Born in London, England Gladys Cooper was used as a photographic model beginning at age six. Wanting to be an actress, she made her stage debut in 1905, touring with Seymour Hicks in his musical Bluebell in Fairyland. In 1913 she appeared in her first film, The Eleventh Commandment and went on to make several more silent films while still appearing on stage. It was in 1934 she made her first 'talkie' film The Iron Duke, appearing primarily on film until the late 1950s when she began making stage appearances again. In 1967, at the age of 79 she was appointed a DBE, and she made her final public appearance in a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show.
Gladys Cooper lived mostly in England in her final years, and at age 82 she passed away from pneumonia.
