By Sylvia Gurinsky
Jackie Cooper, who died last week, had two show business careers: The films he did as a child and the television and theater he did as an adult.
The latter undoubtedly satisfied him more; he had a chance to prove himself as an actor and director, and won accolades for both.
During the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, he was a mainstay on televised live drama programs such as Kraft Theatre and Studio One in Hollywood. During the late 1950s, he had his own situation comedy, "The People's Choice," on NBC for three years, and from 1959-62 was in the dramedy "Hennesey" on CBS.
From the 1960s through the 80s, Cooper made numerous guest-starring appearances on various shows, including "Hawaii Five-O," "The Rockford Files" and "Murder, She Wrote."
Doing his own series, Cooper got behind-the-camera experience as a director and would put it to good use for three decades. He directed numerous "M*A*S*H," episodes during the show's first two seasons - including "Carry On, Hawkeye," for which he won an Emmy. He won a second Emmy for directing the pilot episode of "The White Shadow" and also directed episodes of "Magnum, P.I.," "The Rockford Files" and "Cagney & Lacey," among others.
Alas, we wait for the live drama presentations to be released on DVD, but many of his guest-starring roles and directed episodes are available.
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Dana Wynter, who died earlier this week, also had a long and steady career guest-starring in live dramas and television series. A few of those, including roles in "Hawaii Five-O" and "Magnum, P.I.," are available on DVD.
One that could get a release, given royal wedding interest, is "The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana," shown on CBS in 1982. Wynter played Queen Elizabeth long before Helen Mirren did.
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One final note for those who enjoyed watching the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton (now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge): ABC News not only has the highlights, but also has past royal weddings, going back to Princess Anne's first marriage to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973.
The site also includes highlights of Prince Charles becoming Prince of Wales in 1969:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/Royal_Wedding
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See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!
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