Spencer Tracy

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Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor best known for his natural acting style and versatility.

Tracy, one of Hollywood's top actors, received two Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations, tying for the first time in the category with Laurence Olivier. Tracy first discovered his passion for acting while attending Ripon College, and was later granted a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

He spent seven years in the theatre, including stints in a succession of stock firms and occasionally on Broadway.

Tracy's breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead role in The Last Mile captured Hollywood's interest.

Tracy and Humphrey Bogart appeared in a successful film debut in John Ford's Up the River.

After one that were typically ignored at the box office, his five years with Fox featured one acting tour de force after another that were almost unnoticed by the majority, and he stayed relatively unknown to audiences after 25 films, with Tracy playing him.

None of them were successful, but The Power and the Glory (1933) is certainly his most well-known appearance in retrospect. Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1935, the time when Hollywood's most prestigious studio was still located.

His career flourished with a string of hit films, and he received multiple awards for Captains Courageous and Boys Town in 1937 and 1938.

Clark Gable, the studio's principal leading man, made three smash hit films supporting him, firmly cementing the concept of Gable and Tracy as a team in the public imagination.

Tracy was one of the studio's best actors by the 1940s.

In 1942, he appeared in Woman of the Year with Katharine Hepburn, kicking off another memorable partnership that made nine films in over 25 years. Tracy left MGM in 1955 and continued to work as a freelance actor, despite increased weariness as he aged.

His personal life was tense, with a lifelong fight against extreme alcoholism and guilt over his son's deafness.

Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s but never divorced, maintaining a long-term friendship with Katharine Hepburn in private.

Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer until the end of his life.

Kramer made his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, in 1967, which was only 17 days before his death. Tracy starred in 75 films and gained a reputation as one of the best actors on film during his career.

The American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the ninth best male actor of Classic Hollywood Cinema in 1999.

Early life

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 5, 1900, the second son of Caroline (née Brown; 1874-1942) and truck salesman John Edward Tracy (1873–1928). His mother was from a wealthy, Presbyterian, Midwestern family, and his father, who was of Irish Catholic descent, was from a wealthy, Episcopal family. Carroll, a four-year-old boy, had a brother who was four years older.

Tracy, a dystopic and hyperactive child with low school attendance, was a struggle and hyperactive student. He was raised Catholic and placed in the care of Dominican Order nuns at the age of nine in an effort to change his behavior. He remarked later in life that he never would have returned to school if there had been any other way of knowing how to read the subtitles in the movies. He became fascinated with movies, frequenting the same ones and then reenacting scenes with his friends and neighbors. In his teen years, he attended numerous Jesuit academies, which he said took the "poor" out of him and helped him improve his grades.

He began attending performances with lifelong pal and colleague Pat O'Brien, which revived his interest in the theatre at Marquette University. Tracy and O'Brien were enlisted in the Navy together when Tracy turned 18 with no concern for their studies and "itching for a chance to go and see some excitement." They were sent to the Naval Training Station in northern Illinois, where they were still students when World War I came to an end. Tracy rose to the rank of seaman second class in the second class, but she was never sent to sea and was dismissed in February 1919. Tracy returned to high school to complete his diploma in the midst of his father's inability to see one of his sons obtain a college degree. Tracy was offered a place at Ripon College despite research at two other schools and the additional allowance of "war credits." He entered in February 1921, announcing his intention to major in medicine.

Tracy was a popular student at Ripon College, where he served as president of his hall and was active in a variety of college activities. In June 1921, he made his stage debut in The Truth, playing the male lead. He was well-received in his role and forged a passion for the role; he later developed a fascination with acting to the point that he barely talked about nothing else. The Campus Players, he and some pals', formed an acting company that went on tour. Tracy excelled at argument and public speaking as a member of the college debate team. It was during a tour with the debate team that he applied for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York City. Since appearing in a scene from one of his earlier performances, he was given a scholarship to attend the school.

In April 1922, Tracy left Ripon and started classes at AADA. O'Brien had been attending school for the second time, and the two shared a small studio apartment. The two were often caught on rice and pretzels and shared one fine suit. Tracy was accepted into the senior class, allowing him to join the academy's stock company. In a play called The Wedding Guests, which opened in October 1922, he made his New York debut. In R.U.R., he made his first Broadway appearance three months later, as a wordless robot. In March 1923, he graduated from AADA.

Personal life

While working with the Wood Players in White Plains, New York, Tracy met actress Louise Treadwell, the first stock company Tracy joined after graduating. The couple married on September 10 of that year, and during his matinee and evening performances, they were engaged in May 1923 and September 10 of that year.

