Gladys Cooper

Dame Gladys Constance Cooper (18 December 1888 – 17 November 1971) was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television.

Beginning as a teenager in Edwardian musical comedy and pantomime, she starred in dramatic roles and silent films before the First World War. She managed the Playhouse Theatre from 1917 to 1934, where she starred in many roles. From the early 1920s Cooper won praise in plays by W. Somerset Maugham and others.

In the 1930s she starred steadily in productions both in London's West End and on Broadway. Moving to Hollywood in 1940, Cooper found success in a variety of character roles. She received three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress, for performances in The Song of Bernadette (1943), My Fair Lady (1964) and, most famously, Now, Voyager (1942). Throughout the 1950s and 1960s she worked both on stage and on screen, continuing to star on stage until her last year.

Early life and career

Cooper was born at 23 Ennersdale Road, Hither Green, Lewisham, London, the eldest of the three daughters of Charles William Frederick Cooper (1844–1939) and Mabel (Barnett) Cooper (1861–1944). Her two younger sisters were Doris Mabel (1891–1987) and Grace Muriel (1893–1982). Writer Henry St. John Cooper was a half-brother. Cooper spent most of her childhood in Chiswick, where her family moved when she was an infant.

She made her stage debut in 1905 touring with Seymour Hicks in his musical Bluebell in Fairyland and was becoming a popular photographic model. In 1906, she appeared as Lady Swan in London in The Belle of Mayfair and then in the pantomime Babes in the Wood as Mavis. The following year she became a chorus girl at the Gaiety Theatre, creating the small role of Eva in The Girls of Gottenberg. That Christmas, she was again in Babes in the Wood, this time playing Molly. In 1908, she appeared in the musical Havana followed, the next year, by Our Miss Gibbs, in which she played Lady Connie; she was then on tour again with Hicks, in Papa's Wife, before playing Sadie von Tromp in the operetta The Dollar Princess at Daly's Theatre in 1909. In 1911, she appeared in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest and in Man and Superman. Among several other plays, the next year she was Muriel Pym in Milestones at the Royalty Theatre. A highlight of 1913 was Dora in Diplomacy at Wyndham's Theatre. That year she also played the title role in The Pursuit of Pamela at the Royalty.

In 1913 Cooper appeared in her first film, The Eleventh Commandment, going on to make several more silent films during the First World War and shortly afterwards. She continued full-time stage work, however, including appearances as Lady Agatha Lazenby in The Admirable Crichton in 1916 and Clara de Foenix in Trelawny of the Wells. In addition, in 1917, Cooper became co-manager, with Frank Curzon, of the Playhouse Theatre, taking over sole control from 1927 until she left in 1933. During these years, she starred several times in My Lady's Dress. She appeared in W. Somerset Maugham's Home and Beauty in 1919, repeated Dora at His Majesty's Theatre in 1920 and elsewhere thereafter, and both produced and played numerous roles at the Playhouse Theatre. In 1921 she created the role of Miralda Clement in Lord Dunsany's play If at the Ambassadors Theatre.

It was not until 1922, however, then in her mid-thirties, that she found major critical success, in Arthur Wing Pinero's The Second Mrs. Tanqueray. Early in her stage career, she was criticised for being too stiff. Aldous Huxley dismissed her performance in Home and Beauty, writing "she is too impassive, too statuesque, playing all the time as if she were Galatea, newly unpetrified and still unused to the ways of the living world." Evidently, her acting improved during this period, as Maugham praised her for "turning herself from an indifferent actress to an extremely competent one" through her common sense and industriousness. For both the 1923 and 1924 Christmas shows at the Adelphi Theatre, Cooper played the title character in Peter Pan, while also playing several other roles at that theatre during those two years. She appeared in Maugham's The Letter in London and on tour in 1927 and 1928, in Excelsior (adapted from "L'Ecole des Cocottes" by H.M. Harwood) in 1928, and in Maugham's The Sacred Flame in 1929, also in London and on tour.

Among other roles, Cooper was Clemency Warlock in Cynara (1930), Wanda Heriot in The Pelican (1931), Lucy Haydon in Dr Pygmalion (1932), Carola in The Firebird (1932), Jane Claydon in The Rats of Norway (1933), Mariella Linden in The Shining Hour in 1934 and 1935, in London and New York City and on tour (at the same time making her first "talkie" film, The Iron Duke), also playing Desdemona and Lady Macbeth on Broadway in 1935. She was Dorothy Hilton in Call it a Day, again in both London and New York, from 1935 to 1936. A highlight of 1937 was Laura Lorimer in Goodbye to Yesterday in London and on tour. In 1938, she played Tiny Fox-Collier in Spring Meeting in New York, Montreal and Britain, as well as several Shakespeare roles and Fran Dodsworth in Dodsworth. She repeated Spring Meeting in 1939. Her credits there included both dramatic and comedy films, including The Green Years (1946), The Cockeyed Miracle (1946) and The Secret Garden (1949). Other notable film roles were The Man Who Loved Redheads (1955), Separate Tables (1958) and The Happiest Millionaire (1967) as Aunt Mary Drexel, singing "There Are Those".

