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159-522: The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer expands upon material covered by previous products, such as Gary Gygax 's World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting and Carl Sargent's From the Ashes (TSR, 1993). The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer was published in November 2000. It was written by Gary Holian, Erik Mona , Sean K Reynolds , and Frederick Weining , and featuring a cover by William O'Connor . Interior art

318-547: A B-24A Liberator bomber, the group toured the Cook Islands , Fiji , New Caledonia , Queensland , Brisbane  – where General Douglas MacArthur told Cooper he was watching Sergeant York in a Manila theater when Japanese bombs began falling  – New Guinea , Jayapura then throughout the Solomon Islands . The group often shared the same sparse living conditions and K-rations as

477-584: A boxed set . Sales of the hand-assembled print run of 1,000 copies, put together in Gygax's home, sold out in less than a year. (In 2018, a first printing of the boxed set sold at auction for more than $ 20,000.) At the end of 1974, with sales of D&D skyrocketing, the future looked bright for Gygax and Kaye, who were only 36. But in January 1975, Kaye unexpectedly died of a heart attack. He had not made any specific provision in his will regarding his share of

636-495: A "splendid and utterly persuasive portrayal" and praised his "utterly realistic acting which comes through with such authority". Bosley Crowther , in The New York Times , wrote, "Gary Cooper, of course, is 'John Doe' to the life and in the whole – shy, bewildered, nonaggressive, but a veritable tiger when aroused." That same year, Cooper made two films with director and good friend Howard Hawks . In

795-638: A 10-week big-game hunting safari on the slopes of Mount Kenya in East Africa, where he was credited with more than 60 kills, including two lions, a rhinoceros, and various antelopes. His safari experience in Africa had a profound influence on Cooper and intensified his love of the wilderness. After returning to Europe, the countess and he set off on a Mediterranean cruise of the Italian and French Rivieras . Rested and rejuvenated by his year-long exile,

954-409: A Texas cowboy and his relationship with a beautiful fortune hunter. Filmed in early 1943, the movie's release was delayed for two years due to the increased demand for war movies. Despite poor reviews, Saratoga Trunk did well at the box office and became one of the top moneymakers of the year for Warner Bros. Cooper's only film in 1946 was Fritz Lang 's romantic thriller Cloak and Dagger , about

1113-533: A Virginia militiaman who defends settlers against an unscrupulous gun trader and hostile Indians on the Western frontier during the 18th century. The film received mixed reviews, but even long-time DeMille critic James Agee acknowledged the picture had "some authentic flavor of the period". This last of four films made with DeMille was Cooper's most lucrative, earning the actor over $ 300,000 (equal to $ 4,093,592 today) in salary and percentage of profits. Unconquered

1272-453: A beautiful Polish neighbor. Cooper delivered a performance of surprising range and depth, according to biographer Larry Swindell. Despite receiving generally favorable reviews, the film was not popular with American audiences, who may have been offended by the film's depiction of an extramarital affair and its tragic ending. Also in 1935, Cooper appeared in two Henry Hathaway films: the melodrama Peter Ibbetson with Ann Harding , about

1431-672: A better deal - a five-year contract with Jesse L. Lasky at Paramount Pictures for $ 175 a week. In 1927, with help from Clara Bow , Cooper landed high-profile roles in Children of Divorce and Wings (both 1927), the latter being the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture . That year, Cooper also appeared in his first starring roles in Arizona Bound and Nevada , both films directed by John Waters . Paramount paired Cooper with Fay Wray in The Legion of

1590-463: A business with her involved as a partner." Gygax relocated TSR from the Kaye dining room to the basement at his own house. In July 1975, Gygax and Blume reorganized their company from a partnership to a corporation called TSR Hobbies. Gygax owned 150 shares, Blume the other 100 shares, and both had the option to buy up to 700 shares at any time in the future. But TSR Hobbies had nothing to publish—D&D

1749-891: A car accident. On his doctor's recommendation, he returned to the Seven-Bar-Nine ranch to recuperate with horseback riding. The misguided therapy left him with his characteristic stiff, off-balanced walk and slightly angled horse-riding style. He left Helena High School after two years in 1918 and returned to the family ranch to work full-time as a cowboy. In 1919, his father arranged for his son to attend Gallatin County High School in Bozeman, Montana , where English teacher Ida Davis encouraged him to focus on academics and participate in debating and dramatics. Cooper later called Davis "the woman partly responsible for [his] giving up cowboy-ing and going to college". Cooper

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1908-465: A close rapport with her, both on and off screen. The film was a box-office success. In 1935, Cooper was lent to Samuel Goldwyn Productions to appear in King Vidor 's romance film The Wedding Night with Anna Sten , who was being groomed as "another Garbo ". In the film, Cooper plays an alcoholic novelist who retreats to his family's New England farm, where he meets and falls in love with

2067-552: A day and as a stunt rider for $ 10. Cooper and Talbot became close friends and hunting companions and Talbot later worked as Cooper's stuntman and stand-in for over three decades. In early 1925, Cooper began his film career in silent pictures such as The Thundering Herd and Wild Horse Mesa with Jack Holt , Riders of the Purple Sage and The Lucky Horseshoe with Tom Mix , and The Trail Rider with Buck Jones . He worked for several Poverty Row studios, but also

2226-584: A dozen players. Gygax left Guidon Games in 1973 and in October, with Don Kaye as a partner, founded Tactical Studies Rules , later known as TSR, Inc. The two men each invested $ 1,000 in the venture—Kaye borrowed his share on his life insurance policy —to print a thousand copies of the Dungeons & Dragons boxed set. They also tried to raise money by immediately publishing a set of wargame rules called Cavaliers and Roundheads , but sales were poor; when

2385-572: A drifting cowboy who defends homesteaders against Roy Bean , a corrupt judge known as the "law west of the Pecos ". Screenwriter Niven Busch relied on Cooper's extensive knowledge of Western history while working on the script. The film received positive reviews and did well at the box office, with reviewers praising the performances of the two lead actors. That same year, Cooper appeared in his first all- Technicolor feature, Cecil B. DeMille's adventure film North West Mounted Police (1940). In

2544-742: A few months he spent in Clinton, Wisconsin , after his divorce, and his time in Hollywood while he was the head of TSR's entertainment division, Lake Geneva was his home for the rest of his life. By 1966, Gygax was active in the wargame hobby world and was writing many magazine articles on the subject. He learned about H. G. Wells 's Little Wars book for play of military miniatures wargames and Fletcher Pratt 's Naval Wargame book. Gygax later looked for innovative ways to generate random numbers, and used not only common six-sided dice , but dice of all five Platonic solid shapes, which he discovered in

2703-477: A fine vehicle for Cooper. While more successful than its predecessor, the film was Cooper's fourth consecutive box-office failure in the American market. In the next two years, Cooper was more discerning about the roles he accepted and made four successful large-scale adventure and cowboy films. In William A. Wellman 's adventure film Beau Geste (1939), he plays one of three daring English brothers who join

2862-495: A fluid, believable swing. The handedness issue was solved by reversing the print for certain batting scenes. The film was one of the year's top-10 pictures and received 11 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper's third). Soon after the publication of Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls , Paramount paid $ 150,000 for the film rights with the express intent of casting Cooper in

3021-496: A forum for wargamers via its newsletters and societies, which enabled them to form local groups and share rules. In 1967, Gygax organized a 20-person gaming meet in the basement of his home; this event was later called "Gen Con 0". In 1968, he rented Lake Geneva's vine-covered Horticultural Hall for $ 50 (equivalent to $ 440 in 2023) to hold the first Lake Geneva Convention, also known as the Gen Con gaming convention . Gen Con

