Amazon.com: The Last Hero: A Biography of Gary Cooper (9780385143165): Larry Swindell: Books

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1980

This book is the life of film maker Gary Cooper and what happened to him.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } This book is the life of film maker Gary Cooper and what happened to him.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If Kaminsky (above) is the Cooper book for film buffs, this routine, often tediously detailed biography will probably be preferred by starstruck fans who'd rather not get down in the dirt with Hector Arce's Gary Cooper (p. 1230). Swindell takes extraordinary, unilluminating pains with Coop's early years ("Frank was an infant of especially pleasant disposition. . ."), and when the athletic amours come along, he gives them reasonable emphasis, passing on the graphic innuendos with a wry wit rather than Arce's breathy voyeurism. (Only occasionally does this get out of hand - as in some apparently baseless speculation on Cooper's relationship with costar Ingrid Bergman; but, like Kaminsky, Swindell declines to explore those rampant rumors of Coop's sometime bisexuality.) However, once Cooper has been launched into full-fledged stardom - and marriage - there's little essential difference between Swindell's and Kaminsky's approaches; Swindell tends to be a bit less reverent about Coop's performances and a bit more prone to digress into background info on Coop's director and actor colleagues. Interview-wise, Swindell doesn't perhaps do as well as Kaminsky: he has no substantial new words from Patricia Neal and relies rather overmuch on the bland reminiscences of Jack Oakie. But Cooper fans determined to read a surface star bio - no matter how dull - will find this a stolid, inoffensive frame-by-frame from the author of Spencer Tracy and other journeyman Hollywood lives. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.