MovieChat Forums > My Fair Lady (1964) Discussion > Gladys Cooper:

Gladys Cooper:

posted 11 years ago by elena-28
13 replies | jump to latest

I just want to give a shout-out to the marvelous Gladys Cooper, playing a sharp, warm, affectionate and intelligent part as Mother Higgins. When I first saw this movie, she was my favorite character, relishing her few scenes and delicious lines. Compare her in MY FAIR LADY to such roles as Mrs. Vane in NOW VOYAGER, or the nun skepical and slipping into into cruelty in SONG OF BERNADETTE.

No matter what type of character she played, she always had and brought class to the proceedings.

[–] c7c7c7r 11 years ago

And as Max DeWinter's sister in 'Rebecca'. She had this great way of being blunt--and likeable for it.

[–] jcb-nyc 11 years ago

And she managed to stay beautiful right up to the end, without surgery.

Check out her eyes in the Twilight Zone episode "Night Call."

[–] Piperson 11 years ago

Agree about Gladys Cooper. She is really wonderful in this ("Henry! What a disagreeable surprise!")

And isn't she 25 years older in this than she was in Now Voyager?

[–] Acceler8 10 years ago

Did anybody get a chance to see her in the series THE ROGUES?

[–] bradford-1 10 years ago

Yes, yes. Watched THE ROGUES when I was 9 or 10. Gig Young, Niven, Robert Coote (the original Colonel Pickering!)

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

[–] crlnrgbrght5 10 years ago

This is the only movie that I've seen her in where, she's not playing an "old bag". Actors tend to get typecast if they're successful at playing a certain character so well, and I thought that's what was happening to her. This is interesting; Bette Davis, who doesn't give out compliments frequently, stated that "Gladys Cooper was a sweet lady".

[–] digitaldiva 10 years ago

Gladys Cooper was considered one of the great beauties of her time when she was a young woman and aged quite beautifully.

[–] crlnrgbrght5 10 years ago

And, without plastic surgery too.

[–] gregorykeithmorris 10 years ago

I agree. Gladys rocked and knocked it out of the park. She shined in all of her scenes and, in my opinion, was one of the film's major highlights. I'm so glad she garnered an Oscar-nominated.

[–] markedjuan 10 years ago

She also stole the show in Separate Tables and she was give the chance to sing in The Happiest Millionaire in which she out-bitches Geraldine Page!

[–] Harold_Robbins 10 years ago

Interesting to ponder the film career Cooper might have had if sh'd been a decade or so younger and gotten to films in the early 30s, when she might have been a leading lady in the company of such as Margaret Lockwood, Madeleine Carroll, and Diana Wynyard. But due to the timing, her screen career was to consist of character roles, and her film work was nothing at all to be ashamed of. And on the stage, she remained a leading lady.

Like Claude Rains, she could dominate or even steal a scene just by her presence in it.

"Somewhere along the line the world has lost all of its standards and all of its taste."

[–] huweyjenkins 10 years ago

Gladys Cooper was indeed a front rank star of the stage until well into her 70s. She had a habit of not learning her lines until the very last minute and was often wandering around the stage with her script until the very last dress rehearsal. Everyone would be tense on opening night when she would take everyone's breath away by being word perfect. Paul Scofield tells a funny story that she walked onstage one night but had been sucking on a mint prior to her entrance. When she opened her mouth to say her first line the mint went flying out into the auditorium. Sounds like she was quite a woman.

[–] TEDPLUS 10 years ago

Loved her in everything I saw her in....Bette Davis was a huge fan and loved working with her. I remember seeing her son-in-law (Robert Morley) on the tonight show a few times. The conversation always got around to his mother-in-law and you could tell that he adored her....