Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor, from nine nominations. During his career, he 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.[1]
For the band, see Spencer Tracy (band).
Spencer Tracy
April 5, 1900
June 10, 1967 (aged 67)
Actor
1921–1967
Katharine Hepburn (1941–1967)
2
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. His 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 (in which he starred with Humphrey Bogart), he was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. Tracy's 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 movie audiences after 25 films, nearly all of them starring him as the leading man. None of them were hits, although his performance in The Power and the Glory (1933) was highly praised at the time.
In 1935, he joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), at the time Hollywood's most prestigious studio. His career flourished from his fifth MGM film Fury (1936) onwards, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He teamed with Clark Gable, the studio's most prominent leading man for three major box office successes, so that by the early 1940s Tracy was one of MGM's top stars. In 1942, he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, beginning a professional and personal partnership, which led to nine films over 25 years. In 1955, Tracy won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Bad Day at Black Rock.
Tracy left MGM in 1955, and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite several health issues and an increasing weariness and irritability as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a lifelong struggle against severe alcoholism and guilt over his son's deafness. Tracy and his wife Louise became estranged in the 1930s, but the couple never divorced; his 25-year long relationship with Katharine Hepburn was an open secret. 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 (1967), completed just 17 days before he died.
Career[edit]
Stock theatre and Broadway (1923–1930)[edit]
Immediately following graduation, Tracy joined a new stock company based in White Plains, New York, where he was given peripheral roles.[26] Unhappy there, he moved to a company in Cincinnati, but failed to make an impact.[27] In November 1923, he landed a small part on Broadway in the comedy A Royal Fandango, starring Ethel Barrymore. Reviews for the show were poor and it closed after 25 performances; Tracy later said of the failure, "My ego took an awful beating."[28] When he took a position with a struggling company in New Jersey, Tracy was living on an allowance of 35 cents a day.[29] In January 1924, he played his first leading role with a company in Winnipeg, but the organization soon closed.[30]
Tracy finally achieved some success by joining forces with the notable stock manager William H. Wright in the spring of 1924.[30] A stage partnership was formed with the young actress Selena Royle, who had already made her name on Broadway.[31] It proved a popular draw and their productions were favorably received.[32] One of these performances brought Tracy to the attention of a Broadway producer, who offered him the lead in a new play. The Sheepman previewed in October 1925, but it received poor reviews and closed after its trial run in Connecticut.[33] Dejected, Tracy was forced back to Wright and the stock circuit.[34]
Personal life[edit]
Marriage and family[edit]
Tracy met actress Louise Treadwell while they were both members of the Wood Players in White Plains, New York—the first stock company Tracy joined after graduating. The couple was engaged in May 1923,[186] and married on September 10 of that year between the matinee and evening performances of his show.[187]
Their son, John Ten Broeck Tracy, was born in June 1924.[188] When John was 10 months old, Louise discovered that the boy was deaf.[189] She resisted telling Tracy for three months. Tracy was devastated by the news[190] and felt lifelong guilt over his son's deafness. He was convinced that John's hearing impairment was a punishment for his own sins.[191] As a result, Tracy had trouble connecting with his son[192] and distanced himself from his family. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, a friend of Tracy's, later theorized: "[Tracy] didn't leave Louise. He left the scene of his guilt."[193] A second child, Louise "Susie" Treadwell Tracy, was born in July 1932.[194] The children were raised in their mother's Episcopal faith.[195]
Tracy left the family home in 1933,[196] and he and Louise openly discussed the separation with the media, maintaining that they were still friends and had not taken divorce action.[197] From September 1933 to June 1934, Tracy had a public affair with Loretta Young, his co-star in Man's Castle.[198] He reconciled with Louise in 1935.[199] There was never again an official separation between Tracy and his wife, but the marriage continued to be troubled.[200] Tracy increasingly lived in hotels and by the 1940s, the two were effectively living separate lives.[201] Tracy frequently engaged in extramarital affairs,[202] including with co-stars Joan Crawford in 1937[203] and Ingrid Bergman in 1941.[204] He had an affair with Myrna Loy in 1935 and 1936.[205][206][207] In 1990, during a phone interview with educator Alan Greenberg, Loy revealed she was in love with Tracy. "I loved Spence, he was adorable...I loved him and I really did love him. I loved him. I mean I was in love with him and she [Katharine Hepburn] got in the way."[208] Later, during the 1940s, Loy regularly visited Tracy at Beverly Hills in his hotel room.[209]
Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor, a category record he holds with Laurence Olivier. He was the first of nine actors to win the award twice, and is one of two actors to receive it consecutively, the other being Tom Hanks.[300] Tracy was also nominated for five British Academy Film Awards, of which he won two, and four Golden Globe Awards, winning once. In addition, he received the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor and was once named Best Actor by the National Board of Review.
Tracy was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances: