Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Born	Spencer Bonaventure Tracy
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1922–1967
Spouse	Amanda Henry (1993-present)
Partner(s)	Katharine Hepburn (1941-1967)

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 74 films from 1930 to 1967. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy 9th among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time. He was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor in all.

Early life

Tracy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin the second son of John Edward Tracy, an Irish American Catholic truck salesman, and Caroline Brown, a Protestant turned Christian Scientist. Tracy's paternal grandparents, John Tracy and Mary Guhin, were born in Ireland. His mother's ancestry dates back to Thomas Stebbins, who immigrated from England in the late 1630s. Tracy attended six high schools, starting with Wauwatosa High School in 1915 and St. John's Cathedral School for boys in Milwaukee the following year. The Tracy family then moved to Kansas City, where Spencer was enrolled at St. Mary's College, Kansas, a boarding school in St. Marys, Kansas 30 miles west of Topeka, Kansas, then transferred to Rockhurst, a Jesuit academy in Kansas City, Missouri. John Tracy's job in Kansas City did not work out, and the family returned to Milwaukee six months after their departure. Spencer was enrolled at Marquette Academy, another Jesuit school, where he met fellow actor Pat O'Brien. The two young men left school in spring 1917 to enlist in the Navy after the American entry into World War I, but Tracy remained in Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia throughout the war. Afterwards, Tracy continued his high school education at Marquette Academy then transferred to Northwestern Military and Naval Academy near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He finished his last few credits needed to graduate at Milwaukee's West Division High School (now Milwaukee High School of the Arts) in February 1921.

Afterward he attended Ripon College where he appeared in a leading role in a play entitled The Truth, and decided on acting as a career. Tracy received an honorary degree from Ripon College in 1940. While touring the Northeast with the Ripon debate team, he auditioned for and was accepted to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. His first Broadway role was as a robot in Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (1922), followed by five other Broadway plays in the 1920s. In 1923 he married actress Louise Treadwell. They had two children, John and Louise (Susie).

Career

Henry Drummond (Tracy, left) and Matthew Harrison Brady (March), right) in Inherit the Wind

Tracy performed in stock in Michigan, Canada, and Ohio for several years. Finally in 1930 he appeared in a hit play on Broadway, The Last Mile. Director John Ford saw Tracy in The Last Mile and signed Tracy for Up the River (1930) with Humphrey Bogart for Fox Film Corporation. Shortly after that Tracy and his family moved to Hollywood: 25 films in the next five years featured him.

In 1935 Tracy signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor two years in a row, for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938).

Tracy with Katharine Hepburn in the trailer for the film Adam's Rib (1949)

He was also nominated for San Francisco (1936), Father of the Bride (1950), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and posthumously for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). Tracy and Laurence Olivier share the record in the number of their nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Tracy's reputation for versatility and naturalness are based on the twenty years (1935-1955) he acted at Metro Goldwyn Mayer and for the subsequent dozen years when he was an independent actor. Yet the twenty-five films he made prior to his move to MGM are notable in that they demonstrate the range and diversity of characters he would continue to deliver through his post-Fox career (and which would earn him two Academy Awards and nine nominations).

Tracy and Hepburn

In 1941, during the filming of Woman of the Year, Tracy began a relationship with Katharine Hepburn. Their relationship, which neither would discuss publicly, lasted until Tracy's death in 1967. Their relationship was complex and there were periods during which they were estranged. During one estrangement, Tracy had a brief romance with actress Gene Tierney while filming the Plymouth Adventure in 1952.

Death and legacy

During his later years, Tracy's health worsened after he was diagnosed with diabetes, exacerbated by his alcoholism. In 1963, he suffered a heart attack, forcing him to pull out of Cheyenne Autumn and The Cincinnati Kid. Edward G. Robinson replaced him for both films. Seventeen days after filming had been completed on his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, with Hepburn, he died of a heart attack having long suffered from emphysema. The film was released in December, six months after his death.

