Wyatt Emory Cooper (September 1, 1927 – January 5, 1978) was an American author, screenwriter, and actor. He was the fourth husband of

Vanderbilt family The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthr ...

heiress and socialite

Gloria Vanderbilt Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (February 20, 1924 – June 17, 2019) was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. During the 1930s, she was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in which her mother ...

and the father of

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

anchor

Anderson Cooper Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an American broadcast journalist and political commentator from the Vanderbilt family. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news broadcast show ''Anderson Cooper 360°''. In addition to his duties at C ...

.Wyatt Cooper
at IBDB

Life and career

Cooper had his childhood in the small town of

Pleasant Grove, Mississippi Pleasant Grove is an unincorporated community in Panola County, Mississippi. Pleasant Grove is approximately west of Sardis, along Mississippi Highway 315. The Pleasant Grove Methodist Church and Pleasant Grove Cemetery are located there. The ...

, outside of Quitman, Mississippi, the son of Rixie Jane Annie (née Anderson) and Emmet Debro Cooper. Cooper was from a poor family with deep Southern roots, and later moved to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, as a young child. He graduated from the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

(UCLA), where he majored in theater arts and began a career in acting. In his twenties, Cooper moved to New York City to pursue acting. When Cooper was 26, he appeared on Broadway in the cast of ''The Strong Are Lonely'', a drama that ran for a week at the Broadhurst Theatre in the fall of 1953. Cooper also wrote stories and plays. In his thirties, Cooper lived in Los Angeles, attended both UCLA and

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

, and worked as a screenwriter. While residing in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

, then an unincorporated area of

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

, Cooper lived near

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

and her husband Alan Campbell. A close friendship developed, and a year after Parker's death in 1967, Cooper published an incisive and widely read profile in ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' magazine, titled, "Whatever You Think Dorothy Parker Was Like, She Wasn't". Cooper moved to Manhattan in the early 1960s, and worked there as a magazine editor. His writing includes the 1962 film ''

The Chapman Report ''The Chapman Report'' is a 1962 American Technicolor drama film starring Shelley Winters, Jane Fonda, Claire Bloom and Glynis Johns. It was made by DFZ Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. It was directed by George Cukor and produced by ...

'', the 1972 film '' The Glass House'', and the 1975 book ''Families: A Memoir and a Celebration''.

Personal life

On December 24, 1963, he married heiress

, becoming her fourth husband. The couple frequently appeared on the national "best-dressed" list. They had two sons: Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (1965–1988), who committed suicide, and Anderson Hays Cooper (b. 1967), who is an anchor for

. Cooper wrote in his 1975 memoir, "It is in the family that we learn almost all we ever know of loving. In my sons' youth, their promise, their possibilities, my stake in immortality is invested." He died in Manhattan, New York City on January 5, 1978, at age 50, during open heart surgery, after having a heart attack the previous December.

References

Written works

*''Families: A Memoir and a Celebration'' (Harper & Row, 1975)

External links

* (as Wyatt Cooper) * (as Wyatt Cooper) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Wyatt Emory 20th-century American male actors 1927 births 1978 deaths American male non-fiction writers American male screenwriters American male stage actors 20th-century American memoirists Anderson Cooper Male actors from Mississippi People from Meridian, Mississippi People from Panola County, Mississippi People from Quitman, Mississippi Screenwriters from Mississippi Screenwriters from New York (state) University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Wyatt Emory Cooper Wyatt Emory Cooper (September 1, 1927 – January 5, 1978) was an American author, screenwriter, and actor. He was the fourth husband of Vanderbilt family heiress and socialite Gloria Vanderbilt and the father of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

Writers from New Orleans Writers from New York City 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American screenwriters Burials at the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum