horses.<ref name="meyers-128" /> Sharing many of her parents' interests, she accompanied them on their travels and was often photographed with them.<ref name="meyers-128" /> Like her father, she developed a love for art and drawing.<ref name="meyers-270">Meyers 1998, p. 270.</ref>{{refn|Maria attended the [[Chouinard Art Institute]] in Los Angeles for four years and became an artist, with exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York.<ref name="meyers-270" />|group=Note}} As a family, they vacationed together in [[Sun Valley, Idaho]], spent time at Rocky's parents' country house in [[Southampton, New York]], and took frequent trips to Europe.<ref name="meyers-106" /> Cooper and Rocky were legally separated on May 16, 1951, when Cooper moved out of their home.<ref name="meyers-229" /> For over two years, they maintained a fragile and uneasy family life with their daughter.<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 264–266.</ref> Cooper moved back into their home in November 1953,<ref>Carpozi 1970, p. 197.</ref><ref>Arce 1979, p. 253.</ref> and their formal reconciliation occurred in February 1954.<ref name="meyers-269" />

===Romantic relationships===
[[File:Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal The Fountainhead 1949.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Screen capture of Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper|[[Patricia Neal]] and Cooper in ''[[The Fountainhead (film)|The Fountainhead]]'', 1949]]

Prior to his marriage, Cooper had a series of romantic relationships with leading actresses, beginning in 1927 with [[Clara Bow]], who advanced his career by helping him get one of his first leading roles in ''Children of Divorce''.<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 36, 40.</ref>{{refn|Cooper and Bow began their affair during the production of one of her most popular films, ''[[It (1927 film)|It]]'' (1927), for which she had the studio film an extra scene that included Cooper.<ref>Swindell 1980, p. 78.</ref>

During the "It girl" publicity campaign,<ref>Swindell 1980, p. 79.</ref> columnists started referring to Cooper as the "It boy".<ref>Kaminsky 1979, p. 31.</ref>|group=Note}} Bow was also responsible for getting Cooper a role in ''Wings'', which generated an enormous amount of fan mail for the young actor.<ref>Kaminsky 1979, p. 34.</ref> In 1928, he had a relationship with another experienced actress, [[Evelyn Brent]], whom he met while filming ''Beau Sabreur''.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 43.</ref> In 1929, while filming ''[[The Wolf Song]]'', Cooper began an intense affair with [[Lupe Vélez]], which was the most important romance of his early life.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 45.</ref> During their two years together, Cooper also had brief affairs with [[Marlene Dietrich]] while filming ''Morocco'' in 1930<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 62.</ref> and with [[Carole Lombard]] while making ''I Take This Woman'' in 1931.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 68.</ref> During his year abroad in 1931–32, Cooper had an affair with the married Countess Dorothy di Frasso, the former Dorothy Cadwell Taylor, while staying at her [[Villa Madama]] near Rome.<ref name="meyers-77" />

After he was married in December 1933, Cooper remained faithful to his wife until the summer of 1942, when he began an affair with [[Ingrid Bergman]] during the production of ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''.<ref>Wayne 1988, p. 100.</ref> Their relationship lasted through the completion of filming ''Saratoga Trunk'' in June 1943.<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 179, 183.</ref> In 1948, after finishing work on ''The Fountainhead'', Cooper began an affair with [[Patricia Neal]], his co-star.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 225.</ref> At first, they kept their affair discreet, but eventually it became an open secret in Hollywood, and Cooper's wife confronted him with the rumors, which he admitted were true. He also confessed that he was in love with Neal, and continued to see her.<ref name="shearer-124">Shearer 2006, p. 124.</ref><ref>Meyers 1998, p. 226.</ref> Cooper and his wife were legally separated in May 1951,<ref name="meyers-229">Meyers 1998, p. 229.</ref> but he did not seek a divorce.<ref>Shearer 2006, pp. 114–22.</ref> Neal later claimed that Cooper hit her after she went on a date with [[Kirk Douglas]], and that he arranged for her to have an abortion when she became pregnant with Cooper's child.<ref name="Nealpeople" /> Neal ended their relationship in late December 1951.<ref name="shearer-126-127">Shearer 2006, pp. 126–27.</ref> During his three-year separation from his wife, Cooper was rumored to have had affairs with [[Grace Kelly]],<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 231.</ref> Lorraine Chanel,<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 259–63.</ref> and [[Gisèle Pascal]].<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 263–64.</ref>

