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Spencer Tracy
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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, Tra…
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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
Movies and shows, newest first
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2025
Gene Kelly: An American in Hollywood
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2024
Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story
Movie Fr. Edward Flanagan (archive footage)
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2024
DEVO
Movie Henry Drummond (archive footage) (uncredited)
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2022
Rat Pack
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2018
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2013
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2009
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Movie Self (archive footage)
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2006
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1999
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
Movie (archive footage)
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1997
Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults
Movie Self (Archival Footage)
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1997
Bogart: The Untold Story
Movie Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
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1996
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1995
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1995
Legends in Light: The Photography of George Hurrell
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1993
La Classe américaine
Movie The Professional Witness (archive footage)
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1991
Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
Movie Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
More credits
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1991
Movie Tough Guys
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1990
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
Movie (archive footage)
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1988
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1987
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1986
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1985
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
Movie (archive footage)
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1983
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Movie Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
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1976
That's Entertainment, Part II
Movie (archive footage)
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1975
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1974
That's Entertainment!
Movie (archive footage) (uncredited)
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1972
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1970
Brasileiros em Hollywood
Movie Self (archive footage)
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1969
The Happy Ending
Movie Self - Stanley T. Banks (archive footage) (uncredited)
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1967
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Movie Matt Drayton
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1964
The Big Parade of Comedy
Movie Haggerty in 'Libeled Lady' (archive footage)
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1963
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Movie C. G. Culpepper
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1962
How the West Was Won
Movie Narrator (voice)
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1961
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
Movie Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
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1961
Judgment at Nuremberg
Movie Dan Haywood
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1961
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
Movie Father Matthew Doonan
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1960
Inherit the Wind
Movie Henry Drummond
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1958
The Last Hurrah
Movie Mayor Frank Skeffington
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1958
The Old Man and the Sea
Movie The Old Man
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1957
Desk Set
Movie Richard Sumner