In 1988, the University of California, Los Angeles' Campus Events Commission and Susie Tracy created the UCLA Spencer Tracy Award. The award has been given to actors in recognition for their achievement in film acting. Past recipients include William Hurt, James Stewart, Michael Douglas, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Harrison Ford, Anjelica Huston, Nicolas Cage, Kirk Douglas, Jack Lemmon and Morgan Freeman.

The main character Carl from Pixar's film Up was primarily based on a combination of Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau, because, according to director Pete Docter, there was "something sweet about these grumpy old guys".

Filmography and awards

Tracy appeared in 75 feature films, and several short films. With Katharine Hepburn he starred in nine feature films, one of the most successful screen pairings in film history.

Nine of the films he starred in were nominated for Best Picture: San Francisco (Oscar Nomination), Libeled Lady, Captains Courageous (Oscar), Test Pilot, Boys Town (Oscar), Father of the Bride (Oscar Nomination), Judgment at Nuremberg (Oscar Nomination), How the West Was Won and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (Oscar Nomination).

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor on nine occasions, and won the award in 1937, for Captains Courageous, and in 1938, for Boys Town. He won a Golden Globe Award for The Actress (1953) from a total of four nominations. He was awarded a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his posthumously released performance opposite Hepburn in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).

One of his Oscars was mistakenly inscribed to Dick Tracy before being corrected.

