Not much is known of Isabel Cooper said to have been born in Manila on January 15, 1914, no record for such a name born on that date has been found. What was discovered was the Certificate of Birth of a nameless female baby born on August 23, 1912, in Manila, to Isaac Cooper, from Wisconsin, U.S.A, and his wife, Protacia Rubin, born in Laguna.

Her show name was Dimple Cooper in the 1920s, often dressed as a "flapper." At a young age, dimples entered the show business together with Katy de la Cruz, Mary Walter, and a few other ladies. Dimples worked the stage of the old Rivoli Theater at Plaza Santa Cruz. It was a nightly "Varieties Company." The group danced hula-hula numbers, had comedy skits songs, together with jazz music, and served amusements in between the screenings of silent films.

But the advent of the talkies in the latter part of the 1920s saw the fading out of silent movies and the decline of their show. Dimples Cooper acted in her very first movie in 1925. The title was Miracles of Love, a Malayan Movie production directed by Vicente Salumbides —Dimples was on the magazine cover. According to the CCP Encyclopedia, it is a remarkable early film that used Hollywood techniques. The movie was a box office success and screened at the Rivoli Theater in Plaza Santa Cruz.

Dimples gained cinematic immortality in Jose Nepomuceno's "Tatlong Hamburg" (1926) film, which featured the first kissing scene in Philippine Cinema.

The film appears to be the actress's last appearance in Philippine Cinema. Cooper wrapped up her movie career in Manila and tried her luck as a showgirl in Shanghai.

Dimple Cooper was the manifestation of the flapper popularized in the satirical cartoons with a boyish bob of the period, flat-chested, skinny-legged, wearing short, tight dresses, and uttering baby talk. She met General Douglas MacArthur, who was on a two-year commitment in the Philippines as U.S. Commander. The General was then 50 years old and Dimple about 16. He saw her continually, and the relationship was not a secret from Manila gossip for long.

Five months before departing from Manila for his post as U.S. Army Chief of Staff, he was officially associated with Cooper. The latter was variously directed to as his "mistress" or "concubine," even though MacArthur was already divorced from his first wife, Henriette Louise Cromwell Brooks. While in Manila, MacArthur did not seem specifically worried about the buzz around town about himself and the gorgeous star.

More information at:

https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2021/02/08/filipina-film-actress-mistress-book/

https://usa.inquirer.net/65073/macarthurs-lover-isabel-cooper-colonialisms-daughter

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/vernadette-gonzalez-interview/