# Gladys Cooper
**Gladys Cooper** (Gladys Constance Cooper, 18 December 1888 – 17 November 1971) was an English actress, theatrical manager, and producer whose career on stage, in film, and on television spanned seven decades[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/) • [2](https://moviewiser.com/cast/3366). She was the most popular picture-postcard beauty of the First World War, one of the few women before the Second World War to manage a West End theater, and later a Hollywood character actress nominated three times for the [Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-supporting-actress)[3](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05195/dame-gladys-cooper) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gladys_cooper).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | 18 December 1888, Lewisham, London; 17 November 1971, Henley-on-Thames, England (pneumonia)[5](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/bio/) |
| Stage debut | On her 16th birthday, 18 December 1904, as Bluebell in a touring production of *Bluebell in Fairy Land* at the Theatre Royal, Colchester[6](https://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SCO007) |
| Theatre management | Joint manager of the Playhouse Theatre with Frank Curzon from 1917; one of few women before the Second World War to manage a West End theater[3](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05195/dame-gladys-cooper) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/) |
| Oscar nominations | Best Supporting Actress for *Now, Voyager* (1942), *The Song of Bernadette* (1943), and *My Fair Lady* (1964)[2](https://moviewiser.com/cast/3366) |
| Tony nominations | Best Actress in a Play for *The Chalk Garden* (1956) and *A Passage to India* (1962)[8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243) |
| Honor | Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1967[8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243) |
| Marriages | Henry Buckmaster (1908, divorced 1922); Sir Neville Pearson (1928, divorced 1936); Philip Merivale (1937, until his death in 1946)[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971) |
## Early life and stage beginnings
Cooper was born in Lewisham, then an unfashionable southeast suburb of London, the daughter of Charles William Frederick Cooper, a journalist who founded *The Epicure* magazine, and Mabel Barnett Cooper; she was raised in Chiswick with her two younger sisters[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). Striking as a child, she worked as a photographic model from the age of six[5](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/bio/). Her professional debut came on her 16th birthday at the Theatre Royal in [Colchester](https://www.edgepedia.org/colchester), where the management hired her on the spot to play the title role in a touring Christmas pantomime[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971) • [6](https://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SCO007).
**From chorus to stardom.** She first appeared in London as Lady Swan in *The Belle of Mayfair* at the Vaudeville Theatre on 23 June 1906[6](https://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SCO007). In 1907 she joined the Gaiety Theatre chorus, creating the small role of Eva in *The Girls of Gottenberg* under George Edwardes's management[3](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05195/dame-gladys-cooper) • [9](https://www.foundagrave.com/grave/gladys-cooper/). Her serious stage work began in 1911 as Cecily in [Oscar Wilde](https://www.edgepedia.org/oscar-wilde)'s *The Importance of Being Earnest* at the St James's Theatre[6](https://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SCO007) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/). During the postcard craze that ran from about 1890 to 1914, Cooper became one of its most photographed subjects, appearing in poses as Juliet and many other characters; during the First World War this popularity turned her into a pin-up figure for British troops[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gladys_cooper). By 1914 she was described as the most popular actress on the London stage[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
## Actress-manager at the Playhouse
In 1917 Cooper became joint manager of the Playhouse Theatre with the London producer Frank Curzon, and she ran it alone after his death in 1927[3](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05195/dame-gladys-cooper) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). The [Garrick Club](https://www.edgepedia.org/garrick-club)'s records note she was also sole lessee for six years beginning in 1926[6](https://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SCO007). She produced a series of old and new plays in many of which she starred, including [W. Somerset Maugham](https://www.edgepedia.org/w-somerset-maugham)'s *Home and Beauty* (1919), [Maurice Maeterlinck](https://www.edgepedia.org/maurice-maeterlinck)'s *The Betrothal*, Lord Dunsany's *If*, and Channing Pollock's *The Sign on the Door* (all 1921)[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
Her 1922 revival of Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's *The Second Mrs. Tanqueray* ran for 221 performances and, for the first time, earned her wide critical recognition as a dramatic actress[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). In 1923–24 she played [Peter Pan](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-pan) at the [Adelphi Theatre](https://www.edgepedia.org/adelphi-theatre), becoming the first Peter to "fly" in through the window on a suspension wire[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). In 1927 she debuted the role of Leslie Crosbie, the role [Bette Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bette-davis) later played on film, in Maugham's *The Letter*[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/). Maugham himself later wrote that she had succeeded in turning herself "from an indifferent actress into an extremely accomplished one"[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1979/09/02/london-stage-to-hollywood-screen/c41b6bc8-cb43-41bf-80bd-e39ff0810b1b/).
She gave up managing the Playhouse in 1934, citing the enormous work, the distraction from her acting, her children's needs, competition from talking films, and the [Great Depression](https://www.edgepedia.org/great-depression)[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
## Broadway and Shakespeare
Cooper made her American debut in the spring of 1934, bringing Keith Winter's *The Shining Hour* to Broadway with its already-rehearsed London cast; the play was a critical and popular success, and New York critics compared her to Katharine Cornell[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). In 1935, in mid-life, she undertook her first Shakespearean roles, playing [Desdemona](https://www.edgepedia.org/desdemona) in *Othello* and [Lady Macbeth](https://www.edgepedia.org/lady-macbeth) in *Macbeth* at the Plymouth Theater opposite Philip Merivale, whom she would marry[8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). Neither production satisfied the critics, though her sleepwalking scene as Lady Macbeth drew good personal reviews[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
She followed with Dodie Smith's *Call It a Day* on Broadway in 1936[8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243), appeared in the 1938 London production of *Dodsworth*, and that summer played Olivia in *Twelfth Night*, Rosalind in *As You Like It*, and Oberon in *A Midsummer Night's Dream* in the open-air theater in [Regent's Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/regents-park)[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). Her later Broadway appearances included *Spring Meeting* (1938–39), *The Morning Star* (1942), *The Chalk Garden* (1955–56), and *A Passage to India* (1962)[8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243).
