Book description
'Cooper was heroic, of course, in his own mind as much as in his
scripts. He was manly, tall, ruggedly handsome. He was a man for a fight.'
On screen he was the ultimate all-American hero: lean, laconic and
masculine, a lone sheriff battling his enemies in High Noon, or
a tough individualist in The Fountainhead. Off screen he bedded
a host of leading ladies and carefully honed his image, making
hundreds of movies and winning two Oscars in the process. Acclaimed
film writer David Thomson explores the career and the contradictions
of 'Coop', the star who lived the dream in the golden age of Hollywood.
David Thomson is, among many other things, author of
The New
Biographical Dictionary of Film
, now in its fourth edition. His recent books include a biography of
Nicole Kidman,
Fan Tan
(a novel written in collaboration with Marlon Brando) and
The Whole
Equation: A History of Hollywood
. His latest work is the acclaimed
Have You Seen...? A Personal
Introduction to 1,000 Films
. Born in London, he now lives in San Francisco.
