Spencer Tracy was born four years after his brother Carroll to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy. He attended Marquette Academy along with Pat O'Brien and the two left school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. He was still at Norfolk Navy Yard in VIrginia at the end of the war. At Ripon College he did well in the lead of "The Truth" and decided on acting as a career. In New York he roomed with O'Brien while they attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1923 they both got nonspeaking parts as robots in "R.U.R". In stock he supported himself with jobs as bellhop, janitor and salesman. John Ford saw his critically acclaimed performance in the lead role in in The Last Mile and signed him to Up the River for Fox. His family moved to Hollywood in 1931, and Tracy made 16 films in three years. In 1935 he signed with MGM. He became the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He was nominated for San Francisco, Father of the Bride, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Old Man and the Sea, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. He had a brief romantic relationship with Loretta Young in the 1930s and a lifelong one with Katharine Hepburn beginning in 1942. Because he was a Catholic he never divorced his wife Louise, though they lived apart. A few weeks after completion of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, during which he suffered from lung congestion, he died of a heart attack.


Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967): $300,000
Broken Lance (1954): $165,000 + percentage of profits
Up the River (1930): $1,000/week

Sometimes people confuse Spencer Tracy and James Whitmore. The two sometimes look as if they could have been brothers. Born at 1:57am-CST His Best Actor Oscar for Boys Town (1938) is inscribed with the name "Dick Tracy." Attended no fewer than six high schools: Wauwatosa (WI) High School; St. John's Cathedral School (Milwaukee); St. Mary's (near Topeka, Kansas); Rockhurst High School (Kansas City, Mo.) ; Marquette Academy (Milwaukee); WWI service; Northwestern Military and Naval Academy (Lake Geneva, WI); and West Division High School (Milwaukee), from which he graduated in 1921. 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. Made nine films with Katharine Hepburn, the first of which was Woman of the Year (1942). Had two children from his marriage to Louise Treadwell: Son, John Ten Broeck Tracy (born 26 June 1924) and daughter, Louise Treadwell 'Susie' Tracy (born July 1 1932). He is often mentioned alongside Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando as the greatest movie actor of all time. Unlike the other two, however, Tracy was not already successful and well-known as a stage actor before getting into films. Katharine Hepburn, his frequent screen partner and longtime flame, never watched Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) because it was his last film and watching it with him gone was too painful for her. Named the #9 Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film Institute Secretly diagnosed with diabetes in the late 1940s. Has three films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Captains Courageous (1937) at #94, Boys Town (1938) at #81 and _Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)_ at #35. 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. Advertised Lucky Strike cigarettes. His father, John Tracy, worked as a clerk at a railroad office. He won an Oscar for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938), making him the first actor to win the Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony. As of 2007, ten more actors joined him: Gary Cooper for playing Alvin C. York in Sergeant York (1941), Patty Duke for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962), Jason Robards for playing Benjamin Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976), Robert De Niro for playing Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980), Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Susan Sarandon for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995), Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996), Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000), Jim Broadbent for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001/I) and most recently Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006). Turned down Cary Grant's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) because he was eager to make Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941). He is featured as a character in the mystery novel, Dead at the Box Office by John Dandola, which is set during the World Premiere of Edison, the Man (1940). Warner Bros. bought the rights to the book "Mute Witness" about a Boston detective who ate a lot of ice cream and never solved a case with Tracy in mind to star. Upon Tracy's death, a chase scene was added to the script, the location changed to San Francisco, and the character - Detective Frank Bullitt - changed to be played by Steve McQueen. As of 2009, he is only one of six performers who won a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actor/Actress in a Motion Picture Drama without being nominated for an Oscar for that same role (for The Actress (1953)). The others are Anthony Franciosa in Career (1959), Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965), Shirley MacLaine in Madame Sousatzka (1988), Jim Carrey in The Truman Show (1998) and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (2008). Has a street named after him in Iowa City, Iowa. 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. Turned down the role of the judge in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Edward Arnold's role in Come and Get It (1936), Michael Rennie's role in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Desi Arnaz's role in Forever, Darling (1956), William Powell's role in Mister Roberts (1955), Donald Crisp's role in National Velvet (1944), Melvyn Douglas's role in Ninotchka (1939), and Gregory Peck's role in The Yearling (1946).