Spencer Tracy
Acting
Born: April 5, 1900 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Died: June 10, 1967 (aged 67)
Highest Rated
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.
Known for
Judgment at Nuremberg
1961
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963
How the West Was Won
1962
Inherit the Wind
1960
Bad Day at Black Rock
1955
Adam's Rib
1949
Fury
1936
La Classe américaine
1993
Father of the Bride
1950
Captains Courageous
1937
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1941
Photos (8)
Movies (87)
How the West Was Won
Narrator (voice)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
C. G. Culpepper
Judgment at Nuremberg
Dan Haywood
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Matt Drayton
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle
Inherit the Wind
Henry Drummond
Father of the Bride
Stanley T. Banks
Bad Day at Black Rock
John J. Macreedy
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Henry 'Harry' Jekyll / Mr. Hyde
Broken Lance
Matt Devereaux
Woman of the Year
Sam Craig
Libeled Lady
Haggerty
That's Entertainment!
(archive footage) (uncredited)
Boys Town
Father Flanagan
Captains Courageous
Manuel Fidello
The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man
Father's Little Dividend
Stanley Banks
State of the Union
Grant Matthews
Adam's Rib
Adam Bonner
Cass Timberlane
Cass Timberlane
The Actress
Clinton Jones
Fury
Joe Wilson
Malaya
Carnaghan
The People Against O'Hara
James P. Curtayne
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
Tommy Connors
Young Tom Edison
Man Admiring Portrait of Thomas A. Edison
Tortilla Flat
Pilon
Goldie
Bill
The Last Hurrah
Mayor Frank Skeffington
Northwest Passage
Major Robert Rogers
Desk Set
Richard Sumner
Boom Town
Square John Sand
A Guy Named Joe
Pete Sandidge
The Sea of Grass
Col. James B. Brewton
San Francisco
Father Tim Mullin
The Mountain
Zachary Teller
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
Father Matthew Doonan
Plymouth Adventure
Capt. Christopher Jones
La Classe américaine
The Professional Witness (archive footage)
Edison, the Man
Thomas A. Edison
The Seventh Cross
George Heisler
Stanley and Livingstone
Henry M. Stanley
Pat and Mike
Mike Conovan
Test Pilot
Gunner Morse
Men of Boys Town
Edward Flanagan
The Murder Man
Steven 'Steve' Grey
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
Twenty Years After
(archive footage)
Society Girl
Briscoe
The Big Parade of Comedy
Haggerty in 'Libeled Lady' (archive footage)
Without Love
Pat Jamieson
Keeper of the Flame
Stevie O'Malley
Edward, My Son
Arnold Boult
Up the River
Saint Louis
Mannequin
John Hennessey
DEVO
Henry Drummond (archive footage) (uncredited)
Riffraff
Dutch
Me and My Gal
Danny Dolan
Big City
Joe Benton
Marie Galante
Dr. Crawbett
Bottoms Up
'Smoothie' King
Whipsaw
Ross 'Mac' McBride aka Danny Ross Ackerman
Man's Castle
Bill
I Take This Woman
Karl Decker
Quick Millions
Daniel J. 'Bugs' Raymond
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
(archive footage)
Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story
Fr. Edward Flanagan (archive footage)
The Mad Game
Edward Carson
Dante's Inferno
Jim Carter
Young America
Jack Doray
They Gave Him a Gun
Fred P. Willis
Face in the Sky
Joe Buck
Looking for Trouble
Joe Graham
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
(archive footage)
It's A Small World
Bill Shevlin
Now I'll Tell
Murray Golden
Disorderly Conduct
Dick Fay
Sky Devils
Wilkie
The Show-Off
J. Aubrey Piper
Six Cylinder Love
William Donroy
Shanghai Madness
Pat Jackson
The Power and the Glory
Tom Garner
She Wanted a Millionaire
William Kelley
The Hard Guy
Guy
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
(archive footage)
Ring of Steel
Narrator (voice)
The Painted Woman
Tom Brian
TV Shows (1)
Self / Appearances (32)
MGM Parade
Self · 2 eps
MGM Parade
self · 1 eps
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Self (archive footage)
The Happy Ending
Self - Stanley T. Banks (archive footage) (uncredited)
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Hobbies
Self (uncredited)
Brasileiros em Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gene Kelly: An American in Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Self
Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
Self (archive footage)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood Goes to Town
Self
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Self (archive footage)
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Self
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Self (archive footage)
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Self (archive footage)
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
Self (archive footage)
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Self
The Romance of Celluloid
Self (archive footage)
Bogart: The Untold Story
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Self (archive footage)
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
Self (archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults
Self (Archival Footage)
From the Ends of the Earth
Self
Northward, Ho!
Himself
Movie Tough Guys
Self (archive footage)
Another Romance of Celluloid
Self (uncredited)