One way or another, Anderson Cooper has always been in the spotlight.
Though the veteran reporter didn’t begin his journalism career until his early 20s, after he graduated from Yale University, he was born into the famed Vanderbilt family, to parents Gloria Vanderbilt and Wyatt Cooper.
Much of his childhood was effectively photographed, though following his brother Carter Cooper’s death by suicide when he was 23 years old in 1988, he took some time away from the spotlight, returning in the mid-1990s when he began working for ABC News (he worked for defunct content provider Channel One News from 1990 to 1995).
Take a look below at some of the most iconic photos from Anderson’s childhood below, and his early days in broadcast news, before he got his signature white-haired look that fans know and love him for today.
© Getty ImagesJet-black hair
Though Anderson is now known for his silver fox look and steely white hair, in the photo above, in New York City circa 1980, he is pictured with hair as black and shiny as jet fuel.
© Getty ImagesA dapper teenager
Anderson in an undated photo, circa the late 1980s, attending a gala for the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton.
© Getty ImagesA budding journalist
The news anchor in 1995, the year he left Channel One News for ABC News. He has said it was his brother’s suicide at 23 that inspired him to go into journalism.
© Getty ImagesReporting on survival
Anderson, pictured above in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997, graduated early from the Dalton School in 1985, and subsequently traveled around different countries in Africa, during which he was hospitalized in Kenya after contracting Malaria, after which he enrolled in Yale.
© Getty ImagesYour favorite news man
Anderson worked for ABC News from 1995 until 2001, and has spent the rest of his career at CNN, also working for 60 Minutes for 20 years, making his last appearance on the long-running news program in 2026.
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