
Spencer Tracy
Biography
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy won two Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations, sharing the record for nominations in that category with Laurence Olivier.
Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College, and he later received a scholarship for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. Tracy's breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful film debut in John Ford's Up the River starring Tracy and Humphrey Bogart, he was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. His five years with Fox featured one acting tour de force after another that were usually ignored at the box office, and he remained largely unknown to audiences after 25 films, almost all of them starring Tracy as the leading man. None of them were hits although The Power and the Glory (1933) features arguably his most acclaimed performance in retrospect.
In 1935, Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, at the time Hollywood's most prestigious studio. His career flourished with a series of hit films, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He made three smash hit films supporting Clark Gable, the studio's principal leading man, firmly fixing the notion of Gable and Tracy as a team in the public imagination. By the 1940s, Tracy was one of the studio's top stars. In 1942, he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, beginning another popular partnership that produced nine movies over 25 years. Tracy left MGM in 1955, and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite an increasing weariness as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a lifelong struggle against severe alcoholism and guilt over his son's deafness. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, but never divorced, conducting a long-term relationship with Katharine Hepburn in private. Towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967, completed just 17 days before his death.
During his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
Acting (109 movies)

Movie Tough Guys
1991

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1941

Judgment at Nuremberg
1961

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967

Inherit the Wind
1960

Ingrid Bergman Remembered
1996

Woman of the Year
1942

The Old Man and the Sea
1958

Father of the Bride
1950

Father's Little Dividend
1951

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963

Desk Set
1957

The Devil at 4 O'Clock
1961

Without Love
1945

How the West Was Won
1962

Libeled Lady
1936

Adam's Rib
1949

Mannequin
1938

Keeper of the Flame
1943

Pat and Mike
1952

State of the Union
1948

The Murder Man
1935

The People Against O'Hara
1951

Broken Lance
1954

Bad Day at Black Rock
1955

Boys Town
1938

Fury
1936

20,000 Years in Sing Sing
1932

A Guy Named Joe
1943

Test Pilot
1938

Whipsaw
1935

Northwest Passage
1940

Edison, the Man
1940

San Francisco
1936

Malaya
1949

Captains Courageous
1937

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
1944

Big City
1937

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983

Up the River
1930

Plymouth Adventure
1952

Me and My Gal
1932

The Last Hurrah
1958

Boom Town
1940

The Seventh Cross
1944

The Mountain
1956

Edward, My Son
1949

The Power and the Glory
1933

The Sea of Grass
1947

Tortilla Flat
1942

Stanley and Livingstone
1939

The Actress
1953

Riffraff
1936

Men of Boys Town
1941

Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1972

Man's Castle
1933

Cass Timberlane
1947

They Gave Him a Gun
1937

The Hard Guy
1930

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
2018

Quick Millions
1931

Looking for Trouble
1934

Bottoms Up
1934

Now I'll Tell
1934

Marie Galante
1934

Dante's Inferno
1935

Sky Devils
1932

I Take This Woman
1940

Young America
1932

The Show-Off
1934

Goldie
1931

Face in the Sky
1933

Hollywood Hobbies
1939

Six Cylinder Love
1931

She Wanted a Millionaire
1932

Disorderly Conduct
1932

Society Girl
1932

The Painted Woman
1932

Shanghai Madness
1933

The Mad Game
1933

It's A Small World
1935

Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
2013

Rat Pack
2022

That's Entertainment!
1974

Northward, Ho!
1940

Young Tom Edison
1940

The Big Parade of Comedy
1964

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1940

The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
1986

Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story
2024

Hollywood Goes to Town
1938

Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975

Hollywood: Style Center of the World
1940

Ring of Steel
1942

Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
1991

That's Entertainment, Part II
1976

The Romance of Celluloid
1937

Twenty Years After
1944

Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
1990
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