Chris Cooper

Christopher Walton Cooper was born on July 9, 1951, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Charles Cooper, a United States Air Force doctor and cattleman, and Mary Ann (Walton) Cooper, a housewife, both of whom were originally from Texas. He has an older brother, Chuck Cooper, born in 1948. Growing up in the Kansas City suburbs, Cooper spent summers at the family's cattle ranch approximately fifteen miles west of Leavenworth, Kansas. His father's Air Force career brought the family to Las Vegas, Nevada, Phoenix, Arizona, and Houston, Texas at various points during his childhood. While attending Southwest High School in Kansas City, Cooper worked for a local theater company, drawing on his carpentry background to build sets, work in the wings, and shift scenes. After graduating, he became shop foreman for a repertory company and also considered a future in cattle ranching alongside his father. He additionally served in the Coast Guard Reserve.

Cooper enrolled at the University of Missouri, initially majoring in set design before switching to acting during his sophomore year, a change he later attributed to a desire to overcome what he described as an overpowering shyness. He also took dance classes at Stephens College. After graduating, he relocated to New York City in 1976, sharing a one-bedroom railroad flat with four other aspiring actors and dancers while supporting himself through apartment renovation, construction work, and jobs as a janitor and chauffeur. During this period he studied with Stella Adler and Wynn Handman. In the years before his film debut, Cooper built his stage foundation with the Actors Theater of Louisville and the Seattle Repertory. In 1985 he appeared in the London revival of Sweet Bird of Youth, and in 1989 he played Ty Cobb in Cobb at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Cooper's Broadway career spanned from 1980 to 2017. His stage credits include Of the Fields, Lately and a starring role in A Doll's House. His most prominent Broadway appearance came in 2017, when he and Laurie Metcalf starred in A Doll's House, Part 2, Lucas Hnath's play based on Henrik Ibsen's original work. Cooper played Torvald, Nora Helmer's husband, and the performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.

His screen career began with John Sayles's 1987 film Matewan, the first of several collaborations with the director that would also include City of Hope (1991), Lone Star (1996), Silver City (2004), and Amigo (2010). Cooper reached a broad television audience in 1989 when he played Sheriff July Johnson in the CBS Western miniseries Lonesome Dove. His film work through the 1990s included the role of Deputy Dwayne Looney in Joel Schumacher's A Time to Kill (1996), based on the John Grisham novel, and a leading role as a Texas sheriff in Lone Star (1996). He played Frank Booker in The Horse Whisperer (1998) and portrayed a closeted, homophobic Marine Corps colonel in American Beauty (1999), a performance that brought him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In 2000 he appeared as Colonel Harry Burwell in The Patriot.

The role of orchid poacher John Laroche in Adaptation (2002) proved a turning point, earning Cooper the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, along with additional Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA nominations. That same year he appeared in The Bourne Identity as a ruthless CIA special operations director, a role he reprised in flashback sequences in The Bourne Supremacy. His 2003 supporting turn as racehorse trainer Tom Smith in Seabiscuit brought another Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. In 2004 he starred in Silver City as an inept Republican gubernatorial candidate widely noted for resemblances to President George W. Bush.

Three acclaimed films occupied Cooper in 2005: Jarhead, Capote, and Syriana. He then took the lead role in the 2007 political thriller Breach, playing real-life FBI agent and traitor Robert Hanssen, a film he identified as the first studio production in which he was considered the lead actor. Also in 2007 he appeared in the action thriller The Kingdom, and in 2009 he provided a voice in the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. In 2011 he played antagonist Tex Richman in The Muppets, performing the rap and dance number "Let's Talk About Me." He portrayed Charles Aiken, Sr. in August: Osage County (2013) alongside Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, and played Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). He appeared in an uncredited role in Ben Affleck's Live by Night (2016) and portrayed Al Templeton in the 2016 Hulu miniseries 11.22.63. In 2019 he appeared in two widely praised films: Marielle Heller's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, with Tom Hanks, and Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women, featuring an ensemble that included Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, and Meryl Streep.

In addition to his Academy Award and Golden Globe, Cooper's accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, an Independent Spirit Award, three Satellite Awards, and the Tony Award. Cooper met his wife, actress Marianne Leone, in 1979 at an acting class in New York City.