3180-506: A great periodical to serve gaming enthusiasts worldwide ... At no time did I ever contemplate so great a success or so long a lifespan." TSR moved out from the Gygax house in 1976 into the first professional location it could call home, known as "The Dungeon Hobby Shop". Arneson was hired as part of the creative staff, but was let go after only ten months, another sign that Gygax and Arneson had creative differences over D&D. The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set released in 1977

3339-523: A healthy Cooper returned to Hollywood in April 1932 and negotiated a new contract with Paramount for two films per year, a salary of $ 4,000 a week, and director and script approval. In 1932, after completing Devil and the Deep with Tallulah Bankhead to fulfill his old contract, Cooper appeared in A Farewell to Arms , the first film adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel. Co-starring Helen Hayes ,

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3498-445: A large collection of 54 mm and 70 mm figures, where they used "ladyfingers" (small firecrackers) to simulate explosions. By his teens, Gygax had a voracious appetite for pulp fiction authors such as Robert E. Howard , Jack Vance , Fritz Leiber , H. P. Lovecraft , and Edgar Rice Burroughs . He was a mediocre student, and in 1956, a few months after his father died, he dropped out of high school in his junior year. He joined

3657-503: A large role-playing game convention in Gygax's honor. Gygax was born in Chicago, the son of Almina Emelie "Posey" (Burdick) and Swiss immigrant and former Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Ernst Gygax. He was named Ernest after his father, but was commonly known as Gary, the middle name given to him by his mother after the actor Gary Cooper . The family lived on Kenmore Avenue, close enough to Wrigley Field that he could hear

3816-604: A leading New York theatre star and Academy Award winner, and Adolphe Menjou , the film presented Cooper with one of his most ambitious and challenging dramatic roles, playing an American ambulance driver wounded in Italy, who falls in love with an English nurse during World War I. Critics praised his highly intense and emotional performance, and the film became one of the year's most commercially successful pictures. In 1933, after making Today We Live with Joan Crawford and One Sunday Afternoon with Fay Wray, Cooper appeared in

3975-463: A live-action version of D&D . In fact, Egbert was discovered in Louisiana several weeks later, but negative mainstream media attention focused on D&D as the cause. In 1982, Patricia Pulling 's son killed himself. Pulling blamed D&D for her son's suicide and formed the organization B.A.D.D. (Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) to attack the game and TSR. Gygax defended the game on

4134-688: A love of games and an appreciation for fantasy and science fiction literature. When he was five, he played card games such as pinochle and then board games such as chess . At age ten, he and his friends played the sort of make-believe games that eventually came to be called " live action role-playing games ", with one of them acting as referee. His father introduced him to science fiction and fantasy through pulp novels . His interest in games, combined with an appreciation of history, eventually led Gygax to begin playing miniature war games in 1953 with his best friend, Don Kaye. As teenagers, Gygax and Kaye designed their own miniatures rules for toy soldiers with

4293-622: A man caught up in a dream world created by his love for a childhood sweetheart, and the adventure film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer , about a daring British officer and his men who defend their stronghold at Bengal against rebellious local tribes. While the former, championed by the surrealists became more successful in Europe than in the United States, the latter was nominated for seven Academy Awards and became one of Cooper's most popular and successful adventure films. Hathaway had

4452-527: A mere 150 pages. He also wanted to create a horror setting for the new RPG called Unhallowed . He began working on the RPG and the setting with the help of games designer Mike McCulley. Game Designers' Workshop became interested in publishing the new system, and it also drew the attention of JVC and NEC , who were looking for a new RPG system and setting to turn into a series of computer games. NEC and JVC were not interested in horror, however, so they shelved

4611-662: A mild-mannered physics professor recruited by the Office of Strategic Services during the last years of World War II to investigate the German atomic-bomb program. Playing a part loosely based on physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer , Cooper was uneasy with the role and unable to convey the "inner sense" of the character. The film received poor reviews and was a box-office failure. In 1947, Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's epic adventure film Unconquered with Paulette Goddard , about

4770-641: A military doctor who accompanies a small group of American Army officers to the Philippines to help the Christian Filipinos defend themselves against Muslim radicals. Many film critics praised Cooper's performance, including author and film critic Graham Greene , who recognized that he "never acted better". Cooper returned to the Western genre in William Wyler 's The Westerner (1940) with Walter Brennan and Doris Davenport , about

4929-532: A month in Chicago looking for work as an artist and then returned to Helena, where he sold editorial cartoons to the local Independent newspaper. In autumn 1924, Cooper's father left the Montana Supreme Court bench and moved with his wife to Los Angeles to administer the estates of two relatives, and Cooper joined his parents there in November at his father's request. After briefly working

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5088-584: A more comfortable genre in Ernst Lubitsch 's romantic comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) with Claudette Colbert. In the film, Cooper plays a wealthy American businessman in France who falls in love with an impoverished aristocrat's daughter and persuades her to become his eighth wife. Despite the clever screenplay by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder , and solid performances by Cooper and Colbert, American audiences had trouble accepting Cooper in

5247-596: A more comprehensive version of the game called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons . He designed numerous manuals for the game system, as well as several pre-packaged adventures called "modules" that gave a person running a D&D game (the " Dungeon Master ") a rough script and ideas. In 1983, he worked to license the D&;D product line into the successful D&D cartoon series . Gygax left TSR in 1986 over conflicts with its new majority owner, but he continued to create role-playing game titles independently, beginning with

5406-465: A new product. Gygax announced in 1988 in a company newsletter that he and Rob Kuntz, his co-Dungeon Master during the early days of the Greyhawk campaign, were working as a team again. This time they would create a new multi-genre fantasy role-playing game called "Infinite Adventures", which would receive support through different gamebooks for each genre. This line would explore the original visions of

5565-615: A new type of " folk hero " for the common man. Commenting on Cooper's impact on the character and the film, Capra observed: As soon as I thought of Gary Cooper, it wasn't possible to conceive anyone else in the role. He could not have been any closer to my idea of Longfellow Deeds, and as soon as he could think in terms of Cooper, Bob Riskin found it easier to develop the Deeds character in terms of dialogue. So it just had to be Cooper. Every line in his face spelled honesty. Our Mr. Deeds had to symbolize incorruptibility, and in my mind Gary Cooper

5724-497: A newspaper to pretend to be a man who promises to commit suicide on Christmas Eve to protest all the hypocrisy and corruption in the country. Considered by some critics to be Capra's best film at the time, Meet John Doe was received as a "national event" with Cooper appearing on the front cover of Time on March 3, 1941. In his review in the New York Herald Tribune , Howard Barnes called Cooper's performance

5883-459: A percentage of the profits, and ended up making $ 600,000. Cooper's understated performance was widely praised, and earned him his second Academy Award for Best Actor. After appearing in Andre de Toth 's Civil War drama Springfield Rifle (1952)  – a standard Warner Bros. film that was overshadowed by the success of its predecessor  – Cooper made four films outside

6042-763: A protagonist called Gord the Rogue; both sold well. He also hired company manager Lorraine Williams . She bought the Blumes' shares and replaced Gygax as president and CEO in October 1985, stating that Gygax would make no further creative contributions to TSR. Several of his projects were immediately shelved. Gygax took TSR to court in a bid to block the Blumes' sale of their shares to Williams, but he lost. Sales of D&D reached $ 29 million in 1985, but Gygax resigned from all of his positions with TSR in October 1986, and all of his disputes with TSR were settled in December. By