Her only stage roles in the 1940s were Mrs. Parrilow in The Morning Star in Philadelphia and New York (1942) and Melanie Aspen in The Indifferent Shepherd in Britain (1948). She returned to theatre (between films) more often in the 1950s and 1960s, playing in London and on tour in such roles as Edith Fenton in The Hat Trick (1950); Felicity, Countess of Marshwood, in Relative Values (1951 and 1953); Grace Smith in A Question of Fact (1953); Lady Yarmouth in The Night of the Ball (1954); Mrs. St. Maugham in The Chalk Garden (1955–56), Dame Mildred in The Bright One (1958); Mrs. Vincent in Look on Tempests (1960); Mrs. Gantry (Bobby) in The Bird of Time (1961); Mrs. Moore in a stage adaptation of A Passage to India (1962); Mrs Tabret in The Sacred Flame (1966 and 1967); Prue Salter in Let's All Go Down the Strand (1967); Emma Littlewood in Out of the Question (1968); Lydia in His, Hers and Theirs (1969); and others. She received two nominations for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for her roles in The Chalk Garden and A Passage to India.

She also had various television roles in the 1950s and '60s. Cooper starred in the 1964–65 series The Rogues with David Niven, Charles Boyer, Gig Young, Robert Coote, John Williams and Larry Hagman. The series lasted a single season of thirty episodes, most of which featured Cooper as the matriarch of an ethical family of con artists who only prey on criminals.

In 1967, at the age of 79, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). Her last major success on the stage was at age 82, in 1970–71 in the role of Mrs. St. Maugham in Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden, a role she had created on Broadway and in the West End in 1955–56.

Personal life and death

Cooper was married three times. Captain Herbert Buckmaster (1908–1921). The couple had two children: Joan (1910–2005), who married the actor Robert Morley, and John R. Buckmaster (1915–1983). Sir Neville Pearson (1927–1936). Sir Neville and Lady Pearson had one daughter, Sally Pearson, aka Sally Cooper, who was married to the actor Robert Hardy from 1961 to 1986. Philip Merivale (1937–1946), a fellow actor. The couple lived for many years in Santa Monica, California as permanent resident aliens. He died at age 59 from a heart ailment. Her stepson from this marriage was John Merivale.

Cooper published a self-titled autobiography in 1931. Her portrait with Sally as a child was painted by Minnie Walters Anson and is in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth. She lived mostly in England in her final years and died from pneumonia in 1971 at the age of 82 in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

Filmography Year Title Role Note1913 The Eleventh Commandment Edith Short1914 Danny Donovan, the Gentleman Cracksman Mrs. Ashworth Short1916 The Real Thing at Last American Witch Short1917 The Sorrows of Satan Lady Sybil Elton Masks and Faces Mabel Vane My Lady's Dress The Wife 1920 Unmarried 1921 Headin' North Madge Mullin 1922 The Bohemian Girl Arlene Arnheim 1923 Bonnie Prince Charlie Flora MacDonald Lost film1934 The Iron DukeDuchess d'Angoulême1940 Rebecca Beatrice Lacy Maxim's sisterKitty Foyle Mrs. Strafford 1941 That Hamilton Woman Frances, Lady Nelson The Black Cat Myrna Hartley A Yank in the R.A.F. Mrs. Pillby (scenes deleted)The Gay Falcon Maxine Wood 1942 This Above All Iris Cathaway Eagle Squadron Aunt Emmeline Now, Voyager Mrs. Henry Vale Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress1943 Forever and a Day Mrs. Barringer Mr. Lucky Captain Veronica Steadman Princess O'Rourke Miss Haskell The Song of Bernadette Sister Marie Therese Vauzou Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress1944 The White Cliffs of Dover Lady Jean Ashwood Mrs. Parkington Alice, Duchess de Brancourt 1945 The Valley of Decision Clarissa Scott Love Letters Beatrice Remington 1946 The Green Years Grandma Leckie Beware of Pity Mrs. Klara Condor The Cockeyed Miracle Amy Griggs 1947Green Dolphin Street Sophie Patourel The Bishop's Wife Mrs. Hamilton 1948 Homecoming Mrs. Kirby The Pirate Aunt Inez 1949 The Secret Garden Mrs. Medlock Madame Bovary Madame Dupuis 1951 Thunder on the Hill Mother Superior 1952 At Sword's Point Queen Anne 1955 The Man Who Loved Redheads Caroline, Lady Binfield 1957 Alfred Hitchcock Presents Mrs. Margarite Gillespie Season 2 Episode 22: "The End of Indian Summer"1958 Separate Tables Mrs. Railton-Bell 1962 The Twilight Zone Wanda Dunn 1 episode: "Nothing in the Dark"1963 The List of Adrian Messenger Mrs. Karoudjian Going My Way Mrs. Arnold Sedgewick 1 episodeThe Twilight Zone Millie McKenzie 1 episode: "Passage on the Lady Anne"Pygmalion Mrs. Higgins TV movieBurke's Law Harriet Richards 1 episodeThe Outer Limits Mrs. Palmer 1 episode: "The Borderland"The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Mrs. Raydon Season 1 Episode 16: "What Really Happened"1964 My Fair Lady Mrs. Higgins Nominated: Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour Laura Season 3 Episode 11: "Consider Her Ways"The Twilight Zone Elva Keene 1 episode: "Night Call"The Rogues Margaret St. Clair 25 episodes; nominated: Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievements in Entertainment – Actors and Performers1965 Emergency – Ward 10 Sister McInnes 4 episodesBen Casey Dr. Hagar Brandt 1 episode1966 The Girl from U.N.C.L.E Mama Rosh 1 episode: "The Romany Lie Affair"1967 The Happiest Millionaire Aunt Mary Adam Adamant Lives! Grand Duchess Vorokhov 1 episode: "Black Echo" Callan Dr. Schultz 1 episode: "Goodness Burns Too Bright"1969 A Nice Girl Like Me Aunt Mary 1970 The Great Inimitable Mr. Dickens Mrs. Ternan TV movie1971 The Doctors Harriet Vey 8 episodes1972 The Persuaders! Grand Duchess Ozerov 1 episode: "The Ozerov Inheritance" (final appearance)