Jackie Cooper, a former child star who played Daily Planet editor Perry White in the four Superman films, has died. He was 88.

Cooper died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Tuesday of complications related to old age, his lawyer said.

One of the biggest child stars of the 1930s, Cooper sustained his acting career as a teen and young man, became a TV star and then worked as a director and producer before eventually returning to on-camera roles.

At nine, he became the youngest boy to be nominated for a best actor Oscar for the 1931 film Skippy, an adaptation of a popular comic strip.

Please Don't Shoot My Dog

Cooper's 1981 autobiography, titled Please Don't Shoot My Dog, reflected on a technique used to make him cry during Skippy: the director, his uncle Norman Taurog, pretended to have his dog shot to bring on the tears. Taurog went on to win the Oscar for best director.

From left, Christopher Reeve, Margo Kidder and Jackie Cooper in 1978's Superman. ReutersBorn John Cooper Jr. on Sept. 15, 1922, in Los Angeles, little Jackie's father ran off when he was just two. His mother, Mabel Leonard, worked as a secretary at Fox studio and arranged film extra work for her son.

After Skippy, the golden-haired actor earned a contract with MGM, attending studio school with Mickey Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew and Judy Garland, who he dated at age 14.

Cooper starred in the Our Gang series of short films and also made features such as Sooky (a sequel to Skippy), Broadway to Hollywood, Lone Cowboy, The Devil Is a Sissy (with Rooney and Bartholomew), Gangster's Boy, Seventeen and The Return of Frank James.

He served in the U.S. Navy for four years during the Second World War, but his Hollywood career did not survive the absence. He decided to move to New York, where he appeared as Ensign Pulver in a Broadway production of Mister Roberts and starred in stage comedies Remains to Be Seen and King of Hearts.

Varied career

In the early 1950s, he moved into live TV drama, appearing in the comedy The People's Choice (which ran for three years on NBC) and Hennesey, a comedy-drama that aired on CBS from 1959 until 1962.

At the same time, he was maintaining a peacetime military career serving as a line officer in the Naval Reserve with duties in recruitment, training films and public relations. He rose to the rank of captain.

In the 1960s, Cooper transitioned into a production role at Screen Gems, selling shows like Gidget, I Dream of Jeannie and the soap Days Of Our Lives.

"Like so many of those jobs, the honeymoon was over after the first two years," Cooper recalled in an interview.

"Then you find yourself spending all your time trying to sell your bosses on what you want to do. My last selling job was The Flying Nun. They kept telling me that people wouldn't watch a show about Catholics."

He sold it and the series starring Sally Field became a hit.

Cooper thought of retiring in the early 1970s, but instead made another transition, returning to acting and becoming a director as well.

He won two Emmys for directing, one for an episode of MASH and the second for The White Shadow, starring Ken Howard.

He also took on many acting roles, including as the Daily Planet's editor in four Superman films starring Christopher Reeve. He retired in 1989.

Cooper married three times and is survived by his two sons.