6201-499: A record with the New York Yankees for playing in 2,130 consecutive games. Cooper was reluctant to play the seven-time All-Star , who had died only the previous year from ALS (now commonly called "Lou Gehrig's disease"). Beyond the challenges of effectively portraying such a popular and nationally recognized figure, Cooper knew very little about baseball and was not left-handed like Gehrig. After Gehrig's widow visited

6360-489: A relatively short period, he appeared in five critically successful and popular films that produced some of his finest performances. When Frank Capra offered him the lead role in Meet John Doe before Robert Riskin even developed the script, Cooper accepted his friend's offer, saying, "It's okay, Frank, I don't need a script." In the film, Cooper plays Long John Willoughby, a down-and-out bush-league pitcher hired by

6519-406: A representative of Guidon Games. Gygax saw potential in both games, and was especially excited by Arneson's role-playing game. Gygax and Arneson immediately started to collaborate on creating "The Fantasy Game", the role-playing game that evolved into Dungeons & Dragons . Following Arneson's Blackmoor demonstration, Gygax requested more information from Arneson and began testing ideas for

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6678-607: A return to simple and basic rules. Although he was not able to successfully release a Lejendary Adventures computer game, Gygax decided to instead publish it as a tabletop game. Meanwhile, in 1996 the games industry was rocked by the news that TSR had run into insoluble financial problems and had been bought by Wizards of the Coast . While WotC was busy refocussing TSR's products, Christopher Clark of Inner City Games Designs suggested to Gygax in 1997 that they could publish role-playing game adventures that game stores could sell while TSR

6837-448: A romantic relationship with Gail Carpenter, his former assistant at TSR. In November 1986, she gave birth to Gygax's sixth child, Alex. Biographer Michael Witwer believes Alex's birth forced Gygax to reconsider the equation of work, gaming and family that, until this time, had been dominated by work and gaming. "Gary, keenly aware that he had made mistakes as a father and husband in the past, was determined not to make them again ... Gary

6996-586: A school supply catalog. Gygax cited as influences the fantasy and science fiction authors Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague de Camp , Jack Vance , Fletcher Pratt , Fritz Leiber , Poul Anderson , A. Merritt , and H. P. Lovecraft . In 1967, Gygax co-founded the International Federation of Wargamers (IFW) with Bill Speer and Scott Duncan. The IFW grew rapidly, particularly by assimilating several preexisting wargaming clubs, and aimed to promote interest in wargames of all periods. It provided

7155-666: A segment of 60 Minutes that aired in 1985. Death threats started arriving at the TSR office, so he hired a bodyguard. Nevertheless, TSR's annual D&D sales increased in 1982 to $ 16 million. In January 1983, The New York Times speculated that D&D might become "the great game of the 1980s" in the same manner that Monopoly was emblematic of the Great Depression . Brian Blume persuaded Gygax to allow Brian's brother Kevin to purchase Melvin Blume's shares. This gave

7314-399: A series of unpromising jobs, he met two friends from Montana, who were working as film extras and stunt riders in low-budget Western films for the small movie studios on Poverty Row . They introduced him to another Montana cowboy, rodeo champion Jay "Slim" Talbot, who took him to see a casting director. Wanting money for a professional art course, Cooper worked as a film extra for $ 5

7473-439: A shield and no armor, then he just has a shield. Shields and half-armor = half-armor rules; full-armor figure = full armor rules. I did rules for weapons as well. Together with Don Kaye, Mike Reese, and Leon Tucker, Gygax created a military miniatures society called Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) in 1970, with its first headquarters in Gygax's basement. Shortly thereafter in 1970, Gygax and Robert Kuntz founded

7632-566: A steady income and gave him more time for game development. In 1971, he began doing some editing work at Guidon Games , a publisher of wargames , for which he produced the board games Alexander the Great and Dunkirk: The Battle of France . Early that same year, Gygax published Chainmail , a miniatures wargame that simulated medieval-era tactical combat, which he had originally written with hobby-shop owner Jeff Perren . The Chainmail medieval miniatures rules were originally published in

7791-430: A team of seven scholars who are writing an encyclopedia. While researching slang, he meets Stanwyck's flirtatious burlesque stripper Sugarpuss O'Shea who blows the dust off their staid life of books. The screenplay by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder provided Cooper the opportunity to exercise the full range of his light comedy skills. In his review for the New York Herald Tribune , Howard Barnes wrote that Cooper handled

7950-415: A third line of products, which began with an adventure written by Mentzer, The Convert (1987). He had written it as an RPGA tournament for D&D , but TSR was not interested in publishing it. Mentzer got verbal permission to publish it with New Infinities, but since the permission was not in writing TSR filed an injunction for a period to prevent the adventure's sale. During all this drama, Gygax had

8109-424: A way to market more of his Gord the Rogue novels, but Baker had a vision for a new gaming company. He promised that he would handle the business end while Gygax would handle the creative projects. Baker also guaranteed that, using Gygax's name, he would be able to bring in one to two million dollars of investment. Gygax decided this was a good opportunity, and in October 1986, New Infinities Productions , Inc. (NIPI)

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8268-558: A week. It was also from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank hex mapping sheets available, which he then employed to design his own games. About the same time that he discovered Gettysburg , his mother reintroduced him to Mary Jo Powell, who had left Lake Geneva as a child and just returned. Gygax was smitten with her and, after a short courtship, persuaded her to marry him, despite being only 19. This caused some friction with Kaye, who had also been wooing Mary Jo. Kaye refused to attend Gygax's wedding. Kaye and Gygax reconciled after

8427-593: A week. Looking to exploit Cooper's growing audience appeal, the studio placed him opposite popular leading ladies such as Evelyn Brent in Beau Sabreur , Florence Vidor in Doomsday , and Esther Ralston in Half a Bride (all 1928). Around the same time, Cooper made Lilac Time (1928) with Colleen Moore for First National Pictures , his first movie with synchronized music and sound effects. It became one of

8586-493: A young engineer who helps a rival suitor save the woman he loves and her town from an impending dam disaster. Cooper's experience living among the Montana cowboys gave his performance an "instinctive authenticity", according to biographer Jeffrey Meyers. The film was a major success. Critics singled out Cooper as a "dynamic new personality" and future star. Goldwyn rushed to offer Cooper a long-term contract, but he held out for

8745-427: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( / ˈ ɡ aɪ ɡ æ k s / GHY -gaks ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons ( D&D ) with Dave Arneson . In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded

8904-578: Is now one of North America's largest annual hobby-game gatherings. Gygax met Dave Arneson , the future co-creator of D&D , at the second Gen Con in August 1969. I'm very fond of the Medieval period , the Dark Ages in particular. We started playing in the period because I had found appropriate miniatures. I started devising rules where what the plastic figure was wearing was what he had. If he had

9063-585: The World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting boxed set. Sales of the D&D game reached $ 8.5 million in 1980. Gygax also provided assistance on the Gamma World science fantasy role-playing game in 1981 and co-authored the Gamma World adventure Legion of Gold . In 1979, Michigan State University student James Dallas Egbert III allegedly disappeared into the school's steam tunnels while playing

9222-427: The 50 greatest screen legends . Cooper's career spanned 36 years, from 1925 to 1961, and included leading roles in 84 feature films. He was a major movie star from the end of the silent film era through to the end of the golden age of classical Hollywood . His screen persona appealed strongly to both men and women, and his range included roles in most major film genres. His ability to project his own personality onto

9381-546: The Castle & Crusade Society of the IFW. In October 1970, Gygax lost his job at the insurance company after almost nine years. Unemployed and now with five children he tried to use his enthusiasm for games to make a living by designing board games for commercial sale. This proved unsustainable when he grossed only $ 882 in 1971 (equivalent to $ 6,636 in 2023). He began cobbling shoes in his basement, which provided him with

