May 29,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                         lunger@oscars.org

New York City, NY - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a tribute program in New York this week in celebration of the centennial of Academy Award winner Gary Cooper's birth. The invitation-only event, featuring film clips and personal appearances, will be held on Thursday, May 31, at 8 p.m., at the Museum of Modern Art.

Peter Bogdanovich will serve as the evening's master of ceremonies, introducing clips from numerous films and moderating conversation with several of Cooper's friends and co-stars. Confirmed to participate in the program are Maria Cooper Janis, Cooper's daughter; Patricia Neal, co-star of "The Fountainhead" and "Bright Leaf;" Fay Wray, who co-starred with Cooper in "The First Kiss," "Legion of the Condemned," "The Texan" and "One Sunday Afternoon;" and Teresa Wright, co-star of "Pride of the Yankees" and "Casanova Brown."

Country music artist Michael Peterson will perform a musical composition written in honor of Cooper by renowned concert pianist Byron Janis, Maria's husband.

A similar tribute was held May 3 in Los Angeles.

Born Frank James Cooper in Helena, Montana, on May 7, 1901, Cooper started his acting career at 24 as a cowboy extra in Westerns. He was nominated for an Academy Award^® five times as Best Actor and won the Oscar^® twice, for "Sergeant York" in 1941 and "High Noon" in 1952. He also received an Honorary Award in 1960 "for his many memorable screen performances and the international recognition he, as an individual, has gained for the motion picture industry."

The Academy Tribute to Cooper is sold out.

An additional Cooper Centennial program will be presented by the American Museum of the Moving Image on Saturday, June 2, hosted by columnist Robert Osborne and featuring Cooper's daughter, Maria Cooper Janis; friends Sheila MacRae and Cliff Robertson as well as John Mulholland, producer of an upcoming documentary on Cooper and Ernest Hemingway.