Chris Cooper Biography

Chris Cooper is an American film actor. He has appeared in several major Hollywood films in supporting performances. Few of these films includes; the drama American Beauty (1999), the biopic about a NASA engineer titled October Sky (1999) and the action spy film The Bourne Identity (2002)

Other notable films includes the biographical sports film Seabiscuit (2003), the biographical film about Truman Capote, Capote (2005), the geopolitical thriller Syriana (2005), the action-thriller The Kingdom (2007), the crime drama The Town (2010), and the musical comedy film The Muppets (2011).

Chris in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove he portrayed Sheriff July Johnson, which became one of the most successful Westerns in history.

In the 2002 film Adaptation he won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Chris  played a lead role in the historical and political thriller Breach (2007), playing FBI agent and traitor Robert Hanssen.

He played Daniel Sloan in the 2012 political action thriller The Company You Keep, and supervillain Norman Osborn in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). He also portrayed Al Templeton on the 2016 Hulu miniseries 11.22.63.

He is a frequent collaborator with director John Sayles, including Matewan (1987), City of Hope (1991), Lone Star (1996), Silver City (2004) and Amigo (2010).

Chris Cooper Age

Chris was born on July 9, 1951 in Kansas City, Missouri. He is 67 years old as of 2018.

Chris Cooper Family

Cooper was born on July 9, 1951, in Kansas City, Missouri. He is the son of Charles and Mary Ann (Walton) Cooper.  Chris has an older brother known as Chuck Cooper  who was born in 1948 . His father Charles was both a United States Air Force doctor and a cattleman, while his mother was a housewife.  His parents were Both from Texas.

He grew up in the suburbs of Kansas City, and spent his summers at his family’s cattle ranch, located about 15 miles west of Leavenworth, Kansas. Chris was also raised in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Houston.  He went to  high school in Kansas City and while he was in school he worked for a local theater company: “I had a background in carpentry, so I could build sets and work in the wings and shift scenes in the evening.”

After  graduating from high school, he became the shop foreman for another repertory group. Chris also considered helping his father raise cattle for a living. He  avoided getting drafted to serve in the Vietnam War following a stint in the Missouri River Coast Guard.

Chris Cooper Wife

In 1979 Chris met his future wife, Marianne Leone, at an acting class in New York City.  On their first date, Marianne helped him carry sheet rock up eight flights of stairs: “That’s when I knew this was the girl for me.” Chris said.  The couple married in July 1983.  Their son, Jesse Lanier Cooper, was born in October 1987 when he was three months premature.

Chris Cooper Son

Three days after Cooper’s son  was born, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and developed cerebral palsy.  Eventually Jesse was mainstreamed into Silver Lake Regional High School, where he became an honor student.

In a 2003 interview with The Morning Call Cooper recalled , “(Jesse) is the best thing that ever happened to us. He’s in a wheelchair and he communicates only by computer, but he’s taught me so much because he’s just so incredibly focused. Now he’s in a regular school, which we fought to get him into. He’s an honors student, and he’s doing great.”

Jesse Cooper died suddenly and unexpectedly from epilepsy on January 3, 2005. A memorial fund was set up in his name, the Jesse Cooper Foundation.  Cooper has said that the death of his son has somewhat helped him understand several characters he played, such as Charles Aiken in August: Osage County (2013)  and Phil Eastwood in Demolition (2015).

Chris Cooper Net Worth

Chris has an estimated net worth of $10 million.

Chris Cooper Movies

Chris Cooper Oscar

In 2003 he won Oscar for  Best Supporting Actor
in Adaptation (2002).

Chris Cooper Adaptation

Adaptation is a 2002  comedy-drama metafilm. It is directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman. The film is based on Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, with numerous self-referential events added, and stars Nicolas Cage as Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald, Meryl Streep as Orlean, and Chris Cooper as John Laroche, with Cara Seymour, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston, and Maggie Gyllenhaal in supporting roles.