Acting
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.
Movies with Spencer Tracy
How the West Was Won
1962
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963
Judgment at Nuremberg
1961
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967
The Actress
1953
Father of the Bride
1950
Inherit the Wind
1960
Libeled Lady
1936
La Classe américaine
1993
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
1944
Broken Lance
1954
That's Entertainment!
1974
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1941
Captains Courageous
1937
Cass Timberlane
1947
Malaya
1949
Fury
1936
The Old Man and the Sea
1958
Boys Town
1938
Bad Day at Black Rock
1955
Desk Set
1957
Twenty Years After
1944
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
2018
The Mountain
1956
The Last Hurrah
1958
Adam's Rib
1949
Men of Boys Town
1941
State of the Union
1948
Father's Little Dividend
1951
A Guy Named Joe
1944
The Sea of Grass
1947
Pat and Mike
1952
They Gave Him a Gun
1937
100 Years at the Movies
1994
Woman of the Year
1942
Keeper of the Flame
1943
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976
Legends in Light: The Photography of George Hurrell
1995
Test Pilot
1938
Edison, the Man
1940
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
1995
Boom Town
1940
The Murder Man
1935
San Francisco
1936
Brasileiros em Hollywood
1970
The People Against O'Hara
1951
Northwest Passage
1940
Plymouth Adventure
1952
The Seventh Cross
1944
Society Girl
1932
Stanley and Livingstone
1939
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1987
Classic Movie Bloopers: Uncensored
2013
Gene Kelly - An American in Hollywood
2025
Young Tom Edison
1940
20,000 Years in Sing Sing
1932
Taxi Talks
1930
Man's Castle
1933
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
1940
The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn
1986
Goldie
1931
Me and My Gal
1932
Without Love
1945
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
1972
Rat Pack
2022
Bogart: The Untold Story
1997
Tortilla Flat
1942
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
1961
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
1988
Up the River
1930
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
2009
Edward, My Son
1949
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1940
She Wanted a Millionaire
1932
Marie Galante
1934
Young America
1932
The Big Parade of Comedy
1964
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
Hollywood: Style Center of the World
1940
Ingrid Bergman Remembered
1996
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To
1990
Sky Devils
1932
Face in the Sky
1933
DEVO
2024
Bottoms Up
1934
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
1961
Six Cylinder Love
1931
Whipsaw
1935
Dante's Inferno
1935
I Take This Woman
1940
The Show-Off
1934
Another Romance of Celluloid
1938
The Mad Game
1933
Big City
1937
Movie Tough Guys
1991
Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults
1997
Mannequin
1938
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults
1999
Now I'll Tell
1934
Stardust: The Bette Davis Story
2006
The Power and the Glory
1933
Hollywood Hobbies
1939
Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
1991
From the Ends of the Earth
1939
Quick Millions
1931
Hollywood Goes to Town
1938
Riffraff
1936
Looking for Trouble
1934
It's A Small World
1935
The Romance of Celluloid
1937
Northward, Ho!
1940
Ring of Steel
1942
Heart of a Servant: The Father Flanagan Story
2024
The Hard Guy
1930
Shanghai Madness
1933
The Painted Woman
1932
His New World
1943
Disorderly Conduct
1932
