Bradley Cooper on 'Sex and the City' to Now: See His Transformation

Considering Bradley Cooper is one of the most famous actors in the world, it’s hard to imagine a time when he wasn’t a bona fide star. As it happens, though, the Oscar nominee comes from pretty humble beginnings.

By humble, of course, we mean his 1999 appearance on Sex and the City. For those of you who haven’t obsessively watched every episode of the hit HBO series (several times) like we have, no worries! We’ll refresh your memory.

Titled “They Don’t Shoot Single People, Do They?” in season 2, Bradley played a guy named Jake. Basically, he comes in at the tail-end of the episode to boost Carrie Bradshaw’s confidence after a particularly awful magazine cover with her face on it gets published. As expected, things go awry and Carrie ends up ditching Jake … and his convertible that he somehow manages to drive around NYC.

Despite having roughly 10 lines, it was clear Bradley was going to be someone. After playing Sarah Jessica Parker’s brief love interest, he went on to snag consistent roles all throughout the early and mid-2000s.

In 2018, Bradley proved himself as a triple threat after directing and starring in the remake of A Star is Born alongside Lady Gaga. Not only did Bradley play Jackson Maine in the film, but he also sang! His performance of “Shallow” with Gaga at the 2019 Oscars was so moving that fans were convinced the pair was romantically involved.

At the time, Bradley was still dating model Irina Shayk. However, rumors continued to circulate. “First of all, social media, quite frankly, is the toilet of the Internet and what it has done to pop culture is abysmal,” Lady Gaga told Jimmy Kimmel in an interview at the time.

“People saw love and guess what? That’s what we wanted you to see!” the “Poker Face” artist continued. “This is a love song … the movie A Star Is Born is a love story. We worked so hard. We worked all week on that performance.”

Since then, Bradley has been busy acting, filming and producing the upcoming film based on composer Leonard Bernstein, Maestro.The Hangover star completely transformed into the elder musician and looked completely unrecognizable to fans.

Scroll through the gallery below to see photos of Bradley Cooper’s total transformation over the years, as well to learn more about his career highlights!