Melville Cooper

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George Melville Cooper (born October 15, 1896 in Birmingham , † March 29, 1973 in Woodland Hills , Los Angeles ) was a British theater and film actor .

Life

After attending various schools, including King Edward's School, Cooper made his theater debut in Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of 18 . However, his acting career was initially interrupted by the First World War. As a lieutenant in the Scottish Seaforth Highlanders regiment , he was injured on the Western Front and imprisoned by the Germans as a prisoner of war. After the war, Cooper appeared on stage again and also made his film debut in British films in 1930 .

Four years later he moved to the United States and made his first Hollywood film in 1935 . From then on, Cooper could be seen in a number of supporting roles, whereby he was mainly set on snobbish or idiot characters. For example, he was seen as a more comical than dangerous Sheriff of Nottingham in the classic film Robin Hood, King of the Vagabonds ( The Adventures of Robin Hood , 1938) alongside Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland . His performance was praised as greasy Mr. Collins in the Jane Austen film version Pride and Prejudice ( Pride and Prejudice , 1940) with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier . In Vincente Minnelli comedy Father of the Bride ( Father of the Bride , 1950), he played alongside Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor the role of Hochzeitspaners. During the 1950s, Cooper also appeared frequently on American television, including in three episodes of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series (1957). In the 1960s he returned to the stage, where he appeared in productions of My Fair Lady , Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest or Charley's Aunt ( Charley's Aunt was seen).

The actor was married three times in total. His first marriage to the English actress Rita Page, with whom he had a daughter, lasted until Page's death in 1954. He divorced his second wife Gladys Grice and was married to Elizabeth Sutherland until his death. Cooper died of cancer in 1973, aged 76, at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles. He was buried in the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Melville Cooper  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Melville Cooper, Actor, Dies at 76; Captured by Germans in War . In: The New York Times , April 1, 1973.
  2. ↑ Melville Cooper at Allmovie
personal data
SURNAME Cooper, Melville
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cooper, George Melville
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , England
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1973
Place of death Woodland Hills , Los Angeles