Patience Cooper

Patience Cooper (30 May 1905 – 5 April 1993) was an Anglo-Indian actress, and one of the early superstars of Bollywood.^[3] She was also known as The Siren of the Silent Era, The Dancing Star and The Silent Screen Star during the silent era of films in Indian Cinema.^[2][4] Along with Ermeline, Ruby Myers, Sabita Devi and Sita Devi, she is credited as a "leading star" of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s who had more mass appeal than their male counterparts.^[5] She is stated to be one of the "prominent" leading ladies of the "pioneering era" of Indian cinema along with Mehtab, Bibbo, Durga Khote, Gohar, Devika Rani, Susan Solomon and Indira Devi.^[6]

She was the daughter of Phoebe Stella Gamble (born in Calcutta in 1881; daughter of John Frederick Gamble and Phoebe Stella Clement whose mother was Armenian) and James Alfred Cooper. An Anglo-Indian^[7] born in Howrah, West Bengal, and baptised on 30 May 1905,^[8] Cooper had a successful career in both silent and sound films. She is credited with the first double roles of Indian cinema—as twin sisters in Patni Prataap and as mother and daughter in Kashmiri Sundari,^[4] even though earlier in 1917, actor Anna Salunke had played roles of both the male lead character Ram and the female lead character Seeta in the film Lanka Dahan.^[9] Patience's younger sisters Violet Cooper and Pearl Cooper were also actresses in both silent films and later talkie films.

Cooper began her career as a dancer in Bandmann's Musical Comedy, a Eurasian troupe.^[10] She later joined Jamshedji Framji Madan's Corinithian Stage Company as an actress.

She would travel to different countries for performance and musical stage plays. Patience went on trips to several countries such as Germany, Poland, Austria, Paris, Europe, Japan, China, London and United States. She also took part in a beauty contest in England which she won.^[11]

Cooper first made an impact with Nala Damayanti (1920). The film starred Keki Adajania as Nala and Cooper as Damayanti. The film was a big budget Madan Theatre production and was directed by Eugenio de Liguoro, known in Italy for his Orientalist spectacles like Fascino d'Oro (1919). Nala Damayanti was famous for its special effects at the time — Narada's ascent of Mount Meru to heaven, the transformations of four gods into impersonations of Nala, the transformation of Kali into a serpent among others.

Her next film was Vishnu Avtar, released in 1921. De Liguoro also directed Dhruva Chartitra (1921), a mythological based on the legend of Dhruva whose quest for eternal knowledge and salvation was rewarded when he became the brightest star in the heavens, the pole star also known as Dhruvatara. The film was made as a bid for an international breakthrough for Madan Theatres and featured many Europeans in the cast along with Cooper who played the female lead, Suniti.

One of Cooper's biggest successes was Pati Bhakti (1922). Cooper played Leelavati in the film, directed by the great J. J. Madan himself, advocating that women should be devoted to their husband. The film is regarded as her greatest film and was also involved in a small controversy as in Madras, the censor demanded that a dance number be removed on the grounds of obscenity.

Cooper also played perhaps the first ever double roles in Hindi films — Patni Pratap (1923), where she played two sisters and Kashmiri Sundari (1924), where she played mother and daughter.

Cooper did films right through to the mid-1930s. One of her last major films was Zehari Saap (1933). The film was a typical Cooper vehicle about a medieval chieftain's revolt against the good Nawab Bakar Malik. The nawab's outlaw son vows revenge and finally all's well that ends well. The dramatic conflict in the film sees the chieftain wanting to marry the princess, whom he had raised as his own daughter.

Cooper acted in over 80 films until she retired in 1947, after performing in her last film, Khan Saheb. 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.

A major aspect of Cooper's star image was the successful achievement of the 'Hollywood look' in spite of different light and technical conditions. 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 an appearance similar to Hollywood stars of the silent era.

The low number of women, especially Hindus, in the film industry during the 1920s (due to conservative attitudes) meant Anglo-Indian actresses like Cooper, were in demand. Her appearance in a string of successful films has led her to being called the first ever female Indian film star.

It is generally supposed Cooper married Mirza Ahmad Ispahani Saheb (MAH Ispahani), a well-known Indian businessman. In 1947, they migrated to Pakistan.^[12] Actually she was married to MAH Ispahani at the age of 21 and divorced soon after in 1928. She then married Gul Hamid Khan, one of the first early silent movie actors. He died six years later from Hodgkin's Disease.^[13]

She remained friends with MAH Ispahani until the end of her life. Cooper changed her name to Sabra Begum and lived the last of her days with her two adopted daughters Zeenat and Haleema in Karachi, Pakistan. Her foster daughter Syeda Nafees Rizvi lives in Houston, Texas, USA.^[12] She fostered and/or adopted 17 children during her lifetime.^[2]

Cooper died at her home in Karachi in 1993.^[2]

• Patience Cooper at IMDb