LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Legendary Hollywood cowboy Gary Cooper lassoed a posthumous honor here Thursday, his image gracing a new stamp unveiled by the US postal service.

The two-time Oscar-winning tough guy, best known for his role in the classic 1952 Western "High Noon", received the honor in a ceremony at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles.

The 44-cent first-class stamp bearing Cooper's portrait was unveiled alongside his Oscar for his performance in "High Noon."

Cooper, who died in 1961 aged 60, entered the movies in the 1920s where he found work playing cowboys, the legacy of his upbringing on a ranch in Montana.

"My father would have been very flattered by this honor, but he was always very self deprecating," Cooper's daughter Maria Cooper Janis said Thursday.

"If he were here today, he'd probably say, 'See, look what you get for falling off a horse.'"

Cooper's stamp sees him follow in the footsteps of his close friend, American writer and journalist Ernest Hemingway, who received the same honor in 1989.