Spotlight On: Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper’s rise to stardom was slow and steady for a decade – and then went meteoric in one single year. Take a look at how the actor graduated from small supporting roles to Oscar nominations.

The 24-year-old Cooper was still working on his MFA degree in acting when he was cast as one of Sarah Jessica Parker’s many suitors in the cable series’ second season. Not a bad start to a career.

Cooper made his feature film debut in this cult spoof of 1970s summer camp comedies. Like Amy Poehler (at left) and other fellow cast members, Cooper reprised his role for the 2015 Netflix series adaptation.

The hits just kept on coming: just two years into his career, Cooper landed a plum role on the J.J. Abrams/Jennifer Garner spy show. He was a regular on the first three seasons, then returned near the end of the series for a final farewell.

Shortly before his ‘Alias’ tenure, Cooper played one third of a love triangle in this obscure indie movie. It was his first true starring role, although ‘Bending All the Rules’ wouldn’t be released – on DVD – until 2011.

Cooper did a ton of TV work after leaving ‘Alias’ in 2003, though he attached himself to several series that never quite took off. He reignited his big-screen career as Rachel McAdams’ obnoxious boyfriend in this hit comedy.

We can only wonder how Cooper, still considered a supporting player, felt watching his onetime ‘Sex and the City’ partner Sarah Jessica Parker woo Matthew McConaughey in this middling romantic comedy.

Though he was keeping busy, Cooper still needed his breakout hit. This horror thriller would not be that hit, though it has gained a cult following. Look fast, and you’ll even see it on a movie theater marquee in 2012’s ‘Silver Linings Playbook.’

When you go from a flop like ‘The Midnight Meat Train’ straight to a blockbuster like ‘The Hangover,’ you’re officially an overnight success. Cooper’s cohorts Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms were also risky bets that paid off.

Cooper’s first big movie after ‘The Hangover’ was this remake of the 1980s action TV show. He played Templeton “Faceman” Peck, the role made famous by Dirk Benedict. The odd nickname is derived from the character’s good looks.

Speaking of good looks, in 2011 Cooper was named “Sexiest Man Alive” by ‘People’ magazine. But the actor chose to showcase his range by playing a drug-fueled super genius in this drama. He later popped up in the 2015 TV adaptation.

More work in indies and ‘Hangover’ sequels came pouring in, but this was the film that finally established Bradley Cooper as a top-shelf actor – and earned him his first Oscar nomination, as a bipolar Philadelphian pursued by Jennifer Lawrence.

In his second team-up with Jennifer Lawrence and ‘Silver Linings’ director David O. Russell – ‘Joy’ would be their third – a curly-haired Cooper scored another Oscar nod for his work in this ‘70s-set caper about con artists.

Cooper remained off camera, but his voice performance as a short-tempered cosmic raccoon no doubt helped ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ become the biggest movie of the summer.

‘Guardians’ angled to be 2014’s box office champ, but that honor eventually went to this Iraq War drama, which opened in December but went wide in January 2015, setting records and earning Cooper his third Oscar nomination in three years.

In his third movie with J-Law and directed by David O. Russell, Cooper plays a Home Shopping Network exec who believes so completely in single mom/inventrix Joy’s “Miracle Mop,” he goes to great lengths to help her get it made – and sold.