Biography for
Anderson Cooper More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

3 June 1967, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Anderson Hays Cooper

Nickname

Andy
Coop

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Trade Mark

Boyish, young-looking face and premature gray-white hair.

Trivia

ABC News correspondent from 1995 to 2000.

Son of Gloria Vanderbilt and Wyatt Cooper

Returned to broadcast news, now on CNN (2001).

Studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi in the 1990s.

Graduated from Yale in 1989 with a BA in political science.

Has a dog named Molly.

Graduated from Dalton School in Manhattan (1985).

During his senior year at Dalton, he left school and drove across South Africa in a truck. He contracted malaria while there and had to be hospitalized.

Doesn't drink hot beverages.

Waited tables at Mortimer's while growing up.

Writes a monthly column for Details magazine.

At the age of three, he was a guest on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962) on 17 September 1970, when he appeared with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt.

Also is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in many other outlets, including Details magazine.

He has been a guest co-host of "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" (1989), filling in for Regis Philbin on several occasions since 2006.

A self-described "news junkie", having been one "since I was in the womb.".

Modeled with Ford Models for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Macy's from age 10 to 13.

Started getting gray hair at the age of 20 and was completely gray by the age of 35.

One of the Top 10 men on Vanity Fair's international best-dressed list, which was published in the magazine's April 2004 issue. He appeared again on the international best-dressed list in the magazine's September 2006 issue.

Photographed as a baby by Diane Arbus for Harper's Bazaar.

Commencement speaker for the graduating class of 2005 at Kean University and the class of 2006 at Yale University.

Has a pet Welsh Springer Spaniel named Molly.

Named as one of the Sexiest Men Alive in 2005 by People magazine.

He was Number 3 on Playgirl magazine's Sexiest Newscasters List in 2004. In second place was Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity and in first place was MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

In October 2005, it was announced that he signed a US $1 million contract to write a memoir for Harper Collins detailing his "life as a journalist and human being in Sri Lanka, Africa, Iraq and Louisiana/Mississippi" over the previous year. It was entitled Dispatches from the Edge and was released 23 May 2006. Some of Cooper's proceeds are being donated to charity. In addition, the book topped the New York Times bestseller list on 18 June 2006.

Interviewed news legend Walter Cronkite at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, in the second installment of a four-part University of Judaism Public Lecture Series (26 February 2007).

Is of Dutch, Chilean, Spanish and Irish ancestry from his mother.

Is a huge fan of the New York-based pop band Scissor Sisters.

Spent two summers as an intern at the CIA.

Suffered from dyslexia as a child.

His older brother Carter Vanderbilt Cooper (born on 27 January 1965) committed suicide on 22 July 1988.

Ranked #2 among "The Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America" by Out Magazine in May 2007.

Has two much-older half-brothers from his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt's second marriage to famed composer Leopold Stokowski: Leopold Stanislaus "Stan" Stokowski (born 1950) and Christopher Stokowski (born 1952).

Has two half-nieces and one half-nephew by his elder half-brother Stan Stokowski: Aurora (born March 1983), Abra (born c. 1986) and Myles (born 1998).

Distant cousin of James Vanderbilt.

Personal Quotes

"We do things with a wink and a nod. If you don't include yourself in the critique, you have no business doing it."

"Going gray is like ejaculating: you know it can happen prematurely, but when it does it comes as a total shock."

"I very much do not want to become what I used to make fun of. The newscaster on "The Simpsons" (1989) sadly is not that far off from what you see out there".

"I've always loved reporting from the field most of all. There's something about doing live TV and being there as it happens that's always appealed to me. I think there's great value to bearing witness to these events as they're actually happening."

"When the war in Iraq began I was anchoring the overnight coverage for CNN. Your teleprompter is blank and you have four hours to fill, and it can be a very long night if you don't know your stuff. I like that challenge."

"I am sort of drawn toward places in the world where there is struggle and conflict."

"Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss."

"Obviously I was well aware that I had what people consider a privileged upbringing. My mom was never a bake-cookies sort of mom. I really had no reins whatsoever."

"If I'm hip, we've got a problem in this country. I really shouldn't be held up as any model of hipness. If anything I think I'm sort of old school in my approach to objective reporting and not wearing my opinion on my sleeve. There's a lot of that in American TV news these days. Too much, in fact."

"When I was younger, I talked to the adults around me that I respected most about how they got where they were, and none of them plotted a course they could have predicted, so it seemed a waste of time to plan too long-term. Since then I've always gone on my instincts."

Regarding his appearance on Celebrity Jeopardy: "It was called the Power Players edition, though I'm not sure why I was in it because I'm neither a "playa" nor a person of power. The experience really made me realize how much of a loser I am, because of how much I got into it. I mean, it's kind of a no-win proposition. In what I do you're supposed to know a certain amount of things, and there you are exposing yourself to ridicule for not knowing stuff. I didn't consider it that much in advance, but that morning I woke up and was like 'What have I got myself into?' But I feel OK about it now."

Where Are They Now

(May 2006) His book, "Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters and Survival", is released.

(2007) Signed a multi-year deal with CNN, which would allow him to continue as a contributor to "60 Minutes" (1968) as well as doubling his salary from $2 million annually to a reported $4 million.

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