9540-458: The D&D Basic Set , and D&D and AD&D became distinct product lines. Splitting the game lines created a further rift between Gygax and Arneson. Arneson received a ten-percent royalty on sales of all D&D products, but Gygax refused to pay him royalties on AD&D books, claiming that it was a new and different property. In 1979, Arneson sued TSR; they settled in March 1981 with

9699-591: The Dangerous Journeys RPG was released by Game Designers' Workshop, but TSR immediately applied for an injunction against the entire Dangerous Journeys RPG and the Mythus setting, arguing that Dangerous Journeys was based on D&D and AD&D . The injunction failed, but TSR moved forward with litigation. Gygax believed that the legal action was without merit and fueled by Lorraine Williams' personal enmity, but NEC and JVC both withdrew from

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9858-789: The Dashiell Hammett crime film City Streets (also 1931), co-starring Sylvia Sidney and Paul Lukas , playing a westerner who gets involved with big-city gangsters to save the woman he loves. Cooper concluded the year with appearances in two unsuccessful films: I Take This Woman (also 1931) with Carole Lombard , and His Woman with Claudette Colbert . The demands and pressures of making 10 films in two years left Cooper exhausted and in poor health, suffering from anemia and jaundice . He had lost 30 lb (14 kg), and felt lonely, isolated, and depressed by his sudden fame and wealth. In May 1931, Cooper left Hollywood and sailed to Algiers and then Italy, where he lived for

10017-517: The Ernst Lubitsch comedy film Design for Living , based on the successful Noël Coward play. Co-starring Miriam Hopkins and Fredric March , the film was a box-office success, ranking as one of the top-10 highest-grossing films of 1933. All three of the lead actors – March, Cooper, and Hopkins – received attention from this film, as they were all at the peak of their careers. Cooper's performance, as an American artist in Europe competing with his playwright friend for

10176-422: The Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he co-developed Chainmail , a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare with Jeff Perren. He co-founded the company Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) with childhood friend Don Kaye in 1973. The next year, TSR published D&D , created by Gygax and Arneson the year before. In 1976, he founded The Dragon , a magazine based around the new game. In 1977, he began work on

10335-465: The Marines , but after being diagnosed with walking pneumonia , he received a medical discharge and moved back home with his mother. From there, he commuted to a job as a shipping clerk with Kemper Insurance Co. in Chicago. Shortly after his return, a friend introduced him to Avalon Hill 's new wargame Gettysburg . Gygax was soon obsessed with the game, often playing marathon sessions once or more

10494-723: The New York Post called "one of his best". After the film's release, Cooper was awarded the Distinguished Citizenship Medal by the Veterans of Foreign Wars for his "powerful contribution to the promotion of patriotism and loyalty". York admired Cooper's performance and helped promote the film for Warner Bros. Sergeant York became the top-grossing film of the year and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards. Accepting his first Academy Award for Best Actor from his friend James Stewart , Cooper said, "It

10653-529: The Unhallowed setting in favor of a fantasy setting called Mythus . JVC also wanted a name change for the RPG, favoring Dangerous Dimensions over The Carpenter Project . Work progressed favorably until March 1992, when TSR filed an injunction against Dangerous Dimensions , claiming that the name and initials were too similar to Dungeons & Dragons . Gygax changed the name to Dangerous Journeys . The marketing strategy for Dangerous Journeys: Mythus

10812-513: The United States Treasury reported that Cooper was the country's highest wage earner, at $ 482,819 (equivalent to $ 10.58   million in 2023). In contrast to his output the previous year, Cooper appeared in only one picture in 1937, Henry Hathaway's adventure film Souls at Sea . A critical and box-office failure, Cooper referred to it as his "almost picture", saying, "It was almost exciting, and almost interesting. And I

10971-431: The "satanic" game D&D caused enough friction that the family finally disassociated themselves from Jehovah's Witnesses. Mary Jo resented the amount of time that her husband spent "playing games"; she had begun to drink excessively, and the couple argued frequently. Gygax had started smoking marijuana when he lost his insurance job in 1970, and he started to use cocaine and had a number of extramarital affairs. In 1983,

11130-586: The 5-foot-4-inch (163 cm) director, picked him up by the collar, and said, "If you expect to work in this country, you'd better get on to the language we use here." Despite the tensions on the set, Cooper produced "one of his best performances", according to Thornton Delehanty of the New York Evening Post . After returning to the Western genre in Zane Grey 's Fighting Caravans (1931) with French actress Lili Damita , Cooper appeared in

11289-1027: The 600-acre (240 ha) Seven-Bar-Nine cattle ranch, about 50 miles (80 km) north of Helena near Craig, Montana . Cooper and Arthur spent their summers at the ranch and learned to ride horses, hunt and fish. Cooper attended Central Grade School in Helena. Alice wanted their sons to have a British education, so she took them back to the United Kingdom in 1909 to enroll them in Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable , England . While there, Cooper and his brother lived with their father's cousins, William and Emily Barton, at their home in Houghton Regis. Cooper studied Latin, French and English history at Dunstable until 1912. While he adapted to English school discipline and learned

11448-567: The Barrier Peaks , The Temple of Elemental Evil , The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun , Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure , Isle of the Ape , and all seven of the modules later combined into Queen of the Spiders . In 1980, Gygax's long-time campaign setting Greyhawk was published in the form of the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting folio, which was expanded in 1983 into

11607-448: The Blume brothers a controlling interest, and Gygax and the Blumes were increasingly at loggerheads over the company's management by 1981. Gygax's frustrations at work and increased prosperity from his generous royalties brought a number of changes to his personal life. He and Mary Jo had been active members of the local Jehovah's Witnesses , but others in the congregation already felt uneasy about his smoking and drinking; his connection to

11766-452: The Blumes' employee. Gygax wrote the supplements Greyhawk , Eldritch Wizardry , and Swords & Spells for the original D&D game . With Brian Blume, he also designed the wild west -oriented role-playing game Boot Hill . The same year, Gygax created the magazine The Strategic Review with himself as editor. But wanting a more industry-wide periodical, he hired Tim Kask as TSR's first employee to change this magazine to

11925-463: The Castle & Crusade Society's fanzine The Domesday Book . Guidon Games hired Gygax to produce a game series called "Wargaming with Miniatures", with the initial release for the series being a new edition of Chainmail (1971). The first edition of Chainmail included a fantasy supplement to the rules. These comprised a system for warriors, wizards, and various monsters of nonhuman races drawn from

12084-407: The Castle and City of Greyhawk by Gygax and Kuntz, now called "Castle Dunfalcon". Before work on this project could commence, NIPI ran out of money, was forced into bankruptcy, and dissolved in 1989. After NIPI folded, Gygax decided to create an entirely new RPG called The Carpenter Project , one considerably more complex and "rules heavy" than his original D&D system, which had encompassed

12243-468: The Condemned and The First Kiss (both 1928), advertising them as the studio's "glorious young lovers". Their on-screen chemistry failed to generate much excitement with audiences. With each new film, Cooper's acting skills improved and his popularity continued to grow, especially among female movie-goers. During this time, he was earning as much as $ 2,750 per film and receiving 1,000 fan letters

12402-611: The French Foreign Legion in the Sahara to fight local tribes. Filmed in the same Mojave Desert locations as the original 1926 version with Ronald Colman, Beau Geste provided Cooper with magnificent sets, exotic settings, high-spirited action, and a role tailored to his personality and screen persona. This was the last film in Cooper's contract with Paramount. In Henry Hathaway's The Real Glory (1939), he plays

