Bradley Charles Cooper is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been nominated for many awards, including seven Academy Awards and a Tony Award, and has won a Grammy Award and a BAFTA Award. Cooper appeared in Forbes Celebrity 100 on two occasions and Time’s list of 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2015. Take a look below for 35 more fun and interesting facts about Bradley Cooper.

1. His movies have grossed $7.8 billion worldwide and he was named one of the world’s highest paid actors for three years.

2. Cooper enrolled in the MFA program at the Actors Studio at The New School in New York City in 2000.

3. His career began in 1999 with a guest role in the television series “Sex and the City.”

4. He made his film debut two years later in the comedy “Wet Hot American Summer.”

5. He first gained recognition as Will Tippin in the spy-action television show “Alias,” and achieved minor success with a supporting part in the comedy film “Wedding Crashers.”

6. His breakthrough role came in 2009 with “The Hangover,” a critically and commercially successful comedy, which spawned two sequels in 2011 and 2013.

7. Cooper’s portrayal of a struggling writer in the thriller “Limitless” and a rookie police officer in the crime drama “The Place Beyond the Pines” drew praise from critics.

8. Cooper found greater success with the romantic comedy “Silver Linings Playbook”, the black comedy “American Hustle,” and the war biopic “American Sniper”, which he also produced.

9. For his work in these films, he was nominated for four Academy Awards, becoming the tenth actor to receive an Oscar nomination in three consecutive years.

10. In 2014, he portrayed Joseph Merrick in a Broadway revival of “The Elephant Man,” garnering a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

11. That year, he also began voicing Rocket Raccoon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

12. In 2018, Cooper produced, wrote and directed his first film with the musical romance “A Star Is Born,” in which he also starred, for which he gained three more Oscar nominations.

13. He also contributed to its US Billboard 200 number one soundtrack. Its lead single “Shallow” topped the charts in over twenty countries and earned him a Grammy Award.

14. Cooper was married to actress Jennifer Esposito from 2006 to 2007.

15. He was also in a relationship with Russian model Irina Shayk from 2015 to 2019, with whom he has a daughter.

16. Cooper was born on January 5, 1975, in Philadelphia, and grew up in the nearby communities of Jenkintown and Rydal.

17. His mother, Gloria, worked for the local NBC affiliate.

18. His father, Charles Cooper, worked as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch.

19. Cooper’s father was of Irish descent, while his mother is of Italian ancestry, from Abruzzo and Naples.

20. He has an older sister, Holly, and was raised as a Roman Catholic.

21. He had cholesteatoma in his ear soon after his birth, and punctured his eardrum when he started diving at an early age.

22. Describing himself as a child, Cooper has said: “I never lived the life of ‘Oh, you’re so good-looking’. People thought I was a girl when I was little, because I looked like a girl—maybe because my mother would keep my hair really long”.

23. He excelled at basketball, and enjoyed cooking: “I used to have buddies come over after kindergarten and I’d cook them food. I prided myself in taking whatever was in the fridge and turning it into lasagna.”

24. He initially wanted to attend a military academy and move to Japan to become a ninja.

25. At an early age, his father introduced him to films like “The Elephant Man,” which inspired him to be an actor. Cooper says that his parents were initially apprehensive of his career choice, but they eventually changed their perceptions when they saw Cooper play the part of Joseph Merrick in an excerpt from the play “The Elephant Man.”

26. While attending Germantown Academy, he worked at the Philadelphia Daily News.

27. He says that in school he was neither “the smartest person” nor “the coolest kid” and “really didn’t have anything going on!” After graduating from the academy in 1993, Cooper studied at Villanova University for a year before transferring to Georgetown University.

28. Cooper graduated with honors from the latter with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1997. He was a member of the Georgetown Hoyas rowing team and acted with Nomadic Theater.

29. Cooper became fluent in French at Georgetown and spent six months as an exchange student in Aix-en-Provence, France.

30. Cooper had been interested in a career in diplomacy when he auditioned for the master class graduate degree at the Actors Studio and was selected by James Lipton.

31. In 2000, he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from the Actors Studio Drama School at The New School in New York City. There, he trained with the coach Elizabeth Kemp of whom he says: “I was never able to relax in my life before her.” She advised him on many of his films.

32. While studying in New York City, Cooper worked as a doorman at the Morgans Hotel, and briefly interacted with Robert de Niro and Sean Penn in question-and-answer master class sessions, which were later featured episodes of “Inside the Actors Studio.”

33. Having grown up in Philadelphia, Cooper is a fan of the National Football League’s Eagles and has made various appearances on behalf of the team besides his “Silver Linings Playbook” role.

34. He voiced a snowball trying to make amends with Santa Claus in an ESPN promo which referenced an infamous incident from the 1968 Philadelphia Eagles season, and has joined owner Jeffrey Lurie in his box at games, including the Eagles’ first Super Bowl victory in 2018.

35. In 2009, Cooper took part in an Alzheimer’s Association campaign that aimed to increase awareness about Alzheimer’s disease.