Cooper biographers have explored his relationship in the late '20s with the actor [[Anderson Lawler]], with whom Cooper shared a house on and off for a year, while at the same time seeing Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, and Lupe Vélez.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shearer |first1=Stephen |title=Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life |date=2006 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington, Kentucky |isbn=978-0813123912 |page=[https://archive.org/details/patricianealunqu00shea/page/66 66] |url=https://archive.org/details/patricianealunqu00shea |url-access=registration |quote=.anderson lawler. |access-date=May 10, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=William J. |title=Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910–1969 |url=https://archive.org/details/behindscreenhowg00mann |url-access=registration |date=2001 |publisher=Viking |location=NY |isbn=978-0670030170 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/behindscreenhowg00mann/page/103 103–10] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Conner |first1=Floyd |title=Lupe Velez and Her Lovers |date=1993 |publisher=Barricade Books |location=NY |isbn=978-0942637960 |pages=85–86}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Swindell |first1=Larry |title=The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper |url=https://archive.org/details/lastherobiograp00swin |url-access=registration |date=1980 |publisher=Doubleday |location=NY |isbn=978-0385143165 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastherobiograp00swin/page/104 104–05]}}</ref> Vélez once told [[Hedda Hopper]] of Lawler's alleged affair with Cooper; whenever he would come home after seeing Lawler, she would sniff for Lawler's cologne.<ref name="fleming">{{cite book|last1=Fleming|first1=E. J.|title=The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|location=Jefferson MO|isbn=978-0-7864-2027-8|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f0usSUISUUMC&pg=PA92|access-date=July 13, 2018}}</ref> Vélez's biographer [[Michelle Vogel]] wrote that Vélez consented to Cooper's alleged sexual behavior with Lawler, but only as long as she, too, could participate.<ref name="michelle vogel">{{cite book |last1=Vogel |first1=Michelle |title=Lupe Velez: The Life and Career of Hollywood's "Mexican Spitfire" |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0786461394 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Qt_kZTt4JYC&q=anderson+lawler+gary+cooper&pg=PA71 |access-date=December 5, 2018}}</ref>

In later life, Cooper became involved with costume designer [[Irene (costume designer)|Irene]], and was, according to her, "the only man she ever loved". A year after his death in 1961, Irene committed suicide by jumping from the 11th floor of the [[The Knickerbocker Hotel|Knickerbocker Hotel]], after telling [[Doris Day]] of her grief over Cooper's death.<ref>Hotchner, A. E. ''Doris Day: Her Own Story''</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2024}}

===Friendships, interests, and character===
According to Cooper<ref>Janis 1999, p. 42.</ref>
{{Blockquote|... the really satisfying things I do are offered me, free, for nothing. Ever go out in the fall and do a little hunting? See the frost on the grass and the leaves turning? Spend a day in the hills alone, or with good companions? Watch a sunset and a moonrise? Notice a bird in the wind? A stream in the woods, a storm at sea, cross the country by train, and catch a glimpse of something beautiful in the desert, or the farmlands? Free to everybody{{spaces}}...}}
[[File:Hemingway SunValley.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=Photo of Ernest Hemingway, Bobbi Powell, and Gary Cooper during a hunting trip|[[Ernest Hemingway]], Bobbi Powell, and Cooper at [[Silver Creek, Idaho]], 1959]]

Cooper's 20-year friendship with [[Ernest Hemingway]] began at [[Sun Valley, Idaho|Sun Valley]] in October 1940.<ref name="meyers-173">Meyers 1998, p. 173.</ref> The previous year, Hemingway drew upon Cooper's image when he created the character of Robert Jordan for the novel ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''.<ref name="meyers-176">Meyers 1998, p. 176.</ref> The two shared a passion for the outdoors,<ref name="meyers-173" /> and for years they hunted duck and pheasant, and skied together in Sun Valley. Both men admired the work of [[Rudyard Kipling]]; Cooper kept a copy of the poem "[[If—]]" in his dressing room, and retained as adults Kipling's sense of boyish adventure.<ref name="meyers-175">Meyers 1998, p. 175.</ref>

