Merian C. Cooper

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Merian C. Cooper in Polish uniform

Merian Caldwell Cooper (born October 24, 1893 in Jacksonville , Florida , † April 21, 1973 in San Diego , California ) was an American pilot , actor , director , screenwriter and producer. His most famous film was the first King Kong filming: King Kong and the White Woman from 1933.

Life

Born in Florida, Merian C. Cooper initially made a career in the military as a pilot. In the Polish-Soviet War he organized the Polish 7th Fighter Squadron with the name "Kościuszko's Squadron", in which mainly American volunteers served. Cooper remained stationed in Poland until 1921 before the adventurer turned to a career in film. In the Second World War he was again active with the rank of colonel for the American army.

Cooper started his film career with the documentaries Grass (1925) and Chang (1927), in which feature film sequences were incorporated. With Chang he used this technique for the finale of the film, in which a horde of elephants trample a village. Cooper directed the production of numerous films for RKO Pictures in the 1930s . During his film career, Cooper continued to promote new film technologies. For example, in the film King Kong and the White Woman staged by him and Ernest B. Schoedsack , with whom he had worked closely since the 1920s, stop-motion technology was used on a large scale for the first time . In this classic, Cooper was not only involved as a producer, he also had the idea for the character of King Kong and was involved in the script and production. Cooper also paved the way for film techniques such as Technicolor and Cinerama .

Cooper was a good friend and colleague of western director John Ford . After the Second World War, they produced successful films such as Rio Grande , The Sieger and The Black Falcon . After working on the documentary Best of Cinerama , Cooper retired from the film business in 1963.

From 1933 until his death, Cooper was married to actress Dorothy Jordan and they had three children. He died of cancer in 1973 at the age of 79.

Awards

Cooper has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his film work . In addition, Merian C. Cooper received an honorary Oscar in 1953 for his cinematic services. The American polar explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd named Mount Cooper after him, a mountain in Antarctica.

Filmography (selection)

Merian C. Cooper's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , his first name being misspelled as "Meriam"

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cooper, Merian C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cooper, Merian Caldwell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pilot, adventurer, actor, director, screenwriter, and producer
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Jacksonville , Florida , United States
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1973
Place of death San Diego , California , United States