AllMovie

This documentary profiles the life and acting career of Gary Cooper. Cooper played the quintessential Western hero: brave, ready, taciturn, stoic, and true. The program shows how this carefully cultivated image stood in contrast to the sophisticated private life of the star, who traded in his Montana ranch roots for Hollywood glamour. Archival film footage shows Cooper at his best in performances in The Westerner, A Farewell to Arms, and High Noon, for which he won his second Academy Award for Best Actor. News footage, photographs, and interviews with colleagues, friends, and family (including his daughter) give an intimate look at the tall hero of the American Western.