Miriam Cooper
| Miriam Cooper | |
|---|---|
1923 photo from The Blue Book of the Screen
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| Born |
Marian Cooper November 7, 1891 Baltimore, Maryland, United States |
| Died | April 12, 1976 (aged 84) Charlottesville, Virginia, United States |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Occupation | Actress, writer, speaker |
| Years active | 1910–1924 |
| Spouse(s) | Raoul Walsh (m. 1916–26) |
Miriam Cooper (November 7, 1891 – April 12, 1976) was a silent film actress who is best known for her work in early film including The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance for D. W. Griffith and The Honor System and Evangeline for her husband Raoul Walsh. She retired from acting in 1923 but was rediscovered by the film community in the 1960s, and toured colleges lecturing about silent films.
Miriam Cooper was born to Julian Cooper and Margaret Stewart in Baltimore, Maryland on November 7, 1891. Her mother was from a devout Catholic family with a long history in Baltimore. Her paternal grandfather had helped discover Navassa Island and made his wealth from selling guano. Her father was attending Loyola University when he met her mother. Her parents had 5 children in 5 years (one died in infancy) including her sister Lenore and her brothers Nelson and Gordon.
When Miriam was young, her father abandoned the family and went to Europe. Until that point the family had lived comfortably in Washington Heights, but Julian Cooper kept the inheritance, leaving the family destitute. They moved to Little Italy, which Cooper despised. Cooper had a troubled relationship with her mother, whom Cooper loved but felt was cold to her. Once during her childhood her mother told her she hated Miriam for looking like her (Miriam's) father. Her mother remarried in 1914.
During this time, Cooper found solace by playing in an abandoned Dutch cemetery. She would lie on the graves and daydream. To make her sister Lenore behave, she also became a storyteller, repeating Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" and saying it was named for her. Cooper cited these experiences as great influences both on her acting and on her Christian faith.
Never intending to be an actress, Cooper originally had trained to be a painter. She attended St. Walpurga's School with the help of the nuns, who arranged her tuition. From there she attended an art school named Cooper Union, again with help from the parish. At the suggestion of a friend of her mother's, Cooper posed for Charles Dana Gibson at the age of 21. It was the first painting Gibson had done in oils.
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