Bradley Cooper celebrates 42nd birthday, a day before pregnant girlfriend Irina Shayk turns 31

Bradley Cooper has found his niche in Hollywood, and it is comedy. The blue-eyed star teamed his striking looks with his penchant for light humour and rode to success with films like The Wedding Crashers, The Hangover, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle.

A Philadelphia native, Cooper spent a large part of his childhood being teased for his looks. Describing himself as a pretty kid, he once said: "I never lived the life of 'Oh, you're so good-looking'. People thought I was a girl when I was little, because I looked like a girl — maybe because my mother would keep my hair really long."

It was only in 2001 that the All About Steve actor got his break in films with the Wet Hot American Summer (2001). Since then he had gone on to work in television, guest starring in Sex And The City, and had a steady role in Alias.

But it was not until The Hangover that Bradley tasted major success. Since then the People magazine's sexiest man alive of 2011 has acted in a mix of dramas and romantic-comedies including the Silver Linings Playbook, which earned eight Oscar nominations in 2012. He also starred in The A Team, Limitless, Burnt and American Sniper. He returns as Racoon Rocket in The Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 2, which releases in the UK on 28 April.

Copper celebrates his 42<sup>nd birthday on 5 January, a day before his girlfriend and swimsuit model Irina Shayk turns 31 on 6 January. Shayk is pregnant with the couple's first child together.