Claude Cooper (actor) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Claude Cooper
Still from Daughter of Kings, 1915
Born	Claude Hamilton Cooper (1880-09-04)September 4, 1880 London, England
Died	July 20, 1932(1932-07-20) (aged 51) Laurelton, New York, US
Occupation	actor, comedian
Years active	1889–1931
Spouse(s)	Antoinette Cooper

Claude Hamilton Cooper (born September 4, 1880 – died July 20, 1932) was a talented actor from England and America. He was known for playing many different types of characters on stage, in movies, and on the radio.

Claude Cooper's Life and Acting Career

Early Life and Stage Beginnings

Claude Cooper was born in London, England, in 1880. His dad was a stage manager, and his mom was an actress. It's said that Claude first appeared on stage when he was just 18 months old! He was held in his mother's arms during a show called Castle Grim in Dublin.

When he was eight, his family moved to the United States. Soon after, he acted in an American play called Silver King in 1889. Claude worked a lot in American theater groups, including those run by Russ Whytal and Charles Dillingham. By the time he passed away, he had performed in 538 different character and comedy roles on Broadway. His first big success was in 1903 as the General in a play called Checkers. This play was very popular and ran for three years on Broadway before touring around the country.

Moving to Movies and Radio

Claude Cooper started his movie career around 1908. He helped make early sound films for a company called Gaumont. These films were short songs and comedy acts. This early type of sound movie wasn't very successful in the United States.

Cooper in an advertisement for A Perplexing Pickle Puzzle, 1915

Gaumont stopped making movies in America in 1910. Their studio then became home to Solax Studios, a new company making silent films. Claude Cooper was hired by Solax and even directed their first twelve movies!

He acted in silent films for many different companies on the East Coast. However, he worked the longest with the Thanhouser Film Corporation from 1914 to 1917. He mostly acted for them, but sometimes he directed too. For example, he appeared in Thanhouser's The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1915. At Thanhouser, he also teamed up with Frank E. McNish to form a comedy duo called "Oscar and Conrad."

In the 1920s, Claude Cooper was a very busy actor in New York theaters. Every year from 1917 until his death in 1932, he appeared on Broadway. He often played interesting characters like chauffeurs, mayors, sheriffs, or people from the countryside.

In 1930, he started acting on the radio. He played Pegleg Gladdis, the leader of a hillbilly family, in a radio show called Moonshine and Honeysuckle. This show was broadcast on Sunday afternoons.

Cast of the NBC radio series Moonshine and Honeysuckle, 1931. Left to right: (standing) Cooper, Ann Elstner, Gerald Stopp (production manager), Lula Vollmer, Jeannie Begg, John Milton, Louis Mason; (seated) Ann Sutherland and Sara Haden.

Claude Cooper's last movie was in 1932. It was called The Struggle, and it was the last film directed by the famous D. W. Griffith.

Movies Claude Cooper Appeared In

Here are some of the movies Claude Cooper acted in:

• The Nightingale (1914)
• The Country Girl (1915)
• The Garden of Lies (1915)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1915)
• The Woman in White (1917)
• My Own United States (1918)
• A Heart to Let (1921)
• Daughters of the Night (1924)
• The Struggle (1931)