Spencer Tracy

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born on April 5, 1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second son of Caroline Brown Tracy and John Edward Tracy, a truck salesman. His mother came from a wealthy Presbyterian Midwestern family, while his father was of Irish Catholic descent. Tracy had one older brother, Carroll. A restless and hyperactive child with poor school attendance, Tracy was placed in the care of Dominican Order nuns at age nine. He attended several Jesuit academies during his teenage years and, at Marquette Academy, began attending plays alongside his lifelong friend and fellow actor Pat O'Brien, an experience that first awakened his interest in the theater.

When Tracy turned eighteen during World War I, he and O'Brien enlisted in the Navy together. Both were sent to a naval training station near Chicago, where they remained recruits-in-training until the war ended. Tracy achieved the rank of seaman second class, never went to sea, and was discharged in February 1919. His father's wish for a college-educated son prompted Tracy to complete his high school diploma, and he entered Ripon College in February 1921 intending to study medicine. At Ripon, he served as president of his hall and participated in numerous campus activities. His stage debut came in June 1921, when he played the male lead in The Truth to strong reception. He and several friends subsequently formed a touring acting company called the Campus Players. While on a debate team tour, Tracy auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and was offered a scholarship after performing a scene from one of his earlier roles.

Tracy left Ripon and began classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in April 1922. O'Brien was also enrolled, and the two shared a small studio apartment, frequently living on meals of rice and pretzels and sharing a single presentable suit between them. Tracy progressed to the senior class and joined the academy's stock company. He made his New York debut in October 1922 in The Wedding Guests and his first Broadway appearance three months later, playing a wordless robot in R.U.R. He graduated from the academy in March 1923.

Following graduation, Tracy joined a stock company in White Plains, New York, then moved to one in Cincinnati without making a significant impression. In November 1923, he landed a small part on Broadway in the comedy A Royal Fandango, starring Ethel Barrymore. The show received poor reviews and closed after twenty-five performances. Tracy subsequently took a position with a struggling company in New Jersey, living on an allowance of thirty-five cents a day. In January 1924, he played his first leading role with a company in Winnipeg, though that organization soon folded. He found more sustained success in the spring of 1924 by joining forces with stock manager William H. Wright and forming a stage partnership with actress Selena Royle, whose productions were favorably received and drew the attention of a Broadway producer. That opportunity, a play called The Sheepman, previewed in October 1925 but closed after its trial run in Connecticut.

In the fall of 1926, Tracy was offered a role in a new George M. Cohan play called Yellow. He later said he would have abandoned the stage entirely had the production failed. During rehearsals, Cohan declared Tracy the best actor he had ever seen. Yellow opened on September 21, 1926, received mixed reviews, and ran for 135 performances, marking a turning point in Tracy's stage career. His Broadway work during this period also included appearances in the plays Conflict and Nigger Rich, also known as The Big Shot. Tracy's Broadway career, which spanned from 1923 to 1945, culminated in his starring role in The Rugged Path, and his breakthrough stage performance came with the lead role in The Last Mile in 1930.

It was The Last Mile that brought Tracy to Hollywood's attention. His film debut followed in John Ford's Up the River, in which he appeared alongside Humphrey Bogart, and he was subsequently signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. Over five years at Fox, Tracy appeared in approximately twenty-five films, nearly all in leading roles, though none achieved significant box office success. His performance in The Power and the Glory in 1933 earned considerable critical praise despite modest commercial returns.

Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his fifth film for the studio, Fury, in 1936. He won consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor for Captains Courageous in 1937 and Boys Town in 1938, becoming the first actor to achieve back-to-back wins in that category. He received nine Academy Award nominations in total over the course of his career. Tracy appeared in three major box office successes alongside Clark Gable, MGM's leading male star, and by the early 1940s had become one of the studio's top performers. In 1942, he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, beginning a professional and personal partnership that produced nine films over twenty-five years. In 1955, Tracy won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his work in Bad Day at Black Rock.

Tracy departed MGM in 1955 and continued working as a freelance star despite ongoing health issues. His personal life was marked by a lifelong struggle with severe alcoholism and grief over his son's deafness. He and his wife Louise became estranged in the 1930s but never divorced. His relationship with Katharine Hepburn, which lasted twenty-five years, was widely known. Toward the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively with director Stanley Kramer. His final film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, was completed just seventeen days before his death on June 10, 1967. Over the course of his career, Tracy appeared in seventy-five films. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him ninth among the greatest male stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.