Melville Cooper

George Melville Cooper was born on 15 October 1896 in Aston, Birmingham, Warwickshire, to W.C.J. and Frances Cooper. He attended King Edward's School in Birmingham and developed an interest in acting during his teenage years, making his professional stage debut at Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of eighteen. His early career was interrupted by military service in a Scottish regiment during the First World War, during which he was captured on the Western Front and held as a prisoner of war by the Germans.

Following the war, Cooper returned to the stage and appeared in productions including The Farmer's Wife, Back to Methuselah, The Third Finger, and Journey's End. He moved into film work in the early 1930s, appearing in Black Coffee (1931) alongside Austin Trevor and Adrianne Allen, Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon, and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon. Positive notices for his performance in The Private Life of Don Juan led Cooper to relocate to the United States in 1934.

In Hollywood, Cooper was frequently cast as snobbish or ineffectual society figures and confidence tricksters. Among his notable 1930s screen appearances were M. W. Picard in The Great Garrick (1937) with Olivia de Havilland, Bingham the butler in Four's a Crowd (1938) with Errol Flynn and de Havilland, Boulin in Dramatic School alongside Luise Rainer and Paulette Goddard, and the cowardly High Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), again opposite Flynn and de Havilland. During the 1940s, Cooper appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) with Joan Fontaine, Pride and Prejudice (1940) as Mr. Collins alongside Greer Garson, The Lady Eve (1941) and You Belong to Me (1941) with Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda, This Above All (1942) with Joan Fontaine, Random Harvest (1942) with Greer Garson, Henry Hathaway's 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) with James Cagney, The Red Danube (1949) with Walter Pidgeon, and Harvey with James Stewart.

His film work continued into the 1950s with Father of the Bride (1950), in which he played wedding-rehearsal supervisor Mr. Tringle, It Should Happen to You (1954), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), his second supporting role in an Academy Award-winning film. Throughout the decade Cooper also appeared extensively on television, with credits including Musical Comedy Time (1950–51), Fireside Theatre (1951), Kraft Television Theatre (1952), Robert Montgomery Presents (1952–53), Broadway Television Theatre (1952–53), Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1954), Lux Video Theatre (1951–55), The Red Skelton Show (1956), Studio 57 (1957), Playhouse 90 (1957), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957), Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958), and Whirlybirds (1959). His final television appearance was on The Best of the Post in 1961.

Cooper's Broadway career spanned from 1935 to 1970 and included productions such as After Tomorrow, Gypsy Lady, The Liars, Much Ado About Everything, and Hostile Witness. In the latter portion of his career he concentrated increasingly on stage work, appearing in The Liar (1950), Much Ado About Nothing (1952), Escapade (1953), My Fair Lady (1956–62), and Hostile Witness (1966). His final acting role was Brassett in a revival of Charley's Aunt, which closed on 11 July 1970.

Cooper was married three times. A brief first marriage to Gladys Grice ended in divorce. His second wife, actress Rita Page, died in London on 19 December 1954; their marriage produced one child. His third marriage, to Elizabeth Sutherland, lasted until his death. Cooper died of cancer on 13 March 1973 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of seventy-six.