In The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Gary Cooper played Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankees first baseman whose consecutive-games record and whose farewell speech after a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis became part of American legend. Directed by Sam Wood, the film follows Gehrig from his childhood in New York to his career with the Yankees and his marriage to Eleanor, played by Teresa Wright.
Cooper gave Gehrig a humble, decent presence, and the film’s recreation of his farewell at Yankee Stadium, in which he called himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth, became one of the most famous scenes in sports films. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The Pride of the Yankees remains a signature Cooper role because Gehrig’s humility matched Cooper’s own, and because the film honoured a hero who faced illness with grace.