Patience Cooper

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Patience Cooper (1905–1983) was an Indian film actress. An Anglo-Indian[1] from Calcutta (in West Bengal), Cooper had a successful career in both silent and sound films.

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[edit] Stage career

Cooper began as a dancer in Bandmann's Musical Comedy, a Eurasian troupe. She later joined Jamshedji Framji Madan's Corinithian Stage Company as an actress.

[edit] Film career

Her first film was Vishnu Avtar, released in 1921. Cooper acted in over 40 films until she retired in 1944, after performing in her last film, Iraada. Cooper was often cast in the role of a sexually troubled but innocent woman, always at the centre of moral dilemmas, often caused by the men in her lives. Cooper was the first actor in Indian films to play double roles. She played the role of two sisters in Patni Pratap (1923) and the role of a mother and daughter in Kashmiri Sundari (1924).

The low number of women, especially Hindus, in the film industry during the 1920s (due to conservative attitudes) meant Parsi and Anglo-Indian actresses, like Cooper, were in demand. Her distinctively Anglo-Indian features, like dark eyes, sharp features, ebony hair and light skin tone, allowed technicians to experiment with the imported technique of eye-level lighting and achieve the Hollywood look, an appearance similar to Hollywood stars of the silent era. Her appearance in a string of successful films has led her to being called the first ever female Indian film star.

[edit] Later life

Cooper married Isphahani Saheb, a tea-estate owner. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan. [2]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ p 163, Parama Roy, Indian Traffic: Identities in Question in Colonial and Postcolonial India, University of California Press, ISBN 0520204875
  2. ^ Article from Economic & Political Weekly

[edit] External links