Spencer Tracy

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Actor:

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

How the West Was Won (1962) Narrator

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961)

Inherit the Wind (1960)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Old Man and the Sea (1958) Narrator

Desk Set (1957)

The Mountain (1956)

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Broken Lance (1954)

The Actress (1953)

Plymouth Adventure (1952)

Pat and Mike (1952)

The People Against O'Hara (1951)

Father's Little Dividend (1951)

Father of the Bride (1950)

Malaya (1949)

Adam's Rib (1949)

Edward, My Son (1949)

State of the Union (1948)

Cass Timberlane (1947)

The Sea of Grass (1947)

Without Love (1945)

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

The Seventh Cross (1944)

A Guy Named Joe (1943)

Keeper of the Flame (1942)

Tortilla Flat (1942)

Woman of the Year (1942)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

Men of Boys Town (1941)

Boom Town (1940)

Edison, the Man (1940)

'Northwest Passage' (Book I -- Rogers' Rangers) (1940)

Young Tom Edison (1940) (uncredited)

I Take This Woman (1940)

Stanley and Livingstone (1939)

Boys Town (1938)

Test Pilot (1938)

Mannequin (1937)

Big City (1937)

Captains Courageous (1937)

They Gave Him a Gun (1937)

Libeled Lady (1936)

San Francisco (1936)

Fury (1936)

Riffraff (1936)

Whipsaw (1935)

Dante's Inferno (1935)

The Murder Man (1935)

It's a Small World (1935)

Marie Galante (1934)

Now I'll Tell (1934)

Bottoms Up (1934)

Looking for Trouble (1934)

The Show-Off (1934)

Man's Castle (1933)

The Mad Game (1933)

The Power and the Glory (1933)

Shanghai Madness (1933)

Face in the Sky (1933)

20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)

Me and My Gal (1932)

The Painted Woman (1932)

Society Girl (1932)

Young America (1932)

Disorderly Conduct (1932)

Sky Devils (1932)

She Wanted a Millionaire (1932)

Goldie (1931)

Six Cylinder Love (1931)

Quick Millions (1931)

Up the River (1930)

The Hard Guy (1930)

Taxi Talks (1930)

The Strong Arm (1930)

As Himself:

"ESPN SportsCentury" (1 episode, 2000)

"Hollywood and the Stars" (1 episode, 1963)

For Defense for Freedom for Humanity (1951) (uncredited)

Some of the Best (1949) (uncredited)

His New World (1943) (voice)

Ring of Steel (1942) (voice)

Northward, Ho! (1940) (uncredited)

Hollywood Hobbies (1939) (uncredited)

For Auld Lang Syne (1939)

Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)

Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 9 (1938)

Another Romance of Celluloid (1938) (uncredited)

Academy Awards

1968 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) Posthumously.

1962 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

1961 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Inherit the Wind (1960)

1959 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

1956 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

1951 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Father of the Bride (1950)

1939 Won Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Boys Town (1938) Spencer Tracy was not present at the awards ceremony. His wife Louise Treadwell accepted the award on his behalf.

1938 Won Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: Captains Courageous (1937)

1937 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role for: San Francisco (1936)


BAFTA Awards

1969 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Actor for: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) Posthumously.

1961 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actor for: Inherit the Wind (1960) USA.

1959 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actor for: The Last Hurrah (1958) USA.

1957 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actor for: The Mountain (1956)

1954 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actor for: The Actress (1953) USA.


Cannes Film Festival

1955 Won Best Actor for: Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Tied with the ensemble cast in Bolshaya semya (1954).


Fotogramas de Plata

1963 Won Fotogramas de Plata Best Foreign Performer (Mejor intérprete de cine extranjero) for: Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)


Golden Globes

1968 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama for: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) Posthumously.

1961 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama for: Inherit the Wind (1960)

1959 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama for: The Old Man and the Sea (1958)

1954 Won Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama for: The Actress (1953)

Laurel Awards

1968 Nominated Golden Laurel Male Dramatic Performance for: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) 4th place.

1961 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Male Dramatic Performance for: Inherit the Wind (1960) 5th place.


National Board of Review, USA

1958 Won NBR Award Best Actor for: The Old Man and the Sea (1958) Also for The Last Hurrah (1958).


Walk of Fame

Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture At 6812 Hollywood Blvd.

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Spencer Tracy joined the U.S. navy at age seventeen, but at the end of World War I, he took to the stage. After a decade of solid work he was spotted by John Ford, who took him to Hollywood to star in Up the River (1930), a comedy about two jailbirds. His craggy face, burly figure, and forceful presence suited him to tough-guy roles, and he appeared in a series of gangster and prison dramas, such as Quick Millions (1931) and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932), before being signed by MGM in 1935. Tracy's realistic, understated style of acting soon made him a major star, and he won back-to-back Oscars for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938). In 1942 Tracy was teamed with another MGM star, Katharine Hepburn, in Woman of the year. Tracy is the gruff, macho newspaperman who marries a star reporter (Hepburn). The two struck sparks off each other, and the onscreen relationship was to be deepened and refined in several further movies, including Keeper of the Flame (1942), State of the Union (1948), Adam's Rib (1949), in which the pair are lawyers appearing on opposite sides in a case involving a marital dispute, and Pat and Mike (1952), in which Hepburn is a sports star and Tracy her manager.

Their relationship was developing offscreen too. Tracy, a Catholic, would not divorce his wife, but he lived separately from her for years while his and Hepburn's romance was an open secret in Hollywood. As he matured, Tracy graduated to roles as the occasionally irascible but loving paterfamilias, as in the comedy Father of the Bride (1950), in which his daughter is Elizabeth Taylor, and The Actress (1953), a movie based on an autobiographical play by Ruth Gordon, who had written the scripts for a couple of Tracy's movies.

Tracy had a wholly unsympathetic role in Edward, My son (1949), and was a notable presence as a patriarchal rancher in Broken Lance (1954) and as a one-armed avenger in Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). In 1967 came Tracy and Hepburn's final collaboration, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, in which they play the parents of a daughter intent on marrying a black man.

Tracy died a few weeks after completing work on the film.

Kate and Spence

"I saw Spence and Kate's friendship developing right under my eyes," was director George Stevens's assessment of the budding Tracy-Hepburn relationship on the set of Woman of the Year (1942). This was the beginning of a 25-year on and offscreen love affair. Married man Tracy was happy to stay that way - "I Can get a divorce whenever I want to. But my wife and Kate like things just as they are." Hepburn, married once before, felt that actors were not suited to the institution. Tracy died soon after filming Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), leaving Hepburn heartbroken. she never watched the film.

There were times when my pants were so thin, I could sit on a dime and know if it was heads or tails.

Why do actors think they're so God damn important? They're not. Acting is not an important job in the scheme of things. Plumbing is.

Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Garden of Everlasting Peace, on the right just after entering.

Tracy was offered the role of The Penguin in the TV series "Batman" (1966) before Burgess Meredith. He said he would only accept the role if he was allowed to kill Batman.

Didn't like to rehearse and would read through a scene only once, five days before shooting. He also never liked to shoot a scene more than once, and in most cases he didn't have to.

Turned down Cary Grant's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) because he was eager to make Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941).

He was making a cup of coffee on the morning of 10 June 1967 when he suffered a sudden heart attack. Katharine Hepburn found him dead on the kitchen floor.

Salary

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) $300,000

Broken Lance (1954) $165,000 + percentage of profits

Up the River (1930) $1,000/week

He turned down the role of Mister Roberts (1955)