Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses

Miriam Cooper

MIRIAM COOPER Miriam Cooper has never received the attention lavished on other D.W Griffith actresses. and yet she provides one of the most modern and naturalistic of silent film performances in Intolerance (t9t6). Only Mae Marsh is her equal in the film. but the styles are too different to be worthy of comparison. As the friendless One. Cooper is driven to murder her lover. the Musketeer of the Slums (Walter Long). After the killing. she is so stricken with guilt and revulsion that she actually bites her lower lip and draws blood. This is method acting carried to its ultimate level! Griffith keeps the camera on Cooper's face as she registers a variety of emotions-horror. anger. self-pity. The combined physical and emotional depth of the performance is incredible and unmatched on screen before or since. The sequence is as memorable and as stylistically impressive as the much later close-ups of Mae Marsh in the courtroom scene as she listens to her husband being found guilty of Cooper's crime. In many respects. although far removed by real and filmic time. the two sets of c1oseups serve as counterpoint. Equally worthy of respect is Cooper's earlier performance as Margaret Cameron in The Birth ofa Nation (t 9t5). Here. Cooper is a quiet presence. her role lacking the melodramatic force of the Mae Marsh and Lillian Gish characterizations. Yet it is the very soberness of Cooper's performance opposite her would-be lover. played by Elmer Clifton. that serves to hold the audience's attention. "I think I must have been sort of a natural actress." explained Cooper. without pretension or. for that matter. understanding of her accomplishments: 'You know. my idea of a good time was to lie in a cemetery. either yelling into the tombs or lying on the graves and looking up at the trees. saying I was going to be something great. Mr. Griffith said I was a naturalborn actress. It wasn't difficult to direct me. The only time I can remember he spent a lot of time with me was when he was trying to get me to cry. I couldn't cry to save my soul. He sent everyone off the set and he pulled a chair up, Miss Cooper. Ididn't want to tell you this. but your mother has just died.' Well. I burst into tears. and he said. 'Camera...· The remainder of the career of Miriam Cooper (Baltimore. Maryland. November 7. t894-Charlottesville. Virginia. April 12. t976) is relatively unimportant . She began her career with D.W. Griffith. although it is doubtful he would have remembered her performance as an extra in the t9t t American Biograph short. A Blot on the 'Scutcheon. It was with the Kalem Company in t9t2 and t 913 that Miriam Cooper developed as a leading player. often featured in one-reel Civil War dramas shot in Jacksonville. florida, She could swim and ride a horse. and her films emphasized action over char- 74 Miriam Cooper acterization. "I was a stunt girl; 1didn't do any acting," asserted Cooper. Even in those primitive Kalem subjects, the actress's inherent natural good looks are apparent-the simply cut black hair and the large and dreamy eyes-but Griffith hired her more because to him she represented Southern beauty. After a handful of 1914 Reliance-Majestic productions directed by Christy Cabanne, Griffith first directed her in Home, Sweet Home (1914) in the minor role of Robert Harron's fiancee. Then came The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. As her post-film career indicates, Miriam Cooper must have been shrewd and sophisticated when it came to financial matters, but as far as her work as an actress was concerned, she had no concept of why she was good and how she could turn in such good performances. She lacked refinement, and thus her comments on Griffith and her sister actresses were less inhibited: "One morning 1came in and 1said, 'Good morning, Mr. Griffith: And he didn't answer me. 1thought he was very common, very rude. 1told Mae Marsh1was rooming with Mae-and she told him. I had to get up and rehearse in front of all the other actresses, a lot more experienced that I. 'Now we will have the queen: 1was furious. 1didn't know why he was treating me so awful. Later, he said, 'I understand you think...