page_title: Jackie Cooper
section_title: Adult years
hierarchical_section_title: Jackie Cooper / Adult years
caption_attribution_description: Cropped screenshot of Jackie Cooper from the trailer for the film Gallant Sons
context_page_description: John Cooper Jr. was an American actor, television director, producer, and executive. He was a child actor who made the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Oscar nomination. At age 9 he was the youngest performer to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, an honor that he received for the film Skippy. For nearly 50 years, Cooper remained the youngest Oscar nominee in any category.
context_section_description: Cooper served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, remaining in the reserves until 1982, 
  retiring at the rank of captain and receiving the Legion of Merit. He starred in two television sitcoms, NBC's The People's Choice with Patricia Breslin and CBS's Hennesey with Abby Dalton. In 1954, he guest-starred on the NBC legal drama Justice. He appeared on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, guest-starred with Tennessee Ernie Ford on NBC's The Ford Show as America's Uranium King, and as Charles A. Steen in "I Found 60 Million Dollars" on the Armstrong Circle Theatre.
  In 1950, Cooper was cast in a production of Mr. Roberts in Boston, Massachusetts in the role of Ensign Pulver. From 1964 to 1969, Cooper was vice president of program development at Columbia Pictures Screen Gems TV division. He was responsible for packaging series such as Bewitched and selling them to the networks. In 1964, Cooper appeared in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone episode "Caesar and Me", and in 1968 a made-for-television film Shadow on the Land.
  Cooper left Columbia in 1969. He appeared in the fourth season of Hawaii Five-O in an episode called The Burning Ice. Cooper appeared in Candidate for Crime starring Peter Falk as Columbo in 1973, and in the 1975 ABC series Mobile One, a Jack Webb/Mark VII Limited production. He guest-starred in a 1978 two-part episode of The Rockford Files: The House on Willis Avenue. Cooper’s work as director on episodes of M*A*S*H and The White Shadow earned him Emmy awards.
  In the 1970s and 1980s, Cooper appeared as Daily Planet editor Perry White in the Superman film series, a role he got after Keenan Wynn, who was originally cast as White, became unavailable after suffering a heart attack.
  Cooper's final film role was as Ace Morgan in the 1987 film Surrender, starring Sally Field, Michael Caine, and Steve Guttenberg.
caption: Cooper in the trailer for Gallant Sons (1940).
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