Biography

Being the producer of King Kong (1933), he personally removed a scene in which four sailors, after Kong shook them off a log bridge, fall into a ravine and are eaten alive by giant spiders because, when previewed in January 1933, audience members either fled the theater in terror or talked about the ghastly scene during the entire movie.

Cooper had a bizarre dream about a giant ape that was destroying New York City and recorded it when he woke up. This was the basis for the classic King Kong (1933), which he developed and produced.

During the Russo-Polish War of 1920, when Soviet forces invaded Poland, Cooper helped to create the Kosciusko Squadron, a group of American pilots who flew for the Polish Air Force. They were of invaluable help during the Battle of Warsaw and were instrumental in preventing Russian forces from taking the city. When asked why he traveled all the way to Poland to fight in a war that America was not involved in, Cooper said that his great-grandfather, Col. John Cooper, had been a close friend of Gen. Pulaski, a Polish officer who had volunteered his services to help the American colonists in the US Revolutionary War. John Cooper had been present at Pulaski's death during the Battle of Savannah in 1779. Merrian Cooper said that since Poles had helped America in its fight for independence, he and his squadron were returning the favor.

He was John Ford's favorite producer with whom to work.

He died only day after Robert Armstrong, with whom he worked on The Most Dangerous Game (1932), King Kong (1933), Blind Adventure (1933), Son of Kong (1933), The Fugitive (1947) and Mighty Joe Young (1949): Armstrong died on April 20, 1973 and Cooper died on April 21, 1973.