A surprising bit of my childhood disappeared into the great misty beyond last week…and I only discovered the fact tonight, after accidentally tuning into TCM and seeing a promo for an upcoming film tribute evening.
Jackie Cooper was well known as one of Hollywood’s most famous child stars. He was one of the “Little Rascals” in the Our Gang films. He stole the show as the weepy kid in the boxing film The Champ. He held the title of youngest Academy Award nominee for over thirty years. He had an affair at the age of 17 with a much older Joan Crawford. He moved into producing and directing, and won an Emmy Award for directing a second season episode of the legendary war sitcom MASH.
In every way, he was a child of the Hollywood golden age…and an even more impressive survivor of such an historically disastrous group. But to me, he will always be Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet, in the Christopher Reeve Superman films. He was a crusty comic genius in a role he took as a last-minute replacement…and to this day, the idea that someone else could possibly play Perry White is as impossible to contemplate as someone else filling Christoper Reeve’s shoes as Superman. The role of Perry White deservedly returned Jackie Cooper to the limelight, after being forgotten for so long.
You can read a bio-obit HERE at the Globe & Mail website…but I’ll stick with my rosy memories of a blustering, growling man, patiently explaining how Lois Lane could get an interview with a hydrogen bomb, and title it “what makes me tick”.
