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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June
10, 1967) was an United States|American film actor
who appeared in 74 films from 1930 through the
1960s.

He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second
son of a truck salesman.  At the beginning of
World War I he left school to enlist in the Navy,
but remained in Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia
throughout the war.  Afterward he attended Ripon
College where he appeared in a play entitled The
Truth, and decided on acting as a career.  In the
early 1920s he  attended the Academy of Dramatic
Arts in New York.  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.   

In 1923 he married Louise Treadwell, and they had
two children, John and Louise (Susie). In 1930 in
film|1930, director John Ford saw him in the play
The Last Mile and signed him to do Up the River
for 20th Century Fox|Fox Pictures.  Shortly after
that he and his family moved to Hollywood, where
he made over 35 films in five years.  In 1935 he
signed with MGM and won the Academy Award|Oscar
for Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor two
years in a row, for Captains Courageous (1937) and
Boys Town (1938).  He was also nominated for San
Francisco (movie)|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 Guess
Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).   He is tied with
Laurence Olivier for the most best actor Oscar
nominations.

In 1941 he began a relationship with Katharine
Hepburn.  Though estranged from his wife Louise,
he was a devout Catholic and never divorced.  He
and Hepburn made nine films together.   Two weeks
after making his last movie Guess Who's Coming to
Dinner, with Hepburn, he died from a massive heart
attack at the age of 67. He is interred in Forest
Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale,
California. 

More than thirty years after his death, Tracy is
still considered by many to be the most skillful
actor 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.  
Tracy was one of Hollywood's earliest "realistic"
actors; his performances have stood the test of
time unlike some of the overly theatrical work
done by many of his peers.   


==Filmography==
*The Strong Arm (1930) (short subject)
*Taxi Talks (1930) (short subject)
*The Hard Guy (1930) (short subject)
*Up the River (1930)
*Quick Millions (1931)
*Six Cylinder Love (1931)
*Goldie (1931)
*She Wanted a Millionaire (1932)
*Sky Devils (1932)
*Disorderly Conduct (1932)
*Young America (1932)
*Society Girl (1932)
*The Painted Woman (1932)
*Me and My Girl (1932)
*20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
*The Face in the Sky (1933)
*Shanghai Madness (1933)
*The Power and the Glory (1933)
*Man's Castle (1933)
*The Mad Game (1933)
*The Show-Off (1934)
*Looking for Trouble (1934)
*Bottoms Up (1934)
*Now I'll Tell (1934)
*Marie Galante (1934)
*It's a Small World (1935)
*The Murder Men (1935)
*Dante's Inferno (1935)
*Whipsaw (1935)
*Riffraff (1936)
*Fury (1936 movie)|Fury (1936)
*San Francisco (1936)
*Libeled Lady (1936)
*They Gave Him a Gun (1937)
*Captains Courageous (1937)
*Big City (1937)
*Mannequin (1937)
*Test Pilot (1938)
*Hollywood Goes to Town (1938) (short subject)
*Boys Town (1938)
*For Auld Lang Syne: No. 4 (1939) (short subject)
*Hollywood Hobbies (1939) (short subject)
*Stanley and Livingstone (1939)
*I Take This Woman (1940)
*Young Tom Edison (1940) (Cameo)
*Northward, Ho! (1940) (short subject)
*Northwest Passage (1940)
*Edison, the Man (1940)
*Boom Town (1940)
*Men of Boys Town (1941)
*Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
*Woman of the Year (1942)
*Ring of Steel (1942) (short subject) (narrator)
*Tortilla Flat (1942)
*Keeper of the Flame (1942)
*His New World (1943) (documentary) (narrator)
*A Guy Named Joe (1943)
*The Seventh Cross (1944)
*Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
*Without Love (1945)
*The Sea of Grass (1947)
*Cass Timberlane (1947)
*State of the Union (1948)
*Edward, My Son (1949)
*Adam's Rib (1949)
*Malaya (1949)
*Father of the Bride (1950)
*For Defense for Freedom for Humanity (1951)
(short subject)
*Father's Little Dividend (1951)
*The People Against O'Hara (1951)
*Pat and Mike (1952)
*Plymouth Adventure (1952)
*The Actress (1953)
*Broken Lance (1954)
*Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
*The Mountain (1956)
*Desk Set (1957)
*The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
*The Last Hurrah (1958)
*Inherit the Wind (1960)
*The Devil at Four O'Clock (1961)
*Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
*How the West Was Won (1962) (narrator)
*It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
*Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

== Books ==
*Spencer Tracy; a Biography by Larry Swindell, New
York, World Pub. Co. 1969
*Tracy and Hepburn by Garson Kanin, New York,
Viking 1971
*Spencer Tracy : a Bio-bibliography by James
Fisher. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1994

== Quotes ==
* "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."

== External links ==
* imdb name|id=0000075|name=Spencer Tracy
*
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/3560/
tracy.html
* http://www.themave.com/Tracy/Tracy.htm
*
http://www.seeing-stars.com/StarIndexes/SpencerTra
cy.shtml