Actress Lupe Velez ‘Carried a Torch’ for Actor Gary Cooper ‘Until Her Dying Day’
They were a pairing of opposites: High Noon star Gary Cooper stood 6-foot-3 and spoke softly and slowly. Tiny 5-foot Lupe Vélez was always erupting with laughter or screaming in anger. “You couldn’t help but being attracted to Lupe Vélez,” Gary said. “She flashed, stormed and sparkled.”
The couple met on the set of 1929’s Wolf Song and began an affair that lasted for nearly three tempestuous years. “She once stabbed Gary during a fight. He needed stitches,” says Michelle Vogel, author of Lupe Vélez: The Life and Career of Hollywood’s “Mexican Spitfire.”
Lupe attacked Gary in fits of jealousy (he was a serial cheater), but sometimes she just wanted a reaction. “I think I will kill my Gary,” Lupe declared. “Because he does not get angry when Lupe is angry with him.” But for a time, they couldn’t get enough of each other. “A reporter asked Gary what was the ‘biggest thrill’ he’d gotten from making movies,” says Vogel. “Without a second thought, he said: ‘Lupe.’”