12561-660: The Technicolor newsreel footage supplied by the United States Navy made the film one of Cooper's most popular during this period. In the next two years, Cooper made four poorly received films: Michael Curtiz ' period drama Bright Leaf (1950), Stuart Heisler's Western melodrama Dallas (1950), Henry Hathaway's wartime comedy You're in the Navy Now (1951), and Raoul Walsh 's Western action film Distant Drums (1951). Cooper's most important film during

12720-467: The United States. In Mark Robson 's drama Return to Paradise (1953), Cooper plays an American wanderer who liberates the inhabitants of a Polynesian island from the puritanical rule of a misguided pastor. Cooper endured spartan living conditions, long hours, and ill health during the three-month location shoot on the island of Upolu in Western Samoa . Despite its beautiful cinematography,

12879-498: The West Coast, as he rented an immense mansion, increased his cocaine use, and spent time with several young starlets. Gygax was occupied with getting a movie off the ground in Hollywood, so he had to leave TSR in the hands of Kevin and Brian Blume to oversee its day-to-day operations. He reached an agreement with Orson Welles in 1984 to star in a D&D movie, with John Boorman to act as producer and director. But almost at

13038-580: The Yankees (1942), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). He later portrayed more mature characters at odds with the world in films such as The Fountainhead (1949) and High Noon (1952). In his final films, he played nonviolent characters searching for redemption in films such as Friendly Persuasion (1956) and Man of the West (1958). Frank James Cooper was born in Helena, Montana , on May 7, 1901,

13197-412: The actor and expressed her desire that he portray her husband, Cooper accepted the role that covered a 20-year span of Gehrig's life: his early love of baseball, his rise to greatness, his loving marriage, and his struggle with illness, culminating in his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, before 62,000 fans. Cooper quickly learned the physical movements of a baseball player and developed

13356-536: The affections of a beautiful woman, was singled out for its versatility and revealed his genuine ability to do light comedy. Cooper changed his name legally to "Gary Cooper" in August 1933. In 1934, Cooper was lent out to MGM for the Civil War drama film Operator 13 with Marion Davies , about a beautiful Union spy who falls in love with a Confederate soldier. Despite Richard Boleslawski 's imaginative direction and George J. Folsey 's lavish cinematography,

13515-556: The agreement that Arneson would receive a 2.5-percent royalty on all AD&D products, giving him a six-figure annual income for the next decade. Gygax wrote the AD&;D hardcovers Players Handbook , Dungeon Masters Guide , Monster Manual, and Monster Manual II . He also wrote or co-wrote many AD&D and basic D&D adventure modules, including The Keep on the Borderlands , Tomb of Horrors , Expedition to

13674-497: The already emergent major studios , Famous Players–Lasky and Fox Film Corporation. While his skilled horsemanship led to steady work in Westerns, Cooper found the stunt work, which sometimes injured horses and riders, "tough and cruel". Hoping to move beyond the risky stunt work and obtain acting roles, Cooper paid for a screen test and hired casting director Nan Collins to work as his agent. Knowing that other actors were using

13833-710: The biographical film Sergeant York , Cooper portrays war hero Alvin C. York , one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War   I. The film chronicles York's early backwoods days in Tennessee , his religious conversion and subsequent piety, his stand as a conscientious objector, and finally his heroic actions at the Battle of the Argonne Forest , which earned him the Medal of Honor . Initially, Cooper

13992-410: The characters he played contributed to his natural and authentic appearance on screen. Throughout his career, he sustained a screen persona that represented the ideal American hero. Cooper began his career as a film extra and stunt rider , but soon landed acting roles. After establishing himself as a Western hero in his early silent films , he became a movie star with his first sound picture, playing

14151-479: The characters he portrayed on screen. Looking to capitalize on Cooper's growing popularity, Paramount cast him in several Westerns and wartime dramas , including Only the Brave , The Texan , Seven Days' Leave , A Man from Wyoming , and The Spoilers (all released in 1930). Norman Rockwell depicted Cooper in his role as The Texan for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on May 24, 1930. One of

14310-506: The company, simply leaving his entire estate to his wife Donna. Although she had worked briefly for TSR as an accountant, she did not share her husband's enthusiasm for gaming, and made clear that she would not have anything to do with managing the company. Gygax called her "less than personable... After Don died she dumped all the Tactical Studies Rules materials off on my front porch. It would have been impossible to manage

14469-412: The company, then worked with Mohan and Mentzer on a science fiction-themed RPG, Cyborg Commando , which was published in 1987. But sales of the new game were not brisk. As game historian Shannon Appelcline noted in 2014, the game was "seen as one of the biggest flops in the industry." Mentzer and Mohan wrote a series of generic RPG adventures, Gary Gygax Presents Fantasy Master , and began working on

14628-470: The conventions of the Western movie genre that persist to the present day. According to biographer Jeffrey Meyers , the romantic image of the tall, handsome, and shy cowboy hero who embodied male freedom, courage, and honor was created in large part by Cooper in the film. Unlike some silent-film actors who had trouble adapting to the new sound medium, Cooper transitioned naturally, with his "deep and clear" and "pleasantly drawling" voice, which perfectly suited

14787-518: The director. In the film, Cooper plays American doctor and missionary Corydon M. Wassell , who leads a group of wounded sailors through the jungles of Java to safety. Despite receiving poor reviews, Dr. Wassell was one of the top-grossing films of the year. With his Goldwyn and Paramount contracts now concluded, Cooper decided to remain independent and formed his own production company, International Pictures, with Leo Spitz , William Goetz , and Nunnally Johnson . The fledgling studio's first offering

14946-431: The edge of insolvency. Gygax brought his findings to the five other company directors. He charged that the financial crisis was due to Kevin Blume's mismanagement: excess inventory, overstaffing, too many company cars, and some questionable projects such as dredging up a 19th-century shipwreck. Gygax gained control and produced the new AD&D book Unearthed Arcana and the Greyhawk novel Saga of Old City , featuring

15105-469: The fantasy periodical The Dragon , with Gygax as writer, columnist, and publisher (from 1978 to 1981). The Dragon debuted in June 1976, and Gygax said of its success years later: "When I decided that The Strategic Review was not the right vehicle, hired Tim Kask as a magazine editor for Tactical Studies Rules, and named the new publication he was to produce The Dragon , I thought we would eventually have

15264-566: The female lead, a change supported by Cooper and Hemingway. The love scenes between Bergman and Cooper were "rapturous" and passionate. Howard Barnes in the New York Herald Tribune wrote that both actors performed with "the true stature and authority of stars". While the film distorted the novel's original political themes and meaning, For Whom the Bell Tolls was a critical and commercial success and received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor (Cooper's fourth). Due to his age and health, Cooper did not serve in

15423-415: The film did poorly at the box office. Back at Paramount, Cooper appeared in his first of seven films by director Henry Hathaway , Now and Forever , with Carole Lombard and Shirley Temple . In the film, he plays a confidence man who tries to sell his daughter to the relatives who raised her, but is eventually won over by the adorable girl. Impressed by Temple's intelligence and charm, Cooper developed

15582-467: The film's antagonist , and the short film Lightnin' Wins (1926). As a featured player, he began to attract the attention of major film studios. On June 1, 1926, Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions for $ 50 a week. Cooper's first important film role was a supporting part in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) starring Ronald Colman and Vilma Bánky , in which he plays

15741-511: The film, Cooper plays Longfellow Deeds, a quiet, innocent writer of greeting cards who inherits a fortune, leaves behind his idyllic life in Vermont, and travels to New York City, where he faces a world of corruption and deceit. Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin were able to use Cooper's well-established screen persona as the "quintessential American hero"  – a symbol of honesty, courage, and goodness  – to create

