Best Known As: Crusty Hollywood legend who was in Boys Town
Name at birth: Spencer Bonaventure Tracy
Spencer Tracy was one of Hollywood's biggest stars from the 1930s through the 1960s, and the first actor to win consecutive Oscars for Best Actor (for 1937's Captains Courageous and 1938's Boys Town). Tracy grew up in Wisconsin, where he attended Ripon College. In the early 1920s he struck out for New York City to make it as an actor. He studied at the Academy of Dramatic Arts and managed to get a few small roles, but didn't get his big break until 1930. His performance in the play The Last Mile impressed John Ford, who brought Tracy to Hollywood and the movies. Although not especially handsome, his naturalistic style and simple earnestness made him a favorite of actors and audiences. He earned his first Oscar nomination for San Francisco (1936) and his ninth nomination for his final film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1968, with Sidney Poitier).
His longtime relationship with Katharine Hepburn was an open secret and is now a Hollywood legend -- Tracy remained married to his wife during his affair with Hepburn, yet the gossip sheets steered clear of the story. Tracy and Hepburn also had a successful working relationship and made nine films together, from Woman of the Year (1942) to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. His other films include: Adam's Rib (1949); Father of the Bride (1950, with Elizabeth Taylor); Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, with Lee Marvin); The Old Man and the Sea (1958); Judgment at Nuremberg (1961, with Burt Lancaster); and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963).
Tracy played Henry Stanley in Stanley and Livingstone (1939)... He played Thomas Edison in Edison, The Man (1940)... He played Jimmy Doolittle in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)... His character in Inherit the Wind (1960) was based on Clarence Darrow.
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (1900-1967) was an out standing and versatile actor whose career spanned over 30 years and brought him nine Academy Award nominations and two Oscars.
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 5, 1900. He was the younger of two sons of John and Caroline (Brown) Tracy. He grew up in a comfortable, Catholic environment. On America's entry into World War I in 1917, while in his third year of high school, he joined the Navy, spending most of his enlistment at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia. After graduating from Northwestern Military Academy he spent two years at Ripon College, leaving in 1921 to pursue a theatrical career (the college awarded him an honorary degree in 1940).
After some training at the Sargent School in New York City, Tracy made his Broadway debut in a non-speaking role as a robot in the 1923 Theatre Guild production of Karel Capek's R.U.R. Over the next years he played a variety of roles with different stock companies in the East and Midwest, occasionally succeeding in obtaining Broadway roles. By the end of the 1920s he had established himself in New York City as a respected journeyman actor. His big break came in 1930 playing the role of "Killer" Mears in the tough prison drama The Last Mile; he was a sensation and attracted the attention of Hollywood. Tracy returned to the Broadway stage only once more: in 1945 he starred in an unsuccessful production of Robert Sherwood's The Rugged Path, winning much better notices than the play.
Tracy's film career began in 1930. While still playing the lead role in The Last Mile, he made two short dramatic films for the Vitaphone Company at their New York City studio. His first Hollywood role came at the behest of director John Ford, who, seeing him as Mears, cast him in a comedy about prison life (Up the River, 1930). Signing a contract with Fox films, Tracy made over 20 films between 1930 and 1935, the bulk of them for Fox. He was typed as a "tough guy" in films such as Quick Millions (1931), Sky Devils (1932), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932), Looking for Trouble (1934), and The Murder Man (1935). He demonstrated a capacity to extend himself beyond such type-casting in films such as the unconventionalThe Power and The Glory (1933), but it was not until he moved to MGM in 1935 that he made a real mark and became known for the quality of his acting.
He spent over three decades under contract to MGM and during that time made over 30 movies for that studio as well as a few on "loan-out." After he left MGM in 1956 Tracy made nine more films, the most impressive and successful being those undertaken with producer-director Stanley Kramer. During these years, Tracy - who off-camera often was irascible, moody, and crusty - garnered a splendid reputation as a stylish, strong, authoritative actor and developed into one of the top stars of the business. Never conventionally handsome, he proved extremely versatile in the range of roles he addressed and managed to mature successfully as the years passed. Always well-prepared, Tracy gave such restrained, natural, seemingly effortless performances in his films that at one time he was dubbed "The Prince of Underplayers."
Over the years Tracy garnered nine Academy Award nominations (more than any player in his lifetime) and won the Oscar twice. His range and versatility are well-demonstrated by the roles for which he won these nominations, including the happy-go-lucky Portuguese fisherman Manuel in Captains Courageous (1937 Academy Award), Father Flanagan in Boys Town (1938 Academy Award), the eponymous Stanley Banks in Father of the Bride (1950 nomination), the Clarence Darrow character in Inherit the Wind (1960 nomination), an American jurist dealing with German war criminals in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961 nomination), and the liberal, put-upon father of a daughter who wishes to marry a Black man within 24 hours in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1968 nomination). But no matter what the role, Tracy brought to it authority, sincerity, and great skill, and he was admired by the members of his craft, critics, and the public.
