What Is Chris Cooper's Net Worth?
Chris Cooper is an American actor, director, and producer who has a net worth of $6 million. Chris Cooper won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his performance as John Laroche in 2002's "Adaptation." Chris has more than 70 acting credits to his name, including the films "American Beauty" (1999), "The Bourne Identity" (2002), "Seabiscuit" (2003), "Capote" (2005), "The Town" (2010), "The Muppets" (2011), "August: Osage County" (2013), and "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (2019), the miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (1989), and the TV movie "My House in Umbria" (2003).
He voiced Douglas in "Where the Wild Things Are" (2009) and Smokey in "Cars 3" (2017), and he played Al Templeton in the Hulu Stephen King miniseries "11.22.63" (2016) and Leonard Geist on the Amazon Prime Video series "Homecoming" (2020). Cooper directed the "Nuts" segment in the 2021 anthological drama "With/In: Volume 2," and he executive produced the 2018 documentary "Intelligent Lives." Chris has also performed on Broadway, playing Ben Mercer in "Of the Fields, Lately" (1980) and Torvald Helmer in "A Doll's House, Part 2" (2017). He earned a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play for "A Doll's House."
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Early Life
Chris Cooper was born Christopher Walton Cooper on July 9, 1951, in Kansas City, Missouri. Chris grew up in Kansas City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Houston with mother Mary Ann, father Charles, and older brother Chuck. Charles was a doctor for the U.S. Air Force as well as a cattleman. The family owned a cattle ranch approximately 15 miles from Leavenworth, Kansas, and they spent their summers there. Cooper attended Kansas City's Southwest High School and built sets for a local theater company. After graduating in 1969, he worked as the shop foreman for a different repertory group. Chris later joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve in order to avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War, then he enrolled at the University of Missouri to study set design. He changed his major to acting as a sophomore to overcome his "overpowering shyness," and he also studied dance at Stephens College for Women. Cooper told the "Belfast Telegraph" in 2008, "Those dance classes were important because making a total fool of myself every day in front of a classroom full of women really helped me break out of my shyness." After he graduated from college with degrees in Drama and Agriculture, Chris moved to New York City, where he made a living renovating apartments and taking jobs as a janitor, construction worker, and chauffeur. During this time, he studied with revered acting teachers Wynn Handman and Stella Adler, and he made his Broadway debut in a Century Theatre production of David French's "Of the Fields, Lately" in 1980.
Career
Cooper guest-starred on the soap operas "All My Children" (1984) and "Another World" (1985) before appearing in his first film, the 1987 John Sayles-directed drama "Matewan." In 1989, he played July Johnson in the CBS miniseries "Lonesome Dove," then he appeared in the films "Thousand Pieces of Gold" (1990), "Guilty by Suspicion" (1991), "City of Hope" (1991), "This Boy's Life" (1993), and "Money Train" (1995) and the TV movies "In Broad Daylight" (1991), "Darrow" (1991), "Bed of Lies" (1992), "Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life" (1992), and "One More Mountain" (1996). Chris earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for 1996's "Lone Star," and that year he also co-starred with Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, and Matthew McConaughey in the film adaptation of John Grisham's "A Time to Kill." He then starred in "Great Expectations" (1998), "The Horse Whisperer" (1998), and "October Sky" (1999), and he received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his performance as Colonel Frank Fitts, USMC in 1999's "American Beauty." Cooper co-starred with Jim Carrey in 2000's "Me, Myself & Irene," then he played Colonel Harry Burwell in "The Patriot" (2000) and Alexander Conklin in "The Bourne Identity" (2002) and "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004). He won numerous awards for 2002's "Adaptation.," and he earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for playing Tom Smith in 2003's "Seabiscuit."
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Chris received a Primetime Emmy nomination for his performance as Thomas Riversmith in the 2003 HBO movie "My House in Umbria," and he earned a Satellite Award nomination for portraying Alvin Dewey in 2005's "Capote." He then appeared in "Jarhead" (2005), "Syriana" (2005), "Breach" (2007), "The Kingdom" (2007), and "New York, I Love You" (2009) and portrayed Walt Whitman on the PBS series "American Experience" (2008). He also narrated the 2009 episode "The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." In 2010, Cooper appeared in "The Tempest," "The Company Men," "Remember Me," "Amigo," and "The Town," then he played villainous oil tycoon Tex Richman in "The Muppets," in which he performed the rap "Let's Talk About Me." He starred as Charles Aiken in 2013's "August: Osage County," which is based on the 2007 Tracy Letts play of the same name, then he had an uncredited cameo as Norman Osborn in 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." Chris portrayed J. D. Salinger in 2015's "Coming Through the Rye," and he voiced Smokey in the 2017 Pixar film "Cars 3," which grossed $383.9 million at the box office. In 2019, he co-starred with Tom Hanks in the Fred Rogers biopic "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and played Mr. Laurence in the Greta Gerwig-directed adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women." In 2020, Cooper appeared in the political comedy "Irresistible," which was written and directed by Jon Stewart, and he played Leonard Geist in the second season of the psychological thriller series "Homecoming." In November 2021, it was announced that Chris had been cast in the Hulu film "Boston Strangler."
Personal Life
Chris met Marianne Leone in an acting class in 1979, and they married on July 8, 1983. The couple welcomed a son, Jesse, in October 1987, three months prematurely. Three days after his birth, Jesse had a cerebral hemorrhage, which resulted in cerebral palsy. In 2003, Cooper told "The Morning Call" that his son was the best thing that had ever happened to him, adding, "He's in a wheelchair and he communicates only by computer, but he's taught me so much because he's just so incredibly focused. Now he's in a regular school, which we fought to get him into. He's an honors student, and he's doing great." Sadly, Jesse passed away suddenly on January 3, 2005, at the age of 17, and two years later, Chris and Marianne founded the Jesse Cooper Foundation in his memory. In May 2016, the University of Massachusetts Lowell presented Cooper with an honorary doctorate during the school's commencement ceremony. Chris and Marianne have adopted numerous rescue dogs, and in an April 2021 post on her website, Leone revealed that she was working on a book about rescues. She also wrote the book "Jesse: A Mother's Story," which is described as "an unforgettable memoir of joy, grief, and triumph."
Awards and Nominations
In 2003, Cooper won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for "Adaptation." The film also earned him awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Central Ohio Film Critics Association, Chlotrudis Awards, Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards, Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, Gold Derby Awards, International Online Cinema Awards, Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, National Board of Review, Online Film & Television Association, San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, San Francisco Film Critics Circle, Seattle Film Critics Awards, Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards, Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, Utah Film Critics Association Awards, Vancouver Film Critics Circle, and Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards. In 2003, Chris received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for "My House in Umbria," and he also earned an Online Film & Television Association Award nomination and a Satellite Award nomination for the TV movie.
In 2004, Cooper won the Peter J. Owens Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, and in 2015, he received the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award at the Austin Film Festival. In 2013, Capri, Hollywood honored him with a Capri Lifetime Achievement Award, and Chris and his "August: Osage County" co-stars won the Capri Ensemble Cast Award. The cast also earned awards from the Hollywood Film Awards and Nevada Film Critics Society. "Thousand Pieces of Gold" won a Bronze Wrangler for Theatrical Motion Picture at the 1992 Western Heritage Awards, and Cooper was named Best Actor for "Lone Star" at the 1996 Lone Star Film & Television Awards. He has won AARP Movies for Grownups Awards for Best Actor for "Breach" (2008) and Best Supporting Actor for "August: Osage County" (2014), and in 2000, he shared a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture with his "American Beauty" co-stars. In 2010, "The Town" cast won a National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble and a Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble.
