Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy (
April 5,
1900 â€"
June 10,
1967) was a two-time
Academy Award-winning
American film
actor who appeared in 74 films from
1930 to
1967. He is often described as one of the finest actors in motion picture history.
He was born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second son of John Edward Tracy, a hard-drinking
Irish American Catholic truck salesman, and Caroline Brown, a
Protestant turned
Christian Scientist, and was christened
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy.
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 Marquette Academy (a preparatory department of
Marquette University which later became
Marquette University High School) with fellow actor
Pat O'Brien. The two would later move to New York and appear in movies together. At the beginning of
World War I, Tracy left school,
Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to enlist in the
Navy, but remained in
Norfolk Navy Yard,
Virginia throughout the war.
Afterward he attended
Ripon College where he appeared in a play entitled
The Truth, and decided on acting as a career. In the early
1920s he attended the
American Academy of Dramatic Arts in
New York. For several years he performed in stock in Michigan, Canada, and Ohio. Finally in 1930 he appeared in a hit play on Broadway,
The Last Mile.
In 1923 he married
Louise Treadwell. They had two children, John and Louise (Susie). In 1930, director
John Ford saw Tracy in the play
The Last Mile and signed him to do
Up the River for
Fox Pictures. Shortly after that he and his family moved to
Hollywood, where he made over 25 films in five years.
In 1935 Tracy signed with
MGM. He won the
Academy Award for
Best Actor two years in a row, for
Captains Courageous (1937) and
Boys Town (1938).
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
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). He and
Laurence Olivier share the record for the most best actor Oscar nominations (9).
 |
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn |
In 1941, Tracy began a relationship with
Katharine Hepburn, whose agile mind and
New England brogue complemented Tracy's easy working-class machismo very well. Though estranged from his wife Louise, he was a devout
Roman Catholic and never divorced. He and Hepburn made nine films together.
Seventeen days after filming had completed on his last film,
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, with Hepburn, he died from a massive
heart attack at the age of 67.
Almost forty years after his death, Tracy is still widely considered one of the most skillful actors of his time. He could portray the hero, the villain, or the comedian, and make the audience believe he truly was the character he played. In the 1944 film
The Seventh Cross, for example, he was effective as an escaped prisoner from a German
concentration camp despite his heavy-set build.
Tracy was one of Hollywood's earliest "realistic" actors; his performances have stood the test of time. Actors have noted that Tracy's work in 1930s films sometimes looks like a modern actor interacting with the more stylized and dated performances of everyone around him.
A new full length biography of Spencer Tracy is currently being written by James Curtis, author of the acclaimed 2003 biography of
W.C. Fields.
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,
Jimmy Stewart,
Michael Douglas,
Denzel Washington,
Tom Hanks, Sir
Anthony Hopkins,
Jodie Foster,
Harrison Ford,
Angelica Houston,
Nicolas Cage,
Kirk Douglas,
Jack Lemmon and
Morgan Freeman.
The Strong Arm (1930) (short subject)
Taxi Talks (1930) (short subject)
The Hard Guy (1930) (short subject)
Up the River (1930)
Quick Millions (1931)
Six Cylinder Love (1931)
Goldie (1931)
She Wanted a Millionaire (1932)
Sky Devils (1932)
Disorderly Conduct (1932)
Young America (1932)
Society Girl (1932)
The Painted Woman (1932)
Me and My Gal (1932)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
The Face in the Sky (1933)
Shanghai Madness (1933)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
Man's Castle (1933)
The Mad Game (1933)
The Show-Off (1934)
Looking for Trouble (1934)
Bottoms Up (1934)
Now I'll Tell (1934)
Marie Galante (1934)
It's a Small World (1935)
The Murder Men (1935)
Dante's Inferno (1935)
Whipsaw (1935)
Riffraff (1936)
Fury (1936)
San Francisco (1936)
Libeled Lady (1936)
They Gave Him a Gun (1937)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Big City (1937)
Mannequin (1937)
Test Pilot (1938)
Hollywood Goes to Town (1938) (short subject)
Boys Town (1938)
For Auld Lang Syne: No. 4 (1939) (short subject)
Hollywood Hobbies (1939) (short subject)
Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
I Take This Woman (1940)
Young Tom Edison (1940) (cameo)
Northward, Ho! (1940) (short subject)
Northwest Passage (1940)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Boom Town (1940)
Men of Boys Town (1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Woman of the Year (1942)
Ring of Steel (1942) (short subject) (narrator)
Tortilla Flat (1942)
Keeper of the Flame' (1942)
His New World (1943) (documentary) (narrator)
A Guy Named Joe (1943)
The Seventh Cross (1944)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Without Love (1945)
The Sea of Grass (1947)
Cass Timberlane (1947)
State of the Union (1948)
Edward, My Son (1949)
Adam's Rib (1949)
Malaya (1949)
Father of the Bride (1950)
For Defense for Freedom for Humanity (1951) (short subject)
Father's Little Dividend (1951)
The People Against O'Hara (1951)
Pat and Mike (1952)
Plymouth Adventure (1952)
The Actress (1953)
Broken Lance (1954)
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
The Mountain (1956 film) (1956)
Desk Set (1957)
The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
The Last Hurrah (1958)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
The Devil at Four O'Clock (1961)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
How the West Was Won (1962) (narrator)
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Spencer Tracy; a Biography by Larry Swindell, New York, World Pub. Co. 1969
Tracy and Hepburn by Garson Kanin, New York, Viking 1971
Spencer Tracy : a Bio-bibliography by James Fisher. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1994
* "Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture."
* On
drinking: "Hell, I used to take two-week lunch hours!"
* "I couldn't be a director because I couldn't put up with the actors. I don't have the patience. Why, I'd probably kill the actors. Not to mention some of the beautiful actresses".
Shared the same birthday (
April 5) as fellow Oscar awardees
Bette Davis (a co-star in one
pre-Code movie) and
Gregory Peck.
*
*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Spencer Tracy* http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/3560/tracy.html
* http://www.themave.com/Tracy/Tracy.htm
* http://www.seeing-stars.com/StarIndexes/SpencerTracy.shtml
