Jackie Cooper dies at 88

Posted by Petrow Kovaky On Friday, May 6th 2011 in Movies

Some know him as the Oscar-nominated child others as a TV executive and director who amassed scores of acting credits — including playing Perry White in the four Christopher Reeve Superman films. His name was Jackie Cooper and has passed away today, at 88 years old.

Cooper died at a convalescent home in Santa Monica. “He just kinda died of old age,” his attorney Roger Licht told Reuters. “He wore out.”

Cooper was proud of his 60 years old acting career. Before Shirley Temple became famous, he was the most popular and widely recognized child star of the early 1930s and the first kid to shine in “talkies.” Cooper was so popular, he was known as “America’s Boy.”

His uncle, director Norman Taurog, cast him in the title role of Skippy in 1931 which got him a best actor Academy Award nomination for the film. He was the first child to receive such a nomination and the youngest to be nominated for an Oscar. A sequel followed soon after in the form of Sooky.

The movies raised Cooper’s popularity, and he went on to star opposite Wallace Beery in three films: The Champ (1931), playing the son of Beery’s fallen boxer; The Bowery (1933), as Beery’s foe; and Treasure Island (1934), in which he limned Jim Hawkins to Beery’s Long John Silver. Unfortunately, despite their magical chemistry on screen, Beery hated the young actor.

Despite his popular childhood, he had a rough time in his teen period. However, as he matured so did his roles and played in films such as Syncopation and Magnolia Alley. For a period during the 1960s, Cooper thrived as a TV executive. He continued to direct for TV throughout the 1970s and ’80s, winning a pair of Emmys for helming M*A*S*H and The White Shadow.

He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.