Cooper's father, John Cooper, left the family when Jackie was two years old.
35 Facts About Jackie Cooper
2.
Jackie Cooper's mother, Mabel Leonard Bigelow, was a stage pianist.
3.
Jackie Cooper's mother was Italian American ; Cooper was told by his family that his father was Jewish.
4.
Jackie Cooper first appeared in films as an extra with his grandmother, who took him to her auditions hoping it would help her get extra work.
5.
At age three, Jackie Cooper appeared in Lloyd Hamilton comedies under the name of "Leonard".
6.
Jackie Cooper graduated to bit parts in feature films such as Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 and Sunny Side Up.
7.
In 1929, Jackie Cooper signed a three-year contract after joining the series in the short Boxing Gloves.
8.
Jackie Cooper initially was cast as a supporting character, but by the early 1930 his success in transitioning to sound films enabled him to become one of Our Gang's major characters, called Jackie in the series, replacing Harry Spear, who left after his contract expired.
9.
Jackie Cooper was the main character in the 1930 entries The First Seven Years and When the Wind Blows.
10.
At age nine, Jackie Cooper was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, the youngest actor to be nominated for an Oscar in that category.
11.
Jackie Cooper was in great demand, resulting in Roach selling the actor's contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1931.
12.
Jackie Cooper acted with Wallace Beery in The Champ ; a wittily comedic romp titled The Bowery with George Raft, Fay Wray and Pert Kelton; Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island with Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone and Nigel Bruce; and a father-son circus story about a one-armed animal trainer titled O'Shaughnessy's Boy.
13.
Jackie Cooper played the lead role in the first two Henry Aldrich films, What a Life and Life with Henry.
14.
Jackie Cooper served in the US Navy during World War II, remaining in the reserves until 1982, retiring at the rank of captain and receiving the Legion of Merit.
15.
Jackie Cooper starred in two television sitcoms, NBC's The People's Choice with Patricia Breslin and as the title character in CBS's Hennessy with Abby Dalton.
16.
Jackie Cooper appeared on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, guest-starred with Tennessee Ernie Ford on NBC's The Ford Show as America's Uranium King, and as Charles A Steen in "I Found 60 Million Dollars" on the Armstrong Circle Theatre.
17.
In 1950, Jackie Cooper was cast in a production of Mr Roberts in Boston, Massachusetts in the role of Ensign Pulver.
18.
From 1964 to 1969, Jackie Cooper was vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures Screen Gems TV division.
19.
Jackie Cooper was responsible for packaging series such as Bewitched and selling them to the networks.
20.
In 1964, Jackie Cooper appeared in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone episode "Caesar and Me", and in 1968 a made-for-television film Shadow on the Land.
21.
Jackie Cooper appeared in the fourth season of Hawaii Five-O in an episode called The Burning Ice.
22.
Jackie Cooper guest-starred in a 1978 two-part episode of The Rockford Files: The House on Willis Avenue.
23.
Jackie Cooper served in the United States Navy during World War II and remained active in the Naval Reserve for the next several decades, reaching the rank of captain.
24.
Jackie Cooper was married to June Horne from 1944 until 1949, with whom he had a son, John "Jack" Cooper, III, who was born in 1946.
25.
Jackie Cooper was married to Hildy Parks from 1950 until 1951, and to Barbara Rae Kraus from 1954 until her death in 2009.
26.
Jackie Cooper and Kraus had three children, Russell, born in 1956, Julie, born in 1957, and Cristina, born in 1959.
27.
Jackie Cooper participated in several automobile racing events, including the record-breaking class D cars at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
28.
Jackie Cooper was named the honorary starter for the 1976 Winston 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway, which is known as Talladega Superspeedway, in Talladega, Alabama.
29.
The title refers to an incident during the filming of Skippy, when Norman Taurog, who was the director, needed Jackie Cooper to cry a number of times on camera.
30.
The stunt resulted in genuine tears; Jackie Cooper afterwards discovered his dog was in fact fine.
31.
Jackie Cooper announced his retirement in 1989, although he continued directing episodes of the syndicated series Superboy.
32.
Jackie Cooper lived in Beverly Hills from 1955 until his death.
33.
Jackie Cooper died on May 3,2011, of natural causes, in Santa Monica, California.
34.
Jackie Cooper outlived both his daughters and wife, Barbara Rae Kraus.
35.
Jackie Cooper was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in honor of his naval service.