Tracy married fellow stock company player Louise Treadwell in 1923. They had two children, Susan and John (who was born deaf). Although Tracy often lived apart from his wife, they never divorced, and he generously supported her endeavors to deal with the problems faced by deaf children through the John Tracy Clinic which she established in Los Angeles in the early 1940s.
An avid polo player during his early years in Hollywood, Tracy also became known for being a rakehell. He often went on alcoholic benders and had a number of intense romantic liaisons with some of his leading ladies, such as Loretta Young. This aspect of his life just about ended when he established a long relationship with Katherine Hepburn that lasted until his death. They met in the 1942 filming of Woman of the Year, and this movie marked the beginning of a romantic and professional relationship which lasted until his death in 1967. Among the more successful of the nine films they made jointly are the marvelous comedies Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), as well as the serious dramas Keeper of the Flame (1942) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), his last film.
During the last years of his life Tracy suffered greatly from ill health, and between 1962 and 1967 he did not perform at all. It was by all accounts a real effort, requiring great determination on his part and much patience on the part of other cast members and crew, for him to make his last film. He died but weeks after its completion.
Tracy belongs to an era of film-making now gone forever. A great personality as well as a consummate actor, he limited himself to one medium. He did what he knew best and did that very well, being solid, dependable, and outstanding.
Further Reading
See biographies by Larry Swindell (1983) and Romano Tozzi (1974); Garson Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn (1971); and Donald Deschner, The Complete Films of Spencer Tracy (1968).
(born , April 5, 1900, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S. — died June 10, 1967, Beverly Hills, Calif.) U.S. film actor. He enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1922 and was soon earning roles on Broadway. He first starred on Broadway in The Last Mile (1930) and on film in Up the River (1930). Noted for his craggy features and his sincere performances, he became one of the top stars of the 1930s and '40s, winning Academy Awards in Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938) — the first actor to win consecutive Oscars for best actor — and being nominated for seven other roles, including Inherit the Wind (1960) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). He had a long relationship with Katharine Hepburn, with whom he costarred in nine films, including Woman of the Year (1942), Adam's Rib (1949), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).
Tracy, Spencer, 1900-1967, American film actor, b. Milwaukee, Wis. He began his career as an actor in summer stock and went into film work in 1930. His fine character portrayals won him Academy Awards for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938). An actor of rugged strength and sensitivity, he appeared in Cass Timberlane (1947), Father of the Bride (1950), The Last Hurrah (1958), and as the only character in The Old Man and the Sea (1958). Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, together in nine films, including Woman of the Year (1942) and Desk Set (1957), provided the screen with a delightful, intelligent team.
Bibliography
See D. Deschner, The Complete Films of Spencer Tracy (1987); G. Kanin, Tracy and Hepburn (1971).
Career Highlights: Inherit the Wind, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Old Man and the Sea
First Major Screen Credit: Up the River (1930)
Biography
Universally regarded among the screen's greatest actors, Spencer Tracy was a most unlikely leading man. Stocky, craggy-faced, and gruff, he could never be considered a matinee idol, yet few stars enjoyed greater or more consistent success. An uncommonly versatile performer, his consistently honest and effortless performances made him a favorite of both audiences and critics throughout a career spanning well over three decades. Born April 5, 1900, in Milwaukee, WI, Tracy was expelled from some 15 different elementary schools prior to attending Rippon College, where he discovered and honed a talent for debating; eventually, he considered acting as a logical extension of his skills, and went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. His first professional work cast him as a robot in a stage production of R.U.R. at a salary of ten dollars a week. He made his Broadway debut in 1923's A Royal Fandango and later co-starred in a number of George M. Cohan vehicles. Tracy's performance as an imprisoned killer in 1930's The Last Mile made him a stage star, and during its Broadway run he made a pair of shorts for Vitaphone, The Hard Guy and Taxi Talks. Screen tests for MGM, Universal, and Warners were all met with rejection, however, but when John Ford insisted on casting Tracy as the lead in his prison drama Up the River, Fox offered a five-year contract.
Tracy's second film was 1931's Quick Millions, in which he portrayed a racketeer. He was frequently typecast as a gangster during his early career, or at the very least a tough guy, and like the majority of Fox productions throughout the early part of the decade, his first several films were unspectacular. His big break arrived when Warners entered a feud with Jimmy Cagney, who was scheduled to star in 1933's 20,000 Years in Sing Sing; when he balked, the studio borrowed Tracy, and the picture was a hit. His next two starring roles in The Face in the Sky and the Preston Sturges epic The Power and the Glory were also successful, earning very positive critical notice. Still, Fox continued to offer Tracy largely low-rent projects, despite extending his contract through 1937. Regardless, much of his best work was done outside of the studio grounds; for United Artists, he starred in 1934's Looking for Trouble, and for MGM starred as The Show-Off. After filming 1935's It's a Small World, executives cast Tracy as yet another heavy in The Farmer Takes a Wife; he refused to accept the role and was fired.