As well as admiring Cooper's hunting skills and knowledge of the outdoors, Hemingway believed his character matched his screen persona,<ref name="meyers-173" /> once telling a friend, "If you made up a character like Coop, nobody would believe it. He's just too good to be true."<ref name="meyers-175" /> They saw each other often, and their friendship remained strong through the years.<ref name="meyers-315">Meyers 1998, p. 315.</ref>{{refn|Cooper's friendship with Ernest Hemingway is explored in the documentary ''[[Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen]]'' (2013).<ref name="variety-scheib" />|group=Note}}

Cooper's social life generally centered on sports, outdoor activities, and dinner parties with his family and friends from the film industry, including directors Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, William Wellman, and Fred Zinnemann, and actors Joel McCrea, James Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Taylor.<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 104–05, 153, 313.</ref><ref>Janis 1999, p. 98.</ref><ref>Swindell 1980, pp. 300–01.</ref> Cooper, in addition to hunting, enjoyed riding, fishing, skiing, and later in life, scuba diving.<ref>Meyers 1998, pp. 59, 299.</ref><ref>Janis 1999, p. 124.</ref> He never abandoned his early love for art and drawing, and over the years, he and his wife acquired a private collection of modern paintings, including works by [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]], [[Paul Gauguin]], and [[Georgia O'Keeffe]].<ref name="meyers-285-286">Meyers 1998, pp. 285–286.</ref> Cooper owned several works by [[Pablo Picasso]], whom he met in 1956.<ref name="meyers-285-286" /> Cooper also had a lifelong passion for automobiles, with a collection that included a 1930 [[Duesenberg]].<ref name="meyers-59">Meyers 1998, p. 59.</ref><ref>Janis 1999, p. 121.</ref>

Cooper was naturally reserved and introspective, and loved the solitude of outdoor activities.<ref name="meyers-53">Meyers 1998, p. 53.</ref> Not unlike his screen persona, his communication style frequently consisted of long silences<ref name="meyers-53" /> with an occasional "yup" and "shucks".<ref name="swindell-303" /><ref>Janis 1999, p. 6.</ref> He once said, "If others have more interesting things to say than I have, I keep quiet."<ref name="meyers-54">Meyers 1998, p. 54.</ref> According to his friends, Cooper could also be an articulate, well-informed conversationalist on topics ranging from horses, guns, and Western history to film production, sports cars, and modern art.<ref name="meyers-54" /> He was modest and unpretentious,<ref name="meyers-53" /> frequently downplaying his acting abilities and career accomplishments.<ref>Kaminsky 1979, p. 217.</ref> His friends and colleagues described him as charming, well-mannered, and thoughtful, with a lively, boyish sense of humor.<ref name="meyers-54" /> Cooper maintained a sense of propriety throughout his career and never misused his movie-star status; he never sought special treatment or refused to work with a director or leading lady.<ref name="meyers-55">Meyers 1998, p. 55.</ref> His close friend Joel McCrea recalled, "Coop never fought, he never got mad, he never told anybody off that I know of; everybody [who] worked with him liked him."<ref name="meyers-55" />

===Political views===
Like his father, Cooper was a [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]; he voted for [[Calvin Coolidge]] in 1924 and [[Herbert Hoover]] in 1928 and 1932, and campaigned for [[Wendell Willkie]] in 1940.<ref name="meyers-202">Meyers 1998, p. 202.</ref> When [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] ran for an unprecedented fourth presidential term in 1944, Cooper campaigned for [[Thomas E. Dewey]] and criticized Roosevelt for being dishonest and adopting "foreign" ideas.<ref name="meyers-206">Meyers 1998, p. 206.</ref> In a radio address he had paid for himself just before the election,<ref name="meyers-206"/> Cooper said, "I disagree with the [[New Deal]] belief that the America all of us love is old and worn-out and finished{{snd}}and has to borrow foreign notions that don't even seem to work any too well where they come from{{spaces}}... Our country is a young country that just has to make up its mind to be itself again."<ref name="meyers-206"/><ref>Carpozi 1970, p. 168.</ref> He also attended a Republican rally at the [[Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum]] that drew 93,000 Dewey supporters.<ref>Jordan 2011, pp. 231–32.</ref> In 1952, Cooper, along with [[John Wayne]], [[Adolphe Menjou]] and [[Glenn Ford]], supported [[Robert A. Taft]] over [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in the Republican primaries.<ref>Upstream: The Ascendance of American Conservatism; Alfred S. Regnery, 2008</ref><ref>Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft; James T. Patterson, 1972</ref>