15900-568: The film, Cooper plays a Texas Ranger who pursues an outlaw into western Canada, where he joins forces with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who are after the same man, a leader of the North-West Rebellion . While not as popular with critics as its predecessor, the film was another box-office success, the sixth-highest grossing film of 1940. The early 1940s were Cooper's prime years as an actor. In

16059-408: The film, Cooper plays an idealistic and uncompromising architect who struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism in the face of societal pressures to conform to popular standards. Based on the novel by Ayn Rand , who also wrote the screenplay, the film reflects her philosophy and attacks the concepts of collectivism while promoting the virtues of individualism . For most critics, Cooper

16218-510: The game forget the spells that they have learned immediately upon casting them and must re-study them in order to cast them again), and the system as a whole drew upon the work of authors such as Robert E. Howard , L. Sprague de Camp , Michael Moorcock , Roger Zelazny , Poul Anderson , Tolkien , Bram Stoker , and others. The final draft contained changes not vetted by Arneson, and Gygax's vision differed on some rule details Arneson had preferred. Gygax asked Guidon Games to publish it, but

16377-456: The game in a three-volume set: The Lejendary Rules for All Players (1999), Lejend Master's Lore (2000) and Beasts of Lejend (2000). The new owner of TSR, WotC's Peter Adkison , clearly did not harbor any of Lorraine Williams' ill-will toward Gygax: Adkison purchased all of Gygax's residual rights to D&D and AD&D for a six-figure sum. Gygax did not author any new game supplements or novels for TSR or WotC, but he did agree to write

16536-454: The game on his two oldest children, Ernie and Elise, in a setting he called "Greyhawk". This group rapidly expanded to include Kaye, Kuntz, and eventually a large circle of players. Gygax and Arneson continued to trade notes about their respective campaigns as Gygax began work on a draft. Several aspects of the system governing magic in the game were inspired by fantasy author Jack Vance 's The Dying Earth stories (notably that magic-users in

16695-472: The ground. He had been able to keep the rights to Gord the Rogue as part of the severance agreement he made with TSR, so he made a new licensing agreement with TSR for the Greyhawk setting and began writing new novels starting with Sea of Death (1987); novel sales were brisk, and Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels kept New Infinities operating. Gygax brought in Don Turnbull from Games Workshop to manage

16854-527: The highest respect for Cooper's acting ability, calling him "the best actor of all of them". Cooper's career took an important turn in 1936. After making Frank Borzage 's romantic comedy film Desire with Marlene Dietrich at Paramount, in which he delivered a performance considered by some contemporary critics as one of his finest, Cooper returned to Poverty Row for the first time since his early silent-film days to make Frank Capra 's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town with Jean Arthur for Columbia Pictures . In

17013-661: The lead role of Robert Jordan, an American explosives expert who fights alongside the Republican loyalists during the Spanish Civil War . The original director, Cecil B. DeMille, was replaced by Sam Wood, who brought in Dudley Nichols for the screenplay. After the start of principal photography in the Sierra Nevada in late 1942, Ingrid Bergman was brought in to replace ballerina Vera Zorina as

17172-713: The military during World War II, but like many of his colleagues, he got involved in the war effort by entertaining the troops. In June 1943, he visited military hospitals in San Diego, and often appeared at the Hollywood Canteen serving food to the Servicemen. In late 1943, Cooper undertook a 23,000-mile (37,000 km) tour of the South West Pacific with actresses Una Merkel and Phyllis Brooks and accordionist Andy Arcari. Traveling on

17331-418: The most commercially successful films of 1928. Cooper became a major movie star in 1929 playing the lead role in his first talking picture, The Virginian (1929), which was directed by Victor Fleming and co-starred Mary Brian and Walter Huston . Based on the popular novel by Owen Wister , The Virginian was one of the first sound films to define the Western code of honor and helped establish many of

17490-508: The most important performances in Cooper's early career was his portrayal of a sullen legionnaire in Josef von Sternberg 's film Morocco (also 1930) with Marlene Dietrich in her introduction to American audiences. During production, von Sternberg focused his energies on Dietrich and treated Cooper dismissively. Tensions came to a head after von Sternberg yelled directions at Cooper in German. The 6-foot-3-inch (191 cm) actor approached

17649-819: The multi-genre Dangerous Journeys in 1992. He designed the Lejendary Adventure gaming system, released in 1999. In 2005, he was involved in the Castles & Crusades role-playing game, which was conceived as a hybrid between the third edition of D&D and the original version of the game. In 2004, he had two strokes and narrowly avoided a subsequent heart attack; he was then diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm and died in March 2008 at age 69. Following Gygax's funeral, many mourners formed an impromptu game event which became known as Gary Con 0, and gamers celebrate in Lake Geneva each March with

17808-695: The name "Frank Cooper", Collins suggested he change his first name to "Gary" after her hometown of Gary, Indiana . Cooper immediately liked the name. Cooper also found work in a variety of non-Western films, appearing, for example, as a masked Cossack in The Eagle (1925), as a Roman guard in Ben-Hur (1925), and as a flood survivor in The Johnstown Flood (1926). Gradually, he began to land credited roles that offered him more screen time, in films such as Tricks (1925), in which he played

17967-593: The next year. During his time abroad, Cooper stayed with the Countess Dorothy di Frasso , the former Dorothy Cadwell Taylor, at the Villa Madama in Rome, where she taught him about good food and vintage wines, how to read Italian and French menus, and how to socialize among Europe's nobility and upper classes. After guiding him through the great art museums and galleries of Italy, she accompanied him on

18126-449: The outlaws alone. During the filming, Cooper was in poor health and in considerable pain from stomach ulcers. His ravaged face and discomfort in some scenes "photographed as self-doubt", according to biographer Hector Arce, and contributed to the effectiveness of his performance. Considered one of the first "adult" Westerns for its theme of moral courage, High Noon received enthusiastic reviews for its artistry, with Time placing it in

18285-405: The part. He made several overtures to the actor, but Cooper had doubts about the project, and did not feel suited to the role. Cooper later admitted, "It was one of the best roles ever offered in Hollywood   ... But I said no. I didn't see myself as quite that dashing, and later, when I saw Clark Gable play the role to perfection, I knew I was right." Back at Paramount, Cooper returned to

18444-407: The peasants defend themselves against the oppression of a cruel warlord . Written by playwright Clifford Odets , the film was a critical and commercial success. In Cecil B. DeMille 's sprawling frontier epic The Plainsman , his first of four films with the director, Cooper portrays Wild Bill Hickok in a highly fictionalized version of the opening of the American western frontier. The film

18603-425: The point that Mary Jo, pregnant with their second child, believed he was having an affair and confronted him in a friend's basement only to discover him and his friends sitting around a map-covered table. In 1962, Gygax got a job as an insurance underwriter at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. His family continued to grow, and after his third child was born, he decided to move his family back to Lake Geneva. Except for

18762-474: The postwar years was Fred Zinnemann 's Western drama High Noon (1952) with Grace Kelly and Katy Jurado for United Artists . In the film, Cooper plays retiring sheriff Will Kane , who is preparing to leave town on his honeymoon when he learns that an outlaw he helped put away and his three henchmen are returning to seek their revenge. Unable to gain the support of the frightened townspeople, and abandoned by his young bride, Kane nevertheless stays to face

18921-596: The preface to the 1998 adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors , a paean to Gygax's original AD&D adventure Tomb of Horrors . He also returned to the pages of Dragon Magazine, writing the "Up on a Soapbox" column which was published from Issue #268 (January 2000) to Issue #320 (June 2004). Gygax continued to work on Lejendary Adventures which he believed was his best work. However, sales were below expectation. Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper ; May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961)

