Spencer Tracy
| Spencer Tracy | |
 Spencer Tracy | |
| Birth name: | Spencer Bonaventure Tracy |
|---|---|
| Date of birth: | April 5, 1900 |
| Birth location: |  Milwaukee, Wisconsin
|
| Date of death: | June 10, 1967 (aged 67) |
| Death location: | Los Angeles, California |
| Academy Awards: | Best Actor 1937 Captains Courageous 1938 Boys Town |
| Spouse: | Louise Treadwell (1923-1967) |
Spencer Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American film and stage actor who appeared in 74 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy is still widely considered one of the most skillful actors of his time. He could portray the hero, the villain, or the comedian, and make the audience believe he truly was the character he played. As an actor, Tracy was ahead of his time, being one of Hollywood's earliest "realistic" actors. Tracy was conversely able to morph into multiple personas regardless of the characterization his role called for.
In 1999, the American Film Institute named Tracy among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking ninth on the list of 100. He was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor, winning two years in a row for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938). He was linked to actress Katharine Hepburn during his career, but the details of their relationship are cloudy.
Early life
Tracy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second son of John Edward Tracy, an Irish American Catholic truck salesman, and Caroline Brown, a Protestant turned Christian Scientist, and was christened Spencer Bonaventure Tracy.
Tracy's paternal grandparents, John Tracy and Mary Guhin, were born in Ireland. His mother's ancestry dates back to Thomas Stebbins, who immigrated from England in the late 1630s. Tracy attended six high schools, starting with Wauwatosa High School in 1915, and St. John's Cathedral School for boys in Milwaukee the following year. The Tracy family then moved to Kansas City, where Spencer was enrolled at St. Mary's College, Kansas, a boarding school in St. Marys, Kansas, 30 miles west of Topeka, Kansas, then transferred to Rockhurst, a Jesuit academy in Kansas City, Missouri. John Tracy's job in Kansas City did not work out, and the family returned to Milwaukee six months after their departure.
Spencer was enrolled at Marquette Academy, another Jesuit school, where he met fellow actor Pat O'Brien. The two left school in spring 1917, to enlist in the Navy with the American entry into World War I, but Tracy remained in Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, throughout the war. Afterwards, Tracy continued his high school education at Northwestern Military and Naval Academy in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, but finished his studies at Milwaukee's West Division High School (now Milwaukee High School of the Arts) in February 1921.[1]
He entered Ripon College in February 1921, declaring his intention to major in medicine. There he appeared in a leading role in a play entitled The Truth, and decided on acting as a career. While touring the Northeast with the Ripon debate team, he auditioned for and was accepted to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York. He left Ripon without graduating and began classes at AADA in April 1922. Tracy received an honorary degree from Ripon College in 1940.[2] He made his New York debut in a play called "The Wedding Guests," which opened in October 1922. He graduated from AADA in March 1923.
Career and later life
.jpg)
Tracy's first Broadway role was as a robot in Karel Čapek's R.U.R. (1922), followed by five other Broadway plays in the 1920s. In 1923, he married actress Louise Treadwell. They had two children, John and Louise (Susie).
For several years he performed in stock in Michigan, Canada, and Ohio. Finally in 1930, he appeared in a hit play on Broadway, The Last Mile. Director John Ford saw Tracy in The Last Mile and signed him to do Up the River for Fox Pictures. Shortly after that, he and his family moved to Hollywood, where he made over twenty-five films in five years.
In 1935, Tracy signed with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor two years in a row, for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938).
He was also nominated for San Francisco (1936), Father of the Bride (1950), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and posthumously for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). Tracy and Laurence Olivier share the record for the most Academy Best Actor nods with nine Oscar nominations.
In 1941, Tracy began a relationship with Katharine Hepburn, whose agile mind, sleek elegance, and New England brogue complemented Tracy's easy working-class machismo very well. Their relationship, which neither would discuss publicly, lasted until Tracy's death in 1967. Whether the two stars were close friends and kindred spirits, or had a sexual affair, is still a matter of speculation. Though estranged from his wife, Louise, Tracy was a practicing Roman Catholic and never divorced. He and Hepburn made nine films together.
Seventeen days after filming had completed on his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, with Hepburn, he died from heart failure at the age of 67.
Legacy
More than half a century after his death, Tracy is still widely considered one of the most skillful actors of his time. He could portray the hero, the villain, or the comedian, and make the audience believe he truly was the character he played. In the 1944 film, The Seventh Cross, for example, he was effective as an escaped prisoner from a German concentration camp despite his heavy-set build.
Tracy was one of Hollywood's earliest "realistic" actors; his performances have stood the test of time. Actors have noted that Tracy's work in 1930s films sometimes looks like a modern actor interacting with the more stylized and dated performances of everyone around him.
In 1988, the University of California, Los Angeles' Campus Events Commission and Susie Tracy created the UCLA Spencer Tracy Award. The award has been given to actors in recognition for their achievement in film acting. Past recipients include William Hurt, James Stewart, Michael Douglas, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster, Harrison Ford, Anjelica Houston, Nicolas Cage, Kirk Douglas, Jack Lemmon, and Morgan Freeman.
Filmography
|
|
|
Quotes
- On Gene Tierney: "Although she was beautiful in her films, they couldn't quite capture all of her. Fortunately, I did even if it was late in my life."
- "Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture."
- On drinking: "Hell, I used to take two-week lunch hours!"
- "I couldn't be a director because I couldn't put up with the actors. I don't have the patience. Why, I'd probably kill the actors. Not to mention some of the beautiful actresses."
- "I'm disappointed in acting as a craft. I want everything to go back to Orson Welles and fake noses and changing your voice. It's become so much about personality."
Notes
- ↑ David A.Y.O. Chang, Spencer Tracy's Boyhood: Truth, Fiction, and Hollywood Dreams Wisconsin Magazine of History 81(1) (2000): 30-35. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
- ↑ Kathleen Kosiec, Spencer Tracy in Wisconsin WCFTR Blog, July 25, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2022.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Curtis, James. Spencer Tracy: A Biography. Knopf, 2011. ISBN 978-0307262899
- Dandola, John. Dead at the Box Office. Glen Ridge, NJ: Quincannon, 2001. ISBN 1878452258
- Fisher, James. Spencer Tracy: a Bio-bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0313287279
- Kanin, Garson. Tracy and Hepburn; an Intimate Memoir. New York: Viking, 1971. ISBN 0670722936
- Swindell, Larry. Spencer Tracy; a Biography. Echo Point Books & Media, 2016. ISBN 978-1626548077
External links
All links retrieved February 7, 2023.
- Spencer Tracy at the Internet Movie Database
- Spencer Tracy at Find A Grave
- Spencer Tracy Turner Classic Movies
- Spencer Tracy Hollywood Walk of Fame
| |||||||||||||||||
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