Cooper was one of the founding members of the [[Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals]],<ref>Swindell 1980, p. 256.</ref> a conservative organization dedicated, according to its statement of principles, to preserving the "American way of life" and opposing [[communism]] and [[fascism]].<ref name="alliance"/> The organization (members included [[Walter Brennan]], Laraine Day, [[Walt Disney]], [[Clark Gable]], [[Hedda Hopper]], [[Ronald Reagan]], Barbara Stanwyck, and [[John Wayne]]) advised the [[United States Congress]] to investigate communist influence in the motion-picture industry.<ref>Meyers 1998, p. 207.</ref> On October 23, 1947, Cooper was subpoenaed to appear before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC) and was asked if he had observed any "communistic influence" in Hollywood.<ref name="virginia"/>

Cooper recounted statements he had heard suggesting the Constitution was out of date and that Congress was an unnecessary institution, comments which Cooper said he found to be "very un-American", and testified that he had rejected several scripts because he thought they were "tinged with communist ideas".<ref name="virginia"/> Unlike some other witnesses, Cooper did not name any individuals or scripts.<ref name="virginia"/><ref>Meyers 1998, p. 210.</ref>

In 1951, while making ''High Noon'', Cooper befriended the film's screenwriter, [[Carl Foreman]], who had been a member of the Communist Party. When Foreman was subpoenaed by the HUAC, Cooper put his career on the line to defend Foreman. When John Wayne and others threatened Cooper with blacklisting himself and the loss of his passport if he did not walk off the film, Cooper gave a statement to the press in support of Foreman, calling him "the finest kind of American". When producer [[Stanley Kramer]] removed Foreman's name as screenwriter, Cooper and director Fred Zinnemann threatened to walk off the film if Foreman's name were<!-- subjunctive --> not restored. Foreman later said that of all his friends and allies and colleagues in Hollywood, "Cooper was the only big one who tried to help. The only one."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=High Noon's Secret Backstory |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/high-noons-secret-backstory |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=February 22, 2017 |language=en}}</ref> Cooper even offered to testify in Foreman's behalf before the committee, but character witnesses were not allowed. Foreman always sent future scripts to Cooper for first refusal, including ''[[The Bridge on the River Kwai]], [[The Key (1958 film)|The Key]]'', and ''[[The Guns of Navarone (film)|The Guns of Navarone]]''. Cooper had to turn them down because of his age.<ref>{{cite news |title=Best books of 2017: The best nonfiction |url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-holiday-books-best-nonfiction-20171130-htmlstory.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=November 30, 2017}}</ref>

===Religion===
Cooper was baptized in the [[Church of All Saints, Houghton Regis]], in Bedfordshire, England, in December 1911,<ref name="meyers-13" /> and was raised in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in the United States.<ref name="carpozi-205">Carpozi 1970, p. 205.</ref> While he was not an observant Christian for most of his adult life, many of his friends believed he had a deeply spiritual side.<ref name="meyers-293">Meyers 1998, p. 293.</ref>

On June 26, 1953, Cooper accompanied his wife and daughter, who were devout [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], to Rome, where they had an audience with [[Pope Pius XII]].<ref name="carpozi-207">Carpozi 1970, p. 207.</ref><ref name="meyers-266">Meyers 1998, p. 266.</ref> Cooper and his wife were still separated at the time, but the papal visit marked the beginning of their gradual reconciliation.<ref>Carpozi 1970, p. 208.</ref> In the following years, Cooper contemplated his mortality and his personal behavior, and started discussing [[Catholic]]ism with his family.<ref name="meyers-293" /><ref name="carpozi-207" /><ref name="forbes" /> He began attending church with them regularly, and met with their parish priest, who offered Cooper spiritual guidance.<ref name="meyers-293" /><ref name="forbes" /> After several months of study, Cooper was baptized as a Catholic on April 9, 1959, before a small group of family and friends at the [[Church of the Good Shepherd (Beverly Hills, California)|Church of the Good Shepherd]] in Beverly Hills.<ref name="carpozi-205" /><ref name="forbes" />