William Tracy

William Tracy (December 1, 1917 – July 18, 1967) was an American character actor born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He worked across Broadway, film, radio, and television over the course of his career.

Tracy made his Broadway appearance in 1937 in Hitch Your Wagon. His stage work preceded a transition into film, where he accumulated a range of credits throughout the late 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in Brother Rat in 1938, and went on to take roles in Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) and John Ford's Tobacco Road (1941). He is perhaps most recognized for his portrayal of Pepi Katona, a delivery boy, in the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch film The Shop Around the Corner.

Beginning in 1940, Tracy took on the recurring role of Sgt. Dorian "Dodo" Doubleday in a series of eight films paired with Joe Sawyer as Sgt. Ames. The first six were produced as part of Hal Roach's Streamliners service comedies, launching with Tanks a Million (1941), a film that received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score. The final two entries in the series were produced by Lippert Pictures, concluding with Mr. Walkie Talkie (1952), which was set during the Korean War. In 1942, Tracy appeared alongside Randolph Scott, John Payne, and Alan Hale Jr. in To the Shores of Tripoli.

Tracy also worked in radio, appearing on the June 14, 1951 episode of the series Suspense in an installment titled The Truth About Jerry Baxter, in which he played the title character, described as a teenage marijuana addict. He was 33 years old at the time of that broadcast. Earlier, he had played the lead role of Terry Lee in the 1940 serial Terry and the Pirates, and later returned to the same property in the 1953 television series, this time in the role of "Hotshot Charlie."

During the 1950s, Tracy worked primarily in television. He had been married to actress Lois James from 1945 to 1954. Tracy died in Hollywood, California at the age of 49 and is interred at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.