Christopher "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1990s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including The Bourne Identity, American Beauty, Capote, The Town, The Kingdom, Syriana, October Sky, Seabiscuit, and Adaptation, for which he won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. His most recent role was as Tex Richman, an evil oil baron and the main human antagonist in the 2011 film The Muppets. Cooper was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Mary Ann, a homemaker, and Charles... Cooper, who served as a doctor in the United States Air Force and operated a cattle ranch. He has an older brother, Chuck, and grew up as a self-described "blue-collar cowpoke" in Houston, Texas, and Kansas City. During his time in Kansas City, Cooper performed with The Barn Players, a local community theater that has operated since 1955. He went on to serve in the United States Coast Guard Reserve. He attended Stephens College, where he studied ballet, and then the University of Missouri, where he double-majored in the school of Agriculture and the school of Drama.
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