Chris Cooper

Born: 9th July 1951
Where: Kansas City, Missouri

Success came late in life to Chris Cooper...but he'd always insisted he'd wanted to be an actor not a star.

Mature character roles catapulted him to award-winning status - but on the way up he's worked on stage, film and TV, specialised in Westerns and enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with director John Sayles.

He grew up on his father's cattle ranch, becoming a set designer and builder for local theatres in his late teens.

After college, Cooper arrived in New York and worked odd jobs until eventually landing stage roles in the 80s with Of the Fields Lately, The Ballad of Soapy Smith, and the title role in Cobb.

After a minor film appearance in the British melodrama Bad Timing, Cooper won his first major film role in 1987, as the pacifist union organiser in John Sayles' period drama Matewan.

His first Western came in 1991 with 1,000 Pieces of Gold, about a well-meaning man who buys a Chinese wife and tries to win her love.

Throughout the late 1980s and into the 90s, Cooper made frequent appearances in TV-movies and miniseries.

After making his TV debut in the cast of the soap opera Edge of Night, Cooper went on to make guest appearances in Miami Vice, Lifestories, and Law & Order.

But it was his friend, director John Sayles again, who gave him the role in Lone Star that was to transform his career.

His success in the film catapulted Cooper to the top of Hollywood's list of character actors, leading to memorable supporting turns in films such as Boys, The Horse Whisperer and Breast Men.

In 1999 Cooper delivered two of his finest supporting roles to date, as a coal miner who struggles to understand his son's passion for science in October Sky, and as a menacing father in American Beauty.

Cooper kept going with another career-defining performance as the eccentric, toothless orchid expert John Laroche in the reality-bending Adaptation (2001).

The performance in Adaptation won him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor to go with the already earned respect of his peers.

His performance also brought him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2003.

Director Joel Schumacher once remarked, "Chris is one of those unsung heroes of the movie business. He's a consummate artist, one of the greatest actors working today."

Recent work includes the American box office hit Seabiscuit opposite Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges.