Gary Cooper’s Death – Cause and Date
The movie actor Gary Cooper died at the age of 60. Here is all you want to know, and more!
Biography - A Short Wiki
Actor who received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and won the award for his roles in High Noon (1952) and Sergeant York (1941). He also played roles in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Pride of the Yankees, and City Streets.
He married famous socialite Veronica Balfe in 1933. The couple had a daughter together named Maria Cooper.
Death
An aggressive form of cancer had metastasized to his colon. For this reason, Cooper underwent surgery on April 14, 1960, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
In early June 1960, Cooper underwent surgery at Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles to remove a malignant tumor from his large intestine.
Cooper spent the summer recuperating and went on vacation with his family to the south of France.
Despite his illness, he traveled to the UK in the fall to star in the thriller film The Naked Edge, and in December he worked on the NBC television documentary The Real West.
However, on December 1960, his wife Veronica learned from their family doctor that Cooper’s cancer had spread to his lungs and bones and was inoperable. But this information was withheld from Cooper by his family for the time being.
On January 9, 1961, Cooper attended a dinner given in his honor and hosted by Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Many of his friends from his industry attended the dinner. At the end of the dinner, Cooper gave a speech where he concluded “The only achievement I’m proud of is the friends I’ve made in this community.”
Cooper finally learned about his pending doom on February 27, 1961. “We’ll pray for a miracle; but if not, and that’s God’s will, that’s all right, too.”, he later said to his family.
Cooper’s last public statement on May 4, 1961, went “I know that what is happening is God’s will. I am not afraid of the future.”
The actor received the last rites on Friday, May 12, 1961, and died quietly the next day.
Requiem
On May 18, 1961, a requiem was held at the Church of the Good Shepherd. Among those attending were friends like Audrey Hepburn, Jack Benny, Joel McCrea, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Fred Astaire, Randolph Scott, Walter Pidgeon, Marlene Dietrich, and Bob Hope.
Burial
Cooper was first buried in the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. On May 1974, he was reburied in Sacred Hearts Cemetery, Southampton, New York when his family relocated.
Quotes
""In Westerns you were permitted to kiss your horse but never your girl."
""I looked it at like this way. To get folks to like you, as a screen player I mean, I figured you had to sort of be their ideal. I don't mean a handsome knight riding a white horse, but a fella who answered the description of a right guy."
""The only achievement I am really proud of is the friends I have made in this community."