Spencer Tracy
Acting • Born 1900-04-05 – Died 1967-06-10
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.
Filmography
117 credits
Movie Tough Guys
Movie • 1991
Self (archive footage)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Movie • 1941
Dr. Henry 'Harry' Jekyll / Mr. Hyde
Judgment at Nuremberg
Movie • 1961
Dan Haywood
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Movie • 1967
Matt Drayton
Inherit the Wind
Movie • 1960
Henry Drummond
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
Movie • 1996
Self (archive footage)
Taxi Talks
Movie • 1930
Taxi Driver
Woman of the Year
Movie • 1942
Sam Craig
The Old Man and the Sea
Movie • 1958
The Old Man
Father of the Bride
Movie • 1950
Stanley T. Banks
Father's Little Dividend
Movie • 1951
Stanley Banks
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Movie • 1963
C. G. Culpepper
Desk Set
Movie • 1957
Richard Sumner
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
Movie • 1961
Father Matthew Doonan
Without Love
Movie • 1945
Pat Jamieson
How the West Was Won
Movie • 1962
Narrator (voice)
Libeled Lady
Movie • 1936
Warren Haggerty
Adam's Rib
Movie • 1949
Adam Bonner
Mannequin
Movie • 1938
John Hennessey
Keeper of the Flame
Movie • 1943
Stevie O'Malley
Pat and Mike
Movie • 1952
Mike Conovan
State of the Union
Movie • 1948
Grant Matthews
The Murder Man
Movie • 1935
Steven 'Steve' Grey
The People Against O'Hara
Movie • 1951
James P. Curtayne
Broken Lance
Movie • 1954
Matt Devereaux
Bad Day at Black Rock
Movie • 1955
John J. Macreedy
Boys Town
Movie • 1938
Father Flanagan
Fury
Movie • 1936
Joe Wilson
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
Movie • 1932
Tommy Connors
A Guy Named Joe
Movie • 1944
Pete Sandidge
Test Pilot
Movie • 1938
Gunner Morse
Whipsaw
Movie • 1935
Ross 'Mac' McBride aka Danny Ross Ackerman
Northwest Passage
Movie • 1940
Major Robert Rogers
Edison, the Man
Movie • 1940
Thomas A. Edison
San Francisco
Movie • 1936
Father Tim Mullin
Malaya
Movie • 1949
Carnaghan
Captains Courageous
Movie • 1937
Manuel Fidello
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Movie • 1944
Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Movie • 1983
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Big City
Movie • 1937
Joe Benton
Up the River
Movie • 1930
Saint Louis
Plymouth Adventure
Movie • 1952
Capt. Christopher Jones
Me and My Gal
Movie • 1932
Danny Dolan
The Last Hurrah
Movie • 1958
Mayor Frank Skeffington
Boom Town
Movie • 1940
Square John Sand
The Seventh Cross
Movie • 1944
George Heisler
The Mountain
Movie • 1956
Zachary Teller
Edward, My Son
Movie • 1949
Arnold Boult
The Power and the Glory
Movie • 1933
Tom Garner
The Sea of Grass
Movie • 1947
Col. James B. Brewton
Tortilla Flat
Movie • 1942
Pilon
The Actress
Movie • 1953
Clinton Jones
Stanley and Livingstone
Movie • 1939
Henry M. Stanley
Riffraff
Movie • 1936
Dutch
Men of Boys Town
Movie • 1941
Edward Flanagan
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Movie • 1972
Self (archive footage)
Man's Castle
Movie • 1933
Bill
Cass Timberlane
Movie • 1947
Cass Timberlane
They Gave Him a Gun
Movie • 1937
Fred P. Willis
The Hard Guy
Movie • 1930
Guy
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Movie • 2018
Self (archive footage)
Quick Millions
Movie • 1931
Daniel J. 'Bugs' Raymond
Now I'll Tell
Movie • 1934
Murray Golden
Bottoms Up
Movie • 1934
'Smoothie' King
Looking for Trouble
Movie • 1934
Joe Graham
Marie Galante
Movie • 1934
Dr. Crawbett
Dante's Inferno
Movie • 1935
Jim Carter
Sky Devils
Movie • 1932
Wilkie
I Take This Woman
Movie • 1940
Karl Decker
Young America
Movie • 1932
Jack Doray
The Show-Off
Movie • 1934
J. Aubrey Piper
Goldie
Movie • 1931
Bill
Face in the Sky
Movie • 1933
Joe Buck
Hollywood Hobbies
Movie • 1939
Self (uncredited)
Six Cylinder Love
Movie • 1931
William Donroy
The Painted Woman
Movie • 1932
Tom Brian
Society Girl
Movie • 1932
Briscoe
The Mad Game
Movie • 1933
Edward Carson
She Wanted a Millionaire
Movie • 1932
William Kelley
It's A Small World
Movie • 1935
Bill Shevlin
Shanghai Madness
Movie • 1933
Pat Jackson
Disorderly Conduct
Movie • 1932
Dick Fay
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
Movie • 2013
Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack
Movie • 2022
Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment!
Movie • 1974
(archive footage) (uncredited)
Northward, Ho!
Movie • 1940
Himself
Young Tom Edison
Movie • 1940
Man Admiring Portrait of Thomas A. Edison
The Big Parade of Comedy
Movie • 1964
Haggerty in 'Libeled Lady' (archive footage)
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Movie • 1940
Self
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Movie • 1986
Self (archive footage)
Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story
Movie • 2024
Fr. Edward Flanagan (archive footage)
Hollywood Goes to Town
Movie • 1938
Self
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Movie • 1940
Self
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
Movie • 1940
Self
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Movie • 1975
Self (archive footage)
Ring of Steel
Movie • 1942
Narrator (voice)
Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
Movie • 1991
Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
Movie • 1976
(archive footage)
Twenty Years After
Movie • 1944
(archive footage)
The Romance of Celluloid
Movie • 1937
Self (archive footage)
From the Ends of the Earth
Movie • 1939
Self
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
Movie • 1990
(archive footage)
Bogart: The Untold Story
Movie • 1997
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Movie • 1988
Self (archive footage)
His New World
Movie • 1943
Narrator (voice)
Another Romance of Celluloid
Movie • 1938
Self (uncredited)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Movie • 1987
Self (archive footage)
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Movie • 2009
Self (archive footage)
La Classe américaine
Movie • 1993
The Professional Witness (archive footage)
Gene Kelly - An American in Hollywood
Movie • 2025
Self (archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
Movie • 1999
(archive footage)
Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults
Movie • 1997
Self (Archival Footage)
Brasileiros em Hollywood
Movie • 1970
Self (archive footage)
DEVO
Movie • 2024
Henry Drummond (archive footage) (uncredited)
MGM Parade
TV • 1955
MGM Parade
TV • 1955
Self
MGM Parade
TV • 1955
self