Bradley Cooper's film career began with a cameo role in the rating series Sex and the City. No one then recognized him as a future multiple Oscar nominee. He gained wide popularity only 10 years later, when the box office comedy "The Hangover in Vegas" was released. In it, Cooper played the role of Phil, an eccentric and carefree womanizer.
Childhood and adolescence
Bradley Cooper was born on January 5, 1975 in the most populous city of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia. He was the second child in a multi-ethnic family of Charlie and Gloria. Bradley has an older sister, Holly. His father is Irish and his mother is Italian. The first served as a stockbroker at the large American bank Merrill Lynch. Mother worked all her life in television.
There were almost no relatives on the father's side. Bradley's early years were spent surrounded by Italian relatives. Despite the mixing of blood, as a child, he was outwardly a typical Irish: curly blond with blue eyes and light eyebrows. For this reason, Bradley felt ill at ease with his sultry Italian relatives. Because of his long curls and pretty features, until the age of ten, many took him for a girl. This eventually led to complexes. In an interview, Cooper recalled that as a child he was lonely, secretive and often imitated communication skills with complete introversion.
The future actor was brought up in strict Catholic traditions. With his parents, Bradley regularly attended Sunday services, which left an imprint on his personality. Cooper himself later recalled that prayer became an integral part of his life.
When Bradley was five years old, he was diagnosed with cholesteatoma. This is one of the complex pathologies of the middle ear that could lead to complete hearing loss. Cooper underwent several surgeries to avoid this complication. The disease has receded, but now Bradley can only swim with earplugs in his ears.
The craving for cinema manifested itself in Cooper very early. His father was a notable moviegoer. Across the street from the house of the future actor there was a small cinema, where he and his father often visited. At the age of six, Bradley made the decision to become an actor. This dream came to him after watching the film "The Elephant Man" by David Lynch. John Hurt's performance impressed the six-year-old Cooper.
Bradley was a difficult teenager. According to him, at a transitional age, he turned the life of his parents into a pitch hell. So, at the age of 15 he was arrested for drinking alcohol.
Soon, Cooper took up his mind and entered the Germantown Academy. This private school in Fort Washington, a suburb of Philadelphia, is known for its strict discipline. Meanwhile, he continues to dream of an acting career. However, after graduating from high school, Bradley decided to get a "serious education", becoming a student at Villanova University - the oldest Catholic university in Pennsylvania.
A year later, Cooper moved to Washington and transferred to another Catholic private university - Georgetown, where he began to study English language and literature. After his graduation, he went to New York. There he successfully defended his dissertation on Nabokov's novel Lolita and received his degree.
Only after that, Cooper decided to fulfill his childhood dream. In New York, he entered an acting studio. To do this, I had to take a loan for training in the amount of 70 thousand dollars. Cooper himself later admitted that it was an insane act, but at the time he could not do otherwise. To pay off the loan, Cooper worked at night as a doorman at the Morgans Hotel. For his graduation work, Bradley chose the role of that very elephant man.
Career
The road to acting fame for Bradley was a thorny one. For a long time, the directors did not even look in his direction, and the agents avoided him. Like many Hollywood stars, Cooper began with cameo roles in popular TV series. So, at the very beginning of his film career, he appeared in projects such as:
- Sex and the City;
- "Street";
- "Law and order";
- "Spy".
He has a special relationship with the last series. He considers "Spy" to be his main multi-part project. In it, he played the role of Will Tippin. Participation in the series allowed him to fully pay off the loan that he took to study at the acting school.
In parallel, he tried himself on television. Cooper hosted the science show Globe Trekker on the Discovery Channel. He also acted as the creator of the Extreme Treks in a Wild World program.
Cooper considers his first significant film work the role of the fiancé of the heroine Rachel McAdams in the comedy "Crashers". The film was released in 2005. Thanks to him, the directors were able to appreciate Bradley's comedic talent. They began to offer him roles in films more often. However, real fame came to him four years later. In 2009, he starred in several successful films, including:
- “To promise is not to marry”;
- "New York, I love you";
- "Hangover";
- "Case No. 39".
In 2012, Cooper was nominated for the first time for an Oscar for his role in the movie "My Boyfriend is Crazy." A year later, he was again among the contenders for the gold statuette. A strict jury noted his role in the movie "American Scam".
In 2014, Clint Eastwood's historical drama American Sniper was released, where Bradley not only played the main role, but also acted as a producer. He received two Oscar nominations: Best Actor and Co-Producer.
Cooper made his directorial debut in 2018. He directed the musical A Star is Born, which tells the story of the young singer Ellie. In his first film for the lead role, he invited Lady Gaga. The directorial debut was very successful. The film is nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
Personal life
Thanks to his bright appearance, Cooper is not deprived of female attention. He is credited with novels with famous actresses and models, including Renee Zellweger, Scarlett Johansson, Sookie Waterhouse and three Jennifers - Aniston, Lopez and Lawrence.
Bradley Cooper has been officially married once at the moment. In 2006, he married Jennifer Esposito, star of Crash. The couple announced their divorce four months later.
In 2015, Bradley began dating Russian model Irina Shayk, who by that time had separated from football player Cristiano Ronaldo. Soon he introduced her to his mother, the couple began to live and appear at all social events together. However, Irina and Bradley were in no hurry to formalize the relationship.
In the spring of 2017, the couple had a daughter, Leia. At the end of 2018, rumors began to leak in the media that Irina and Bradley had not lived together for a long time. Cooper actively warms them up, increasingly appearing in public places only with his daughter.
