Born 18 December 1882.
Her father, prominent publisher Charles Frederick Cooper, hated the idea of her going on the stage but in 1905 Gladys made her debut. During World War I, following a film debut in The Eleventh Commandment in 1913, she became famous pin-up girl for the troops, also entertaining them at the front. She disliked films at first and worked mainly in the theatre, establishing herself critically in the Twenties when she starred in and presented Somerset Maugham plays. Pretty, gracious, ageless, one of the first ladies of the English stage, she went to Hollywood
… More as a character actress to appear in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca and stayed there for thirty years, working in many classic melo-dramas and earning Oscar nominations for her performances in Now Voyager, The Song of Bernadette and My Fair Lady. She took in Broadway, The Rogues television series and ended up playing dignified but impish old ladies. She was a Dame of the British Empire.
Information on Biography on Gladys Cooper was taken from Who's Who of the Cinema Copyright 1983.
