This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Jackie Cooper got a Best Actor Oscar nomination at age 9, won Emmys for directing episodes of "M*A*S*H" and "The White Shadow," and worked more than 60 years in show business.
But Cooper, who died today at the age of 88, will forever be known as the best darn newspaper editor Metropolis has ever known.
Cooper appeared in his first movie in 1929, and appeared in the "Our Gang" series of shorts.
In 1931, Cooper starred as a mischievous boy in "Skippy," based on a comic strip that was popular at the time. There is a famous story that the director, Norman Taurog (who was also his uncle), needed to get Cooper to cry for a scene - and when Cooper couldn't cry on cue, Taurog said he would shoot the kid's dog.
Cooper got a Best Actor Oscar nomination for "Skippy" - making him the youngest Oscar nominee ever for a leading role. (He lost to Lionel Barrymore for "A Lost Soul.")
Cooper's other child roles included the orphaned kid in "The Champ" (1931), and Jim Hawkins in a 1934 version of "Treasure Island" - both times starring alongside Wallace Beery.
Cooper served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and again on TV on the series "Hennesey" from 1959 to 1962. He worked a lot on TV, as an actor and as a director - winning Emmys for an episode of "M*A*S*H" in 1974 and the pilot episode of "The White Shadow" in 1978.
But Cooper's best known role was as Perry White, the irascible editor of the Daily Planet - and boss to Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) - in four "Superman" movies, starting with Richard Donner's 1978 classic.