page_title: Bradley Cooper
section_title: Early roles (2001–2008)
hierarchical_section_title: Bradley Cooper / Career / Early roles (2001–2008)
caption_attribution_description: Bradley Cooper at Comic-Con Festival promoting The Midnight Meat Train
context_page_description: Bradley Charles Cooper is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He has been nominated for many awards, including eight Academy Awards and a Tony Award, and has won two Grammy Awards and a BAFTA Award. Cooper appeared in Forbes Celebrity 100 on three occasions and Time's list of 100 most influential people in the world in 2015. His films have grossed $11 billion worldwide and he has placed four times in annual rankings of the highest-paid actors in the world.
  Cooper enrolled in the MFA program at the Actors Studio in 2000 after beginning his career in 1999 with a guest role in the television series Sex and the City. He made his film debut in the comedy Wet Hot American Summer. He first gained recognition as Will Tippin in the spy-action television show Alias, and achieved minor success with a supporting part in the comedy film Wedding Crashers. His breakthrough role came in 2009 with The Hangover, a critically and commercially successful comedy, which spawned two sequels in 2011 and 2013. Cooper's portrayal of a struggling writer in the thriller Limitless and a rookie police officer in the crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines drew praise from critics.
context_section_description: Cooper's cinematic debut came in the ensemble comedy Wet Hot American Summer (2001), a film that takes place at a fictional summer camp in 1981. He played Ben, a counselor and the love interest of Michael Ian Black's character. Although the film was critically and commercially unsuccessful, it has developed a cult status over the years. Cooper reprised the role in the film's prequel Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015), an eight-episode Netflix series.
  In the television series Alias (2001–06), Cooper achieved some success with the role of Will Tippin, a local reporter for a newspaper and the best friend of Jennifer Garner's character, Sydney Bristow. Garner was one of the first people he met in Los Angeles and was, in Cooper's words, "very maternal ... She wanted to take care of me, make sure I was okay all the time." He acted in the 2002 psychological thriller Changing Lanes. The scenes in which he appeared were edited out of the final cut of the film, but are featured on the film's DVD and Blu-ray releases. Also in 2002, he played a man involved in a love triangle in the romantic drama Bending All the Rules. He guest-starred in the short-lived TV series Miss Match and played the role of cowboy and race horse trainer Morgan Murphy in the television film The Last Cowboy, which aired on the Hallmark Channel in January 2003. He later appeared in the television film I Want to Marry Ryan Banks (2004) with Jason Priestley and as a regular guest star in the WB series Jack & Bobby (2004–05).
  Cooper's career prospects improved with a more prominent role in the David Dobkin-directed comedy Wedding Crashers (2005) alongside Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams. In the film, he played Sack Lodge, the arrogant and aggressive boyfriend of Claire (McAdams) who is obsessed with winning—a role he describes as "kind of a sociopath". Cooper believed that the antagonistic character changed people's perception of him, as he had previously played the "nice guy". With a production budget of $40 million, the film grossed over $285 million worldwide. In September 2005, Fox debuted the sitcom Kitchen Confidential, based on a memoir by chef Anthony Bourdain, with Cooper in the leading role. Despite positive reviews for the series, the show was canceled after only four episodes due to low ratings.
  In March 2006, Cooper starred as Pip/Theo in Three Days of Rain on Broadway with Julia Roberts and Paul Rudd. This was followed by minor roles in the romantic comedy Failure to Launch (2006) and the satirical comedy The Comebacks (2007). Cooper next appeared in the fifth season of Nip/Tuck (2007) as Aidan Stone, a television star on the fictional show Hearts 'N Scalpels. In 2008, he played the lead in Older than America, and appeared onstage in a production of Theresa Rebeck's play The Understudy at the Williamstown Theatre Festival alongside Kristen Johnston. Between his small roles of best friend to the main character in the 2008 comedies Yes Man and The Rocker, Cooper landed the lead role in the Ryuhei Kitamura-directed horror film The Midnight Meat Train (2008), based on Clive Barker's 1984 short story of the same name. Playing the dark character of a freelance photographer who tries to track down a serial killer was a departure from Cooper's previous comedic roles and an experience he found enjoyable. The film received positive reviews from critics, though it earned little at the box office.
caption: Cooper in 2007 at a promotional event for The Midnight Meat Train
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