Of all his many roles, "Sergeant York" may well be the one that is most quintessential to the iconography of Gary Cooper. It was never truer of anyone the old saw that actors play roles, but movie stars play themselves. Cooper made a career out of portraying simple, straightforward men of unimpeachable integrity, humility and all-American values. His protagonists were usually dim, or at least poorly educated, though they possessed a homespun sort of caginess -- especially with regard to the manly arts of shooting, building and fixing.
Sergeant York (1941)
Sergeant York (1941)
Sergeant York (1941)
Of all his many roles, "Sergeant York" may well be the one that is most quintessential to the iconography of Gary Cooper. It was never truer of anyone the old saw that actors play roles, but movie stars play themselves. Cooper made a career out of portraying simple, straightforward men of unimpeachable integrity, humility and all-American values. His protagonists were usually dim, or at least poorly educated, though they possessed a homespun sort of caginess -- especially with regard to the manly arts of shooting, building and fixing.