## Hollywood career
A small role in [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock)'s first Hollywood film, *Rebecca* (1940), as [Laurence Olivier](https://www.edgepedia.org/laurence-olivier)'s sister Beatrice Lacy, led to a thirty-year Hollywood career[3](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05195/dame-gladys-cooper) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/). She was much in demand for society women, both English and American, virtuous and villainous, moving among United Artists, Warner Bros., RKO, and MGM[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
Her three Oscar nominations came in this period. The first was for her most famous role, the possessive and domineering Mrs. Henry Vale, mother of Bette Davis's Charlotte in *Now, Voyager* (1942)[11](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6713-mother-monster-gladys-cooper-in-now-voyager). The second was for the punishing nun Sister Marie Therese Vauzous in *The Song of Bernadette* (1943)[12](https://pulseofcinema.com/en/actor/gladys-cooper/). The third, near the end of her film career, was as Henry Higgins's mother in *My Fair Lady* (1964)[2](https://moviewiser.com/cast/3366). Other notable films include *That Hamilton Woman* (1941) as Lady Frances Nelson, *The Bishop's Wife* (1947), *The Pirate* (1948) with Judy Garland, *The Secret Garden* (1949), and *Separate Tables* (1958)[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gladys_cooper). She appeared in five films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: *Rebecca*, *Kitty Foyle*, *The Song of Bernadette*, *Separate Tables*, and *My Fair Lady*[5](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/bio/).
## Later work on stage and television
Cooper returned to postwar London in 1947 and resumed her stage career with Peter Ustinov's *The Indifferent Shepherd*[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). In Noël Coward's *Relative Values* (1951) she was, in the Encyclopedia.com account, "discovered" by a new generation of London theater audiences[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). In 1955 she debuted as Mrs. St. Maugham in Enid Bagnold's *The Chalk Garden* and brought the role to Broadway, earning a Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Play[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/) • [8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243). Her final Broadway appearance was as Mrs. Moore in a stage adaptation of E.M. Forster's *A Passage to India* in 1962, which brought a second Tony nomination[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971) • [8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243).
On American television she was a familiar face through the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in *Playhouse 90*, several episodes of *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*, *The Outer Limits*, and three episodes of Rod Serling's *The Twilight Zone*[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gladys_cooper) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/). Near the end of her career she starred in the con-men sitcom *The Rogues* (1964) with Charles Boyer, David Niven, and Gig Young[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gladys_cooper) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
## Recognition and personal life
Cooper was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1967[8](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243). She wrote her autobiography, *Gladys Cooper*, in 1931, and was the subject of Sewell Stokes's 1953 biography, for which Somerset Maugham wrote the preface, and her grandson Sheridan Morley's 1979 biography[13](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/21/75/88/07/2021758807/2021758807.pdf) • [1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971).
She married three times: the actor Henry Buckmaster in 1908 (divorced 1922), with whom she had John Buckmaster, an actor, and Joan Buckmaster, who married the character actor Robert Morley; the magazine editor Sir Neville Pearson in 1928 (divorced 1936), with whom she had Sally Pearson, who married the actor Robert Hardy; and the actor Philip Merivale in 1937, remaining married until his death in 1946[1](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971). She died at her home in Henley-on-Thames on 17 November 1971, aged 82, of pneumonia[5](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/bio/).
## References
1. [Cooper, Gladys (1888–1971), Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cooper-gladys-1888-1971)
2. [Dame Gladys Constance Cooper, MovieWiser](https://moviewiser.com/cast/3366)
3. [Dame Gladys Cooper, National Portrait Gallery](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp05195/dame-gladys-cooper)
4. [Gladys Cooper, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/gladys_cooper)
5. [Gladys Cooper Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/bio/)
6. [Cooper, Gladys DBE, Garrick Club Collections Online](https://garrick.ssl.co.uk/names/SCO007)
7. [Gladys Cooper, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/)
8. [Gladys Cooper, IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/gladys-cooper-36243)
9. [Gladys Cooper, Found a Grave](https://www.foundagrave.com/grave/gladys-cooper/)
10. [London Stage to Hollywood Screen, The Washington Post (1979)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1979/09/02/london-stage-to-hollywood-screen/c41b6bc8-cb43-41bf-80bd-e39ff0810b1b/)
11. [Mother Monster: Gladys Cooper in Now, Voyager, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6713-mother-monster-gladys-cooper-in-now-voyager)
12. [Gladys Cooper: Movies, Best Films and Filmography, Pulse of Cinema](https://pulseofcinema.com/en/actor/gladys-cooper/)
13. [The Social and Theatrical Realm, Library of Congress](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/21/75/88/07/2021758807/2021758807.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames A to E*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license