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Jackie Cooper, legendary child actor who starred in the "Our Gang" comedies and later became a highly-respected television director, has died at the age of 88.
His life story is the stuff of legend. His musician father walked out for cigarettes one night when Jackie was still an infant, and never came back. His relatives were greedy, star-struck, and the worst kind of stage parents. When he was three years old, his grandmother dragged him to a movie studio and pushed him in front of producer after producer until Jackie was finally cast as an extra. He earned $2 a day, plus a box lunch. His mother, a singer, taught him music, and soon he was getting singing parts at the age of six.
Directors quickly recognized his immense talent, prodigious memory, and mischievious personality. In 1929, at the age of seven, director Leo McCarey cast him in his first "Our Gang" comedy. He was signed to a $1,300-a-week contract, and appeared in a total of 15 "Our Gang" shorts over the next three years. In 1931, the Hal Roach Studios loaned him to Paramount, where he starred in the boy-and-his-dog tear-jerked Skippy. It was directed by his uncle, Norman Taurog. In one scene, Cooper couldn't cry convincingly. Taurog dragged Cooper's dog off the set, and had him "shot" off-stage. A gun with blanks and a sound-effect of a howling dog convinced the 10-year-old boy that his dog had been purposefully killed. Weeping uncontrollably, Cooper was forced back in front of the cameras and had to do the scene. Later, he was given his dog back -- alive and well.
Cooper was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He didn't win, but he remains the youngest person ever nominated for a competitive award. His salary was raised to $2,000 a week.
He made The Champ in 1931 as well, and his on-screen chemistry with co-star Wallace Beery made audiences flock to the film about a drunken fighter risking his life so he can obtain custody of his son. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Beery won the Oscar for Best Actor (sharing the prize with Fredric March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), and Francis Marion for Best Story. Cooper and Beery teamed up for a series of pictures, which included The Bowery in 1933, The Choices of Andy Purcell in 1933, Treasure Island in 1934, and O'Shaughnessy's Boy in 1935.
But the on-screen chemistry stayed right there. "I really disliked him," Cooper said of Beery. And Beery returned the sentiment, barely speaking to or interacting with Cooper. "He always made me feel uncomfortable," Cooper later said, and declared that Beery treated him like an "unkept dog".
Unable to find work as he entered adolescence, Cooper's career hit rock-bottom. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and became a Navy musician (entertaining troops and performing at official events).
He found work in television in the 1950s, starring in the sitcoms The People's Choice and Hennesey. He took a production job with Screen Gems, the television production arm of Columbia Pictures. He quickly showed business acumen as well as a nose of hits. He developed Bewitched and helped launch it on TV, and cast Sally Field in the lead in the hit series Gidget. He also brought The Donna Reed Show, Hazel, and Days of Our Lives to television.
In the 1970s, he moved into directing. He won an Emmy award for directing M*A*S*H in 1974, and The White Shadow in 1979. He also directed several episodes of McMillan & Wife, Quincy, and The Rockford Files.
In 1979, he returned to acting in motion pictures. Richard Donner cast him as Perry White in the smash hit film Superman after Keenan Wynn (who'd already gotten the part) had a heart attack and could not travel to France to film his scenes.
Cooper published a famous autobiography, Please Don't Shoot My Dog, in 1982. It documented his traumatic childhood in motion pictures, and revealed that Cooper struggled with alcoholism for many years. He also discussed his many years of psychotherapy, which he required due to the post-traumatic stress syndrome he suffered after his experiences as a child actor.
Cooper directed several episodes of the syndicated television series Superboy in the late 1980s. He announced his retirement in 1989, although he continued to give interviews and attend retrospectives of his work.
In 1951, while driving across the desert Southwest, Cooper met his father, Jack Cooper, Sr. He'd stopped at a lonely small-town gas station, only to discover that his father was the local mechanic. According to the attendant, Cooper Sr. was always talking about his famous son, exhibited great pride in his work, and had many pictures of him in his apartment. Jackie Jr. refused to meet with his father. He got back into his car, and drove off.