Further information: List of awards and nominations received by Spencer Tracy

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1930	The Strong Arm		short subject
	Taxi Talks	Taxi Driver	short subject
	The Hard Guy	Guy	short subject
	Up the River	Saint Louis
1931	Quick Millions	Daniel J. 'Bugs' Raymond
	Six Cylinder Love	William Donroy
	Goldie	Bill
1932	She Wanted a Millionaire	William Kelley
	Sky Devils	Wilkie
	Disorderly Conduct	Dick Fay
	Young America	Jack Doray
	Society Girl	Briscoe
	The Painted Woman	Tom Brian
	Me and My Gal	Danny Dolan
	20,000 Years in Sing Sing	Tommy Connors
1933	Face in the Sky	Joe Buck
	Shanghai Madness	Pat Jackson
	The Power and the Glory	Tom Garner
	Man's Castle	Bill
	The Mad Game	Edward Carson
1934	The Show-Off	J. Aubrey Piper
	Looking for Trouble	Joe Graham
	Bottoms Up	'Smoothie' King
	Now I'll Tell	Murray Golden
	Marie Galante	Dr. Crawbett
1935	It's a Small World	Bill Shevlin
	The Murder Man	Steven 'Steve' Grey	first credited screen role of James Stewart
	Dante's Inferno	Jim Carter
	Whipsaw	Ross 'Mac' McBride
1936	Riffraff	Dutch	with Mickey Rooney
	Fury	Joe Wilson
	San Francisco	Father Mullin	with Clark Gable Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
	Libeled Lady	Haggerty
1937	They Gave Him a Gun	Fred P. Willis
	Captains Courageous	Manuel Fidello	with Mickey Rooney Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
	Big City	Joe Benton
	Mannequin	John L. Hennessey
1938	Test Pilot	Gunner Morris	with Clark Gable
	Boys Town	Father Flanagan	with Mickey Rooney Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
	Another Romance of Celluloid	himself	behind-the-scenes short film, includes filming of Test Pilot, and shows Tracy accepting his Academy Award for Boys Town
	Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 9	himself	short subject showing Tracy accepting his Academy Award for Boys Town
	Hollywood Goes to Town	himself	short subject, showing notable Hollywood performers preparing for the world premiere of Marie Antoinette
1939	Stanley and Livingstone	Henry M. Stanley
	For Auld Lang Syne	himself	fundraising short film in which several actors, including Tracy, appeal for funds for the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital
	Hollywood Hobbies	himself	behind-the-scenes short film
1940	I Take This Woman	Dr. Karl Decker
	Young Tom Edison	uncredited role	with Mickey Rooney Tracy appears as a man admiring a portrait of Edison; he plays the older Edison in Edison, the Man in the same year
	Northwest Passage	Major Rogers
	Edison, the Man	Thomas Edison
	Boom Town	Jonathan Sand	with Clark Gable
	Northward, Ho!	himself	behind-the-scenes short film about the filming of Northwest Passage
1941	Men of Boys Town	Father Flanagan	with Mickey Rooney
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Hyde
1942	Woman of the Year	Sam Craig	first film with Katharine Hepburn
	Tortilla Flat	Pilon
	Keeper of the Flame	Steven 'Stevie' O'Malley	with Katharine Hepburn
	Ring of Steel	Narrator	Military documentary
1943	His New World	Narrator	documentary
	A Guy Named Joe	Pete Sandidge
	His New World	Narrator	War documentary
1944	The Seventh Cross	George Heisler
	Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo	Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle
1945	Without Love	Pat Jamieson	with Katharine Hepburn
1947	The Sea of Grass	Col. James B. 'Jim' Brewton	with Katharine Hepburn
	Cass Timberlane	Cass Timberlane
1948	State of the Union	Grant Matthews	with Katharine Hepburn
1949	Edward, My Son	Arnold Boult
	Adam's Rib	Adam Bonner	with Katharine Hepburn
	Malaya	Canaghan
	Some of the Best	himself	retrospective of MGM's history
1950	Father of the Bride	Stanley Banks	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
1951	Father's Little Dividend	Stanley Banks
	The People Against O'Hara	James P. Curtayne
	For Defense for Freedom for Humanity	himself	short film in which Tracy urges support for Red Cross fundraising
1952	Pat and Mike	Mike Conovan	with Katharine Hepburn
	Plymouth Adventure	Captain Christopher Jones	with Gene Tierney
1953	The Actress	Clinton Jones	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
1954	Broken Lance	Matt Devereaux
1955	Bad Day at Black Rock	John J. Macreedy	Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival) Prix d'interprétation masculine Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
1956	The Mountain	Zachary Teller	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
1957	Desk Set	Richard Sumner	with Katharine Hepburn
1958	The Old Man and the Sea	The Old Man/Narrator	NBR Award for Best Actor (award was also for The Last Hurrah) Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
	The Last Hurrah	Mayor Frank Skeffington	NBR Award for Best Actor (award was also for The Old Man and the Sea) Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
1960	Inherit the Wind	Henry Drummond	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1961	The Devil at 4 O'Clock	Father Matthew Doonan
	Judgment at Nuremberg	Chief Judge Dan Haywood	Fotogramas de Plata Award for Best Foreign Performer Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor
1962	How the West Was Won	Narrator
1963	It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World	Captain C. G. Culpepper	with Mickey Rooney
1967	Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	Matt Drayton	with Katharine Hepburn BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (posthumous) Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor (posthumous) Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (posthumous) Nominated — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (posthumous)

See also

• 1930 in film
• 1967 in film

Bibliography

• Dandola, John (2001). Dead at the Box Office. Glen Ridge, NJ: Quincannon. ISBN 1878452258. Tracy is a character in this murder-mystery set against the 1940 World Premiere of Edison, the Man.
• Kanin, Garson (1971). Tracy and Hepburn; an intimate memoir. New York: Viking. ISBN 0670722936.
• Fisher, James (1994). Spencer Tracy: a Bio-bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313287279.
• New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. (2008). Spencer Tracy: The Pre-Code Legacy of a Hollywood Legend. Newton, MA: New England Vintage Film Society. ISBN 978-1-4363-4138-7. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Swindell, Larry (1969). Spencer Tracy; a Biography. New York: World Pub. Co. OCLC 6078.

External links

• Spencer Tracy at Find a Grave
• Spencer Tracy at the Internet Broadway Database
• Spencer Tracy at IMDb
• Spencer Tracy at the TCM Movie Database
• Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
• Chang, David A. "Spencer Tracy's Boyhood: Truth, Fiction, and Hollywood Dreams," Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 84, no. 1 (Autumn 2000)