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A reluctant Hollywood child star, he returned to the spotlight in the Superman movies

Jackie Cooper, who has died aged 88, was the first child star of the talkies, paving the way for Freddie Bartholomew, Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney. While they could turn on the waterworks when called for, Cooper beat them all easily at the crying game. Little Jackie, from the age of eight until his early teens, blubbed his way effectively through a number of tearjerkers. Sometimes he would try to suppress his tears, pouting and saying, "Ah, shucks! Ah, shucks!" As a critic wrote in 1934: "Jackie Cooper's tear ducts, having been more or less in abeyance for the past few months, have been opened up to provide an autumn freshet in Peck's Bad Boy."

Cooper had started off in the movies billed as "the little tough guy" in eight of Hal Roach's Our Gang comedy shorts.

Oscar-nominated child star of Skippy, who went on to play Daily Planet editor in Superman, has died from an undisclosed illness

Jackie Cooper, the former child movie star who won a best actor Oscar nomination at the age of nine for Skippy and grew up to play the Daily Planet editor in Christopher Reeve's four Superman movies, has died. He was 88.

Cooper died from an undisclosed illness on Tuesday at a Los Angeles hospital, agent Ronnie Leif said.

A handsome kid with tousled blond hair and a winning smile, Cooper had a memorable bit in the 1929 musical Sunnyside Up and appeared in eight of the popular Our Gang comedies, including Pups Is Pups and Teacher's Pet. Those credits led to a test that won him the title role of Skippy.

His other credits included Sooky and The Love Machine.

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