19080-481: The printing costs for the thousand copies of Dungeons & Dragons rose from $ 2,000 to $ 2,500, they still did not have enough capital to publish it. Worried that the other playtesters and wargamers now familiar with Gygax's rules would bring a similar product to the market first, the two accepted an offer in December 1973 from gaming acquaintance Brian Blume to invest $ 2,000 in TSR to become an equal one-third partner. (Gygax accepted Blume's offer right away. Kaye

19239-399: The project, killing the Mythus computer game. By 1994, the legal costs had drained all of Gygax's resources, so he offered to settle. In the end, TSR paid Gygax for the complete rights to Dangerous Journeys and Mythus . In 1995, Gygax began work on a new computer role-playing game called Lejendary Adventures . In contrast to the rules-heavy Dangerous Journeys , this new system was

19398-484: The ranks of Stagecoach and The Gunfighter . Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times , wrote that Cooper was "at the top of his form", and John McCarten, in The New Yorker , wrote that Cooper was never more effective. The film earned $ 3.75   million in the United States and $ 18   million worldwide. Following the example of his friend James Stewart, Cooper accepted a lower salary in exchange for

19557-463: The requisite social graces, he never adjusted to the formal Eton collars he was required to wear. He received his confirmation in the Church of England at the Church of All Saints in Houghton Regis on December 3, 1911. His mother accompanied their sons back to the U.S. in August 1912 and Cooper resumed his education at Johnson Grammar School in Helena. When Cooper was 15, he injured his hip in

19716-795: The roar of the crowds watching the Chicago Cubs play. At age 7, he became a member of a small group of friends who called themselves the "Kenmore Pirates". In 1946, after the Kenmore Pirates were involved in a fracas with another gang of boys, his father decided to move the family to Posey's family home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin , where Posey's family had settled in the early 19th century, and where Gary's grandparents still lived. In this new setting, Gygax soon made friends with several of his peers, including Don Kaye and Mary Jo Powell. During his childhood and teen years, he developed

19875-584: The role of a shallow philanderer. It succeeded only at the European box-office market. In the fall of 1938, Cooper appeared in H. C. Potter 's romantic comedy The Cowboy and the Lady with Merle Oberon , about a sweet-natured rodeo cowboy who falls in love with the wealthy daughter of a presidential hopeful, believing her to be a poor, hard-working lady's maid. The efforts of three directors and several eminent screenwriters could not salvage what could have been

20034-456: The role with "great skill and comic emphasis" and that his performance was "utterly delightful". Though small in scale, Ball of Fire was one of the top-grossing films of the year and Cooper's fourth consecutive picture to make the top 20. Cooper's only film appearance in 1942 was also his last under his Goldwyn contract. In Sam Wood 's biographical film The Pride of the Yankees , Cooper portrays baseball star Lou Gehrig , who established

20193-430: The same time, he received word that TSR had run into severe financial difficulties, and Kevin Blume was attempting to sell the company for six million dollars. Gygax immediately discarded his movie ambitions—his D&D movie was never made—and flew back to Lake Geneva. He discovered that industry leader TSR was grossing $ 30 million, yet it was barely breaking even; it was in fact $ 1.5 million in debt and teetering on

20352-493: The setting for the world of Greyhawk, and Gygax was not happy with the new direction in which TSR was taking "his" creation. In a literary declaration that his old world was dead, and wanting to make a clean break with all things Greyhawk, Gygax destroyed his version of Oerth in the final Gord the Rogue novel, Dance of Demons . With the Gord the Rogue novels finished, NIPI's main source of steady income dried up. The company needed

20511-627: The standard six-sided dice. He also collaborated with Arneson on the Napoleonic naval wargame Don't Give Up the Ship! Dave Arneson briefly adapted the Chainmail rules for his fantasy Blackmoor campaign. In the winter of 1972–1973, Arneson and friend David Megarry , inventor of the Dungeon! board game, traveled to Lake Geneva to showcase their respective games to Gygax, in his role as

20670-410: The terms of the settlement, he gave up his rights except to Gord the Rogue and to those D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg). Immediately after leaving TSR, Gygax was approached by a wargaming acquaintance, Forrest Baker, who had done some consulting work for TSR in 1983 and 1984. Tired of company management, Gygax was simply looking for

20829-461: The three-volume rule set in a labeled box was beyond the small publisher's scope. Gygax pitched the game to Avalon Hill, but it did not understand the concept of role-playing and turned down his offer. By 1974, Gygax's Greyhawk group, which had started off with himself, Ernie Gygax, Don Kaye, Rob Kuntz, and Terry Kuntz , had grown to over 20 people, with Rob Kuntz operating as co-dungeon-master so that each of them could referee smaller groups of about

20988-461: The title role in 1929's The Virginian . In the early 1930s, he expanded his heroic image to include more cautious characters in adventure films and dramas such as A Farewell to Arms (1932) and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935). During the height of his career, Cooper portrayed a new type of hero, a champion of the common man in films such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Meet John Doe (1941), Sergeant York (1941), The Pride of

21147-591: The troops. Cooper met with the servicemen and women, visited military hospitals, introduced his attractive colleagues and participated in occasional skits. The shows concluded with Cooper's moving recitation of Lou Gehrig's farewell speech. When he returned to the United States, he visited military hospitals throughout the country. Cooper later called his time with the troops the "greatest emotional experience" of his life. In 1944, Cooper appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's wartime adventure film The Story of Dr. Wassell with Laraine Day  – his third movie with

21306-527: The two got an acrimonious divorce. At the same time, the Blumes wanted to get Gygax out of Lake Geneva so that they could manage the company without his "interference", so they split TSR Hobbies into TSR, Inc. and TSR Entertainment, Inc. Gygax became president of TSR Entertainment, Inc., and the Blumes sent him to Hollywood to develop TV and movie opportunities. He became co-producer of the licensed D&D cartoon series for CBS , which led its time slot for two years. Gygax' life continued to unravel on

21465-473: The wedding. The couple moved to Chicago where Gygax continued as a shipping clerk at Kemper Insurance. He found a job for Mary Jo there, but the company laid her off when she became pregnant with their first child. He also took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago . Despite his commitments to his job, raising a family, and attending college, Gygax continued to play wargames. It reached

21624-407: The works of J. R. R. Tolkien and other sources. For a small publisher like Guidon Games, Chainmail was relatively successful, selling 100 copies per month. Gygax also collaborated on Tractics with Mike Reese and Leon Tucker, his contribution being the change to a 20-sided spinner or a coffee can with 20 numbered poker chips (eventually, 20-sided dice) to decide combat resolutions instead of

21783-644: The year – a testament to Cooper's still vital audience appeal. It was also International's biggest financial success during its brief history before being sold off to Universal Studios in 1946. Cooper's career during the postwar years drifted in new directions as American society was changing. While he still played conventional heroic roles, his films now relied less on his heroic screen persona and more on novel stories and exotic settings. In November 1945, Cooper appeared in Sam Wood's 19th-century period drama Saratoga Trunk with Ingrid Bergman, about

21942-412: The younger of two sons of English immigrant parents Alice (née Brazier; 1873–1967) and Charles Henry Cooper (1865–1946). His brother, Arthur, was six years his senior. Cooper's father came from Houghton Regis , England and became a prominent lawyer, rancher, and Montana Supreme Court justice. His mother hailed from Gillingham , England, and married Charles in Montana. In 1906, Charles purchased

