Spencer Tracy
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1900-04-05
Day of Death
1967-06-10 (67 years old)
Place of Birth
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
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.
Known For
Acting
(2025)
Gene Kelly - An American in Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
(2024)
Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story
as Fr. Edward Flanagan (archive footage)
(2022)
Rat Pack
as Self (archive footage)
(2018)
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
as Self (archive footage)
(2014)
And the Oscar Goes To...
as Self (archive footage)
(2013)
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
as Self (archive footage)
(2009)
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
as Self (archive footage)
(1999)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
as Self (Archival Footage)
(1997)
Bogart: The Untold Story
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1997)
Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults
as Self (Archival Footage)
(1996)
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
as Self (archive footage)
(1993)
La Classe américaine
as The Professional Witness (archive footage)
(1993)
Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell
as Self (archive footage)
(1991)
Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
as Self (archive footage)
(1991)
Movie Tough Guys
as Self (archive footage)
(1990)
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
as (archive footage)
(1988)
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
as Self (archive footage)
(1988)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
as Self (archive footage)
(1986)
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
as Self (archive footage)
(1985)
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
as Self (archive footage)
(1983)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1976)
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
(1975)
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
as Self (archive footage)
(1974)
That's Entertainment!
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1972)
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
as Self (archive footage)
(1967)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
as Matt Drayton
(1964)
The Big Parade of Comedy
as Haggerty in 'Libeled Lady' (archive footage)
(1963)
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
as C. G. Culpepper
(1962)
How the West Was Won
as Narrator (voice)
(1961)
Judgment at Nuremberg
as Dan Haywood
(1961)
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1961)
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
as Father Matthew Doonan
(1960)
Inherit the Wind
as Henry Drummond
(1958)
The Old Man and the Sea
as The Old Man
(1958)
The Last Hurrah
as Mayor Frank Skeffington
(1957)
Desk Set
as Richard Sumner
(1956)
The Mountain
as Zachary Teller
(1955)
Bad Day at Black Rock
as John J. Macreedy
(1954)
Broken Lance
as Matt Devereaux
(1953)
The Actress
as Clinton Jones
(1952)
Plymouth Adventure
as Capt. Christopher Jones
(1952)
Pat and Mike
as Mike Conovan
(1951)
Father's Little Dividend
as Stanley Banks
(1951)
The People Against O'Hara
as James P. Curtayne
(1950)
Father of the Bride
as Stanley T. Banks
(1949)
Adam's Rib
as Adam Bonner
(1949)
Malaya
as Carnaghan
(1949)
Edward, My Son
as Arnold Boult
(1948)
State of the Union
as Grant Matthews
(1947)
The Sea of Grass
as Col. James B. Brewton
(1947)
Cass Timberlane
as Cass Timberlane
(1945)
Without Love
as Pat Jamieson
(1944)
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
as Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle
(1944)
Twenty Years After
as (archive footage)
(1944)
The Seventh Cross
as George Heisler
(1943)
Keeper of the Flame
as Stevie O'Malley
(1943)
A Guy Named Joe
as Pete Sandidge
(1943)
His New World
as Narrator (voice)
(1942)
Tortilla Flat
as Pilon
(1942)
Woman of the Year
as Sam Craig
(1942)
Ring of Steel
as Narrator (voice)
(1941)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
as Dr. Henry 'Harry' Jekyll / Mr. Hyde
(1941)
Men of Boys Town
as Edward Flanagan
(1940)
Boom Town
as Square John Sand
(1940)
Northwest Passage
as Major Robert Rogers
(1940)
(1940)
Edison, the Man
as Thomas A. Edison
(1940)
(1940)
(1940)
Young Tom Edison
as Man Admiring Portrait of Thomas A. Edison
(1940)
I Take This Woman
as Karl Decker
(1940)
Northward, Ho!
as Himself
(1939)
Hollywood Hobbies
as Self (uncredited)
(1939)
Stanley and Livingstone
as Henry M. Stanley
(1939)
From the Ends of the Earth
as Self
(1938)
Boys Town
as Father Flanagan
(1938)
Mannequin
as John Hennessey
(1938)
Test Pilot
as Gunner Morse
(1938)
Hollywood Goes to Town
as Self
(1938)
Another Romance of Celluloid
as Self (uncredited)
(1937)
Captains Courageous
as Manuel Fidello
(1937)
Big City
as Joe Benton
(1937)
The Romance of Celluloid
as Self (archive footage)
(1937)
They Gave Him a Gun
as Fred P. Willis
(1936)
San Francisco
as Father Tim Mullin
(1936)
Fury
as Joe Wilson
(1936)
Libeled Lady
as Warren Haggerty
(1936)
Riffraff
as Dutch
(1935)
Whipsaw
as Ross 'Mac' McBride aka Danny Ross Ackerman
(1935)
The Murder Man
as Steven 'Steve' Grey
(1935)
It's A Small World
as Bill Shevlin
(1935)
Dante's Inferno
as Jim Carter
(1934)
Marie Galante
as Dr. Crawbett
(1934)
Bottoms Up
as 'Smoothie' King
(1934)
Looking for Trouble
as Joe Graham
(1934)
The Show-Off
as J. Aubrey Piper
(1934)
Now I'll Tell
as Murray Golden
(1933)
Man's Castle
as Bill
(1933)
Face in the Sky
as Joe Buck
(1933)
The Power and the Glory
as Tom Garner
(1933)
Shanghai Madness
as Pat Jackson
(1933)
The Mad Game
as Edward Carson
(1932)
She Wanted a Millionaire
as William Kelley
(1932)
Me and My Gal
as Danny Dolan
(1932)
Disorderly Conduct
as Dick Fay
(1932)
Young America
as Jack Doray
(1932)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
as Tommy Connors
(1932)
Sky Devils
as Wilkie
(1932)
The Painted Woman
as Tom Brian
(1932)
Society Girl
as Briscoe
(1931)
Quick Millions
as Daniel J. 'Bugs' Raymond
(1931)
Six Cylinder Love
as William Donroy
(1931)
Goldie
as Bill
(1930)
Up the River
as Saint Louis
(1930)
The Hard Guy
as Guy
(1930)
Taxi Talks
as Taxi Driver