Despite serious misgivings, MGM signed him on. However, the studio remained concerned about his perceived lack of sex appeal and continued giving the majority of plum roles to Clark Gable. As a consequence, Tracy's first MGM offerings -- 1935's Riff Raff, The Murder Man, and 1936's Whipsaw -- were by and large no better than his Fox vehicles, but he next starred in Fritz Lang's excellent Fury. For the big-budget disaster epic San Francisco, Tracy earned the first of nine Academy Award nominations -- a record for male stars -- and in 1937 won his first Oscar for his work in Victor Fleming's Captains Courageous. Around the release of the 1938 smash Test Pilot, Time magazine declared him "cinema's number one actor's actor," a standing solidified later that year by Boys' Town, which won him an unprecedented second consecutive Academy Award. After 1939's Stanley and Livingstone, Tracy starred in the hit Northwest Passage, followed by a turn as Edison the Man. With the success of 1941's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he even usurped Gable's standing as MGM's top draw.
Tracy was happily married to actress Louise Treadwell when he teamed with Katharine Hepburn in 1942's Woman of the Year. It was the first in a long series of collaborations that established them as one of the screen's greatest pairings, and soon the two actors entered an offscreen romance which continued for the remainder of Tracy's life. They were clearly soulmates, yet Tracy, a devout Catholic, refused to entertain the thought of a divorce; instead, they carried on their affair in secrecy, their undeniable chemistry spilling over onto their onscreen meetings like Keeper of the Flame. Without Hepburn, Tracy next starred in 1943's A Guy Named Joe, another major hit, as was the following year's 30 Seconds Over Tokyo. Without Love, another romantic comedy with Hepburn, premiered in 1945; upon its release Tracy returned to Broadway, where he headlined The Rugged Path. Returning to Hollywood, he appeared in three more films with Hepburn -- The Sea of Grass, Frank Capra's State of the Union, and George Cukor's sublime Adam's Rib -- and in 1950 also starred as Vincente Minnelli's Father of the Bride, followed a year later by the sequel Father's Little Dividend. On Hepburn's return from shooting The African Queen, they teamed with Cukor in 1952's Pat and Mike. Without Hepburn, Tracy and Cukor also filmed The Actress the following year.
Venturing outside of the MGM confines for the first time in years, he next starred in the 1954 Western Broken Lance. The well-received Bad Day at Black Rock followed, but as the decade wore on, Tracy was clearly growing more and more unhappy with life at MGM -- the studio had changed too much over the years, and in 1955 they agreed to cut him loose. He first stopped at Paramount for 1956's The Mountain, reuniting with Hepburn for Fox's Desk Set a year later. At Warners, Tracy then starred in the 1958 adaptation of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, a major box-office disaster; however, The Last Hurrah signalled a rebound. After 1960's Inherit the Wind, Tracy subsequently reunited with director Stanley Kramer for 1961's Judgment at Nuremburg and the 1963 farce It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The film was Tracy's last for four years. Finally, in 1967 he and Hepburn reunited one final time in Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; it was another great success, but a success he did not live to see. Tracy died on June 10, 1967, just weeks after wrapping production. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Tracy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin[1] the second son of John Edward Tracy, an Irish American Catholic truck salesman, and Caroline Brown, a Protestant turned Christian Scientist.[citation needed] Tracy's paternal grandparents, John Tracy and Mary Guhin, were born in Ireland.[citation needed] His mother's ancestry dates back to Thomas Stebbins, who immigrated from England in the late 1630s.[citation needed] 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.[2]
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.[3] 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.
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).[4]
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 actressGene Tierney while filming the Plymouth Adventure in 1952.[5][6][7]
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.[8]
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".[9]
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.
^ 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?.
Dandola, John (2001). Dead at the Box Office. Glen Ridge, NJ: Quincannon. ISBN1878452258. 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. ISBN0670722936.
Fisher, James (1994). Spencer Tracy: a Bio-bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN0313287279.
New England Vintage Film Society, Inc. (2008). Spencer Tracy: The Pre-Code Legacy of a Hollywood Legend. Newton, MA: New England Vintage Film Society. ISBN978-1-4363-4138-7.
Swindell, Larry (1969). Spencer Tracy; a Biography. New York: World Pub. Co.. OCLC6078.
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