22101-480: Was Sam Wood's romantic comedy Casanova Brown with Teresa Wright , about a man who learns his soon-to-be ex-wife is pregnant with his child, just as he is about to marry another woman. The film received poor reviews, with the New York Daily News calling it "delightful nonsense", and Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times , criticizing Cooper's "somewhat obvious and ridiculous clowning". The film

22260-473: Was Sergeant Alvin York who won this award. Shucks, I've been in the business 16 years and sometimes dreamed I might get one of these. That's all I can say   ... Funny when I was dreaming I always made a better speech." Cooper concluded the year back at Goldwyn with Howard Hawks to make the romantic comedy Ball of Fire with Barbara Stanwyck . In the film, Cooper plays a shy linguistics professor who leads

22419-583: Was almost good." In 1938, he appeared in Archie Mayo 's biographical film The Adventures of Marco Polo . Plagued by production problems and a weak screenplay, the film became Goldwyn's biggest failure to date, losing $ 700,000. During this period, Cooper turned down several important roles, including the role of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind . Cooper was producer David O. Selznick 's first choice for

22578-666: Was also a realist, and knew what good fatherhood would demand, especially at his age." On August 15, 1987, on what would have been his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, Gygax married Carpenter. During 1987 and 1988, Gygax worked with Flint Dille on the Sagard the Barbarian books, as well as Role-Playing Mastery and its sequel, Master of the Game . He also wrote two more Gord the Rogue novels, City of Hawks (1987), and Come Endless Darkness (1988). But by 1988, TSR had rewritten

22737-523: Was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, as well as an Academy Honorary Award in 1961 for his career achievements. He was one of the top-10 film personalities for 23 consecutive years and one of the top money-making stars for 18 years. The American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Cooper at number   11 on its list of

22896-496: Was an even greater box-office hit than its predecessor, due in large part to Jean Arthur's definitive depiction of Calamity Jane and Cooper's inspired portrayal of Hickok as an enigmatic figure of "deepening mythic substance". That year, Cooper appeared for the first time on the Motion Picture Herald exhibitor's poll of top-10 film personalities, where he remained for the next 23 years. In late 1936, Paramount

23055-455: Was an introductory version of the original D&D geared toward new players and edited by John Eric Holmes . The same year, TSR Hobbies released Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ( AD&D ), a completely new and complex version of D&D . The Monster Manual was also released that year and became the first supplemental rule book of the new system, and many more followed. AD&D 's rules were not fully compatible with those of

23214-414: Was announced publicly. To help him with the creative work, Gygax poached Frank Mentzer and Dragon magazine editor Kim Mohan from TSR. But before a single product was released, Forrest Baker left NIPI when the outside investment he promised of one to two million dollars failed to materialize. Against his will, Gygax was back in charge again; he immediately looked for a quick product to get NIPI off

23373-400: Was barely profitable. In 1945, Cooper starred in and produced Stuart Heisler 's Western comedy Along Came Jones with Loretta Young for International. In this lighthearted parody of his past heroic image, Cooper plays comically inept cowboy Melody Jones, who is mistaken for a ruthless killer. Audiences embraced Cooper's character, and the film was one of the top box-office pictures of

23532-547: Was by Joel Biske , Vince Locke , and Daniela Castillo . Of the two Greyhawk Gazetteers (The Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and the D&D Gazetteer ) published for the 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons game, the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer was better received by players. Most reviews were generally positive, while common misgivings concerned the lack of a full-color layout and the paper-back cover. This Dungeons & Dragons article related to Greyhawk

23691-482: Was his last unqualified box-office success for the next five years. In 1948, after making Leo McCarey 's romantic comedy Good Sam , Cooper sold his company to Universal Studios and signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. that gave him script and director approval and a guaranteed $ 295,000 (equal to $ 3,741,025 today) per picture. His first film under the new contract was King Vidor's drama The Fountainhead (1949) with Patricia Neal and Raymond Massey . In

23850-474: Was hopelessly miscast in the role of Howard Roark. In his review for The New York Times , Bosley Crowther concluded he was "Mr. Deeds out of his element". Cooper returned to his element in Delmer Daves ' war drama Task Force (1949), about a retiring rear admiral , who reminisces about his long career as a naval aviator and his role in the development of aircraft carriers. Cooper's performance and

24009-440: Was less enthusiastic, and after a week to consider the offer, he questioned Blume closely before acquiescing.) Blume's investment finally brought the financing that enabled them to publish D&D . Gygax worked on rules for more miniatures and tabletop battle games including Classic Warfare (Ancient Period: 1500 BC to 500 AD) and Warriors of Mars . TSR released the first commercial version of D&D in January 1974 as

24168-523: Was multi-pronged. The RPG and setting were to be published by Game Designers' Workshop, and the Mythus computer game was being prepared by NEC and JVC. There would also be a series of books based on the Mythus setting written by Gygax. He wrote three novels published by Penguin/Roc and later reprinted by Paizo Publishing : The Anubis Murders , The Samarkand Solution , and Death in Delhi . In late 1992,

24327-407: Was nervous and uncertain about playing a living hero, so he traveled to Tennessee to visit York at his home, and the two quiet men established an immediate rapport and discovered they had much in common. Inspired by York's encouragement, Cooper delivered a performance that Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune called "one of extraordinary conviction and versatility", and that Archer Winston of

24486-469: Was not accepted into the school's drama club. His drawings and watercolor paintings were exhibited throughout the dormitory and he was named art editor for the college yearbook. During the summers of 1922 and 1923, Cooper worked at Yellowstone National Park as a tour guide driving the yellow open-top buses. Despite a promising first 18 months at Grinnell, he left college suddenly in February 1924, spent

24645-545: Was otherwise occupied, so Inner City published the fantasy adventures A Challenge of Arms (1998) and The Ritual of the Golden Eyes (1999). Gygax introduced some investors to the publication setup that Clark was using, and although the investors were not willing to fund publication of Legendary Adventures , Clark and Gygax were able to start the partnership Hekaforge Productions. Gygax was thus able to return to publish Lejendary Adventures in 1999. Hekaforge published

24804-460: Was preparing a new contract for Cooper that would raise his salary to $ 8,000 a week, when Cooper signed a contract with Samuel Goldwyn for six films over six years with a minimum guarantee of $ 150,000 per picture. Paramount brought suit against Goldwyn and Cooper, and the court ruled that Cooper's new Goldwyn contract afforded the actor sufficient time to also honor his Paramount agreement. Cooper continued to make films with both studios, and by 1939,

24963-741: Was still attending high school in 1920, when he took three art courses at Montana Agricultural College in Bozeman. His interest in art was inspired years earlier by the Western paintings of Charles Marion Russell and Frederic Remington . Cooper especially admired and studied Russell's Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole (1910), which still hangs in the state capitol building in Helena. In 1922, to continue his art education, Cooper enrolled in Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa . He did well academically in most of his courses, but

25122-511: Was still owned by the three-way partnership of TSR, and neither Gygax nor Blume had the money to buy out Donna Kaye's shares. Blume persuaded a reluctant Gygax to allow his father, Melvin Blume, to buy Donna's shares, and those were converted to 200 shares in TSR Hobbies. In addition, Brian bought another 140 shares. These purchases reduced Gygax from majority shareholder in control of the company to minority shareholder; he effectively became

25281-677: Was that symbol. Both Desire and Mr. Deeds opened in April 1936 to critical praise and were major box-office successes. In his review in The New York Times , Frank Nugent wrote that Cooper was "proving himself one of the best light comedians in Hollywood". For his performance in Mr. Deeds , Cooper received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Cooper appeared in two other Paramount films in 1936. In Lewis Milestone 's adventure film The General Died at Dawn with Madeleine Carroll , he plays an American soldier of fortune in China who helps

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