This Military Service Page was created/owned by
A3C Michael S. Bell (Unit Historian)
to remember
Cooper, Merian Caldwell, Brig Gen.
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Contact Info
Home Town Jacksonville
Last Address San Diego
Date of Passing Apr 21, 1973
Wall/Plot Coordinates Cremated, ashes scattered at sea.
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
"In the 1950s and '60s he was a big crusader in fighting communism, backing the now disgraced efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy to root out traitors in Hollywood and Washington, D.C. Among other things in his career he was a newspaperman in four different cities, a pilot, an explorer in the Middle East, an airline director, an Air Force general, and a movie executive. He married a movie actress, invented John Wayne, arranged Katharine Hepburn's first screen test, teamed Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, raised a family, and died peacefully at 78."
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wikipedia:
World War I
Cooper was a DH-4 bomber pilot during World War I. He was shot down and captured by the Germans, serving out the remainder of the war in a POW camp. According to Stephen Skinner (The Stand), Captain Cooper was allowed to remain in the U.S. Air Service after the war, despite serious burns to his arms incurred in the crash of his DH-4. In January 1919, while on special duty with the American Red Cross in France, he located the gravesite of Lieutenant Frank Luke, Jr., America's second-highest-scoring ace of World War I. Cooper's subsequent report helped to confirm the identity and location of Lt. Luke's first burial site, which was near the village of Murvaux.
During his time as a POW, Cooper wrote an autobiography: Things Men Die For by "C". He turned the manuscript over to Dagmar Matson to type for publisher submission. It was submitted to G. P. Putnam's Sons in New York (the Knickerbocker Press) in 1927 and published that same year. Just after the book's release, he changed his mind about releasing the personal details about "Nina" and asked Dagmar to buy up every copy she could find. She managed to acquire most of the 5,000 copies that had been released. Cooper kept a copy and Dagmar kept a copy, while the rest were eventually destroyed. Dagmar sent Nina money every month, on behalf of Cooper, until his death.
Leading many missions and carefully planning them to minimize loss of life, he was known for his hard work and relentless planning. At the end of the war, he was promoted to brigadier general. For his contributions, he was also aboard the USS Missouri to witness Japan's surrender.
Cooper started his film career with documentaries for Paramount Pictures such as Grass (1925) and Chang (1927), which combined real footage with staged sequences. In Chang , he used this technique to create a memorable finale featuring an elephantstampede. His movie The Four Feathers was filmed among the fighting tribes of the Sudan.
Throughout his career, Cooper was a proponent of technical innovation. The film King Kong, which he co-wrote, co-directed, and appeared in, was a breakthrough in this regard. Another outstanding film that he produced in trying to follow up on his success with King Kong was the 1935 film She. Additionally, Cooper helped pave the way for such ground-breaking technologies as Technicolor and the widescreen process Cinerama.
Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) (producer) (uncredited)
... aka "Grass" - USA (short title)
... aka "Grass, the Epic of a Lost Tribe" - USA (alternative title)
King Kong (2005) (story)
... aka "Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World" - International (English title)(teaser title)
... aka "Peter Jackson's King Kong" - USA (promotional title)
Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) (uncredited)
... aka "Grass" - USA (short title)
... aka "Grass, the Epic of a Lost Tribe" - USA (alternative title)
King Kong (2005) (dedicatee)
... aka "Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World" - International (English title)(teaser title)
... aka "Peter Jackson's King Kong" - USA (promotional title)
Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) (as Merian Cooper) .... Himself
... aka "Grass" - USA (short title)
... aka "Grass, the Epic of a Lost Tribe" - USA (alternative title)
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