#old stars
Being a child star may sound like a dream come true. But when Jackie Cooper became an adult, he quickly saw everything that he missed out on. “I don’t think our success as child actors is ever an advantage. It’s actually against us,” Cooper said in an interview. Starting out as an actor at age 7 in 1929, Jackie Cooper was a star by 1931 after the release of SKIPPY (’31). SKIPPY not only solidified Cooper as a star, but also proved he could tug at heartstrings when he turned on the tears. The role earned him an Oscar nomination and the distinction of being the youngest actor to do so until 1979.
With blonde hair, chubby cheeks and a pout, Cooper was dubbed “America’s Boy.” And though his characters seemed like the all-American child of the 1930s, Cooper’s home life was anything but. When he was two years old, his father John Cooper went out for a pack of cigarettes and never returned home. His mother Mabel became the financial supporter, traveling as an entertainer, while Cooper’s grandmother, Nonnie, took care of him. Cooper was not fond of Nonnie, according to his autobiography, but she is the reason he began acting. Because they were poor and Mabel was the only source of income, Nonnie and Cooper would seek work as movie extras — receiving $2 and a boxed lunch per day.
When Cooper became a successful child actor, money was no longer an issue at home. But he was under tremendous pressure. “The pressure to get the scene right, to learn the words, to act this way or that way, to smile or cry or look scared for the cameraman, to do a nice interview. The responsibility to work correctly for the director who tells you that if you don’t do a good job, he may get fired and he has three little babies at home who need to be fed,” Cooper wrote in his autobiography. He was often told to “be nice” and when Nonnie was on set, she held over him that his mother was ill. However, as a child, Cooper thought he was happy. It was as an adult that he described himself as a “child who grows up empty and doesn’t realize it until it’s too late.”
“Later people tried to rationalize to me that I had gained more than I had lost by being a child star … But no amount of rationalization, no excuses, can make up for what a kid loses — what I lost — when a normal childhood is abandoned for an early movie career,” Cooper wrote.
Cooper also didn’t have basic life skills, which he soon realized after Mabel died when he was 19. While he had money and career experience, he had no friends, didn’t receive an adequate education and had trouble reading as an adult because he wasn’t properly trained. But most of all, Cooper was given no advice on money or finances. “Child stars aren’t taught anything about money, and that is one of the unsung tragedies of the child star trade,” Cooper wrote in his autobiography. As a child, Cooper was given an allowance by his mother, and after Mabel died, Cooper’s uncle, director Norman Taurog, handled Cooper’s finances — even after he was married and while he fought in World War II. Cooper was given a checkbook and never knew the balance of his account.
Cooper said the war made him grow up, and he credited his last wife, Barbara, for giving him life experiences he never had before he met her. As an adult, Cooper continued to act and also direct. Because of his own experiences, Cooper didn’t like to work with children. “They should be roughhousing,” he said. “They should not be made to drain themselves.”
