Obituaries

Famous child actor Jackie Cooper has died at the age of 88, much older than I thought he was, for reasons I really don't know.

Cooper died Tuesday after a brief illness, according to his son. He lived in a nursing facility.

Skippy (1931) was one of his most famous roles:

When young Cooper was unable to summon tears for a big crying scene, Taurog threatened to remove the boy's small dog from the set and take it to the pound. The incident ended with Cooper believing his dog had been shot by an armed security guard.

"I could visualize my dog, bloody from that one awful shot," Cooper wrote. "I began sobbing, so hysterically that it was almost too much for the scene. [Taurog] had to quiet me down by saying perhaps my dog had survived the shot, that if I hurried and calmed down a little and did the scene the way he wanted, we would go see if my dog was still alive."

Cooper later became a director and a television executive.
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