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Wyatt Emory Cooper | |
|---|---|
 Cooper in 1970 | |
| Born | (1927-09-01)September 1, 1927 |
| Died | January 5, 1978(1978-01-05) (aged 50) New York City, U.S. |
| Burial place | Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum |
| Education | University of California at Los Angeles |
| Occupations | Author, screenwriter, and actor |
| Years active | 1950–1975 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, including Anderson Cooper |
Wyatt Emory Cooper (September 1, 1927 – January 5, 1978) was an American author, screenwriter, and actor. He was the fourth husband of Vanderbilt family heiress and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and the father of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.[1]
Life and career
Cooper had his childhood in Pleasant Grove, Mississippi, United States.[2] Cooper was from a poor family with deep Southern roots, and later moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, as a young child. He graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he majored in theater arts and began a career in acting.[3]
In his thirties, Cooper lived in Los Angeles, attended both UCLA and UC Berkeley, and worked as a screenwriter. While residing in West Hollywood, then an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, Cooper lived near Dorothy Parker and her husband Alan Campbell. A close friendship developed, and a year after Parker's death in 1967, Cooper published an incisive and widely read profile in Esquire magazine, titled, "Whatever You Think Dorothy Parker Was Like, She Wasn't".[4]
His writing includes the 1962 film The Chapman Report, the 1972 film The Glass House, and the 1975 book Families: A Memoir and a Celebration.[5]
Personal life
On December 24, 1963, he married heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, becoming her fourth husband. The couple frequently appeared on the national "best-dressed" list.[3] They had two sons: Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (1965–1988)[6] and Anderson Hays Cooper (born 1967), who is an anchor for CNN.[7]
Cooper wrote in his 1975 memoir, "It is in the family that we learn almost all we ever know of loving. In my sons' youth, their promise, their possibilities, my stake in immortality is invested." He died in Manhattan on January 5, 1978, at age 50, during open heart surgery, after having a heart attack the previous December.[3]
References
- ^ Wyatt Cooper at IBDB
- ^ Barnwell, Marion (1997). A Place Called Mississippi: Collected Narratives. University Press of Mississippi. p. 276. ISBN 9781617033391. - Read online from Google Books
- ^ a b c Kleiman, Dena (January 6, 1978). "Wyatt Cooper Dies; Screenplay Writer" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
- ^ Cooper, Wyatt. "Whatever You Think Dorothy Parker Was Like, She Wasn't." Esquire. July 1968. pp. 56–61, 110–14
- ^ Wyatt Cooper Dies; Screenplay Writer, The New York Times, Section B, Page 13, January 6, 1978
- ^ "Ms. Vanderbilt's Son Plunges to His Death". The New York Times. July 23, 1988. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
- ^ Dowd, Kathy Ehrich (March 31, 2016). "How Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt Coped After the Suicide of Their Beloved Brother and Son, Carter Cooper". People. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
Written works
- Families: A Memoir and a Celebration (Harper & Row, 1975) ISBN 0-06-010857-6
External links
- Wyatt Emory Cooper at IMDb (as Wyatt Cooper)
- Wyatt Emory Cooper at the Internet Broadway Database (as Wyatt Cooper)