John Ten Broeck Tracy, their son, was born in June 1924. Louise discovered the baby was deaf when he was ten months old. Tracy did not hear her for three months. Tracy was devastated by the news and felt deep sadness over his son's deafness. He was convinced that John's hearing loss was a punishment for his own sins. Tracy had a difficult time interacting with his son and distanced himself from his family as a result. "Tracy] didn't leave Louise," Joseph L. Mankiewicz, a Tracy's friend, later announced: "Tracy" didn't leave Louise. He fled the scene of his guilt." Louise "Susie" Treadwell Tracy, a second child, was born in 1932. The children were raised in the Episcopal faith of their mother.

Tracy and his family returned to the family home in 1933, and he and Louise openly discussed the break with the media, claiming that they were still friends and not took divorce action. Tracy had a public affair with Loretta Young, his co-star in Man's Castle, from September 1933 to June 1934. In 1935, he reconciled with Louise. Tracy and his wife's official separation was never concluded, but the marriage remained to be tense. Tracy grew up in hotels, and by the 1940s, the two were effectively living separate lives. Tracy was involved in extramarital affairs, including with co-star Joan Crawford in 1937 and Ingrid Bergman in 1941. In 1935 and 1936, he had a feud with Myrna Loy. Loy found her passion with Tracy during a phone interview with educator Alan Greenberg in 1990. "I loved Spence, he was adorable, and I loved him so much." I adored him. I was in love with him, and she [Katharine Hepburn] was involved in the way."

Tracy began what was to be a lifelong friendship with Katharine Hepburn while making Woman of the Year in September 1941. The actress became devoted to him, and their friendship continued long after his death, 26 years later. Tracy never returned to live in the family's house, although he visited often.

The MGM moguls were keen to shield their stars from scandal, and Tracy wanted to keep his relationship with Hepburn private from his wife, so it was hidden from the public. When Tracy and Tracy's life shared a cottage in Beverly Hills on George Cukor's estate, they didn't live together until the end of the couple's life. The intimate nature of the Tracy-Hepburn relationship, on the other hand, was a little bit of a mystery in Hollywood. "We all knew," Angela Lansbury, a veteran of the Union, said later, "but no one ever said anything." "It's not talked about in those days." Tracy was not someone to express emotion, but Betsy Drake said he was "completely dependent on Hepburn." Tracy's infidelity, on the other hand, is believed to have had an affair with Gene Tierney while filming the Plymouth Adventure in 1952.

Despite their estrangement, neither Tracy nor his wife ever attempted divorce. "I can get a divorce whenever I want to," he told Joan Fontaine, but my wife and Kate are just as they are." Louise, meanwhile, said, "I will be Mrs. Spencer Tracy until the day I die." Hepburn did not interfere and never proposed marriage; rather, he did not bother and never fought for marriage.

Tracy was an avowed Catholic, but his cousin, Jane Feely, said he did not devoutly follow the faith: "he was often not a practical Catholic." "I would call him a spiritual Catholic." Garson Kanin, a friend of Tracy's for 25 years, has described him as a "tru believer" who reveres his faith. Tracy attended Mass on a daily basis during his life. Tracy did not believe that actors should be vocal about their political views, but lent his name to the "Hollywood for Roosevelt" committee in 1940 and identified as a Democrat.

Tracy suffered with alcoholism throughout his adult life, an ailment that was not present in his father's side of the family. Rather than being a regular drinker, as usual, he was susceptible to bouts of binge drinking. Tracy was "awful" when he was inebriated, according to Loretta Young, and he was twice jailed for his behavior when inebriated. Tracy went back to alcohol for lengthy stretches of sobriety and created an all-or-nothing diet. Before falling off the wagon without warning, Hepburn predicted that he would stop drinking for "months, even years at a time."

Tracy was prone to bouts of depression and anxiety; Mrs. Tracy referred to him as having "the most volatile body I've ever seen": up in the clouds one minute and down in the depths the next. "When he's poor, he's very poor." Throughout his life, he was plagued by insomnia. Tracy, as a result, became dependent on barbiturates to sleep, followed by dexedrine to function. Hepburn, who took on a nursing role in Tracy, was unable to comprehend her partner's dissatisfaction with her partner's behaviour. "What was it?" she wrote in her autobiography: "What was it?" she wondered. ... There's no peace at all. Some sort of shame has brought Torture. "Some horrific misery."

Tracy's adult life of alcoholism, smoking cigarettes, taking pills, and being overweight put him in poor shape by the time he hit his 60s. Tracy was hospitalized on July 21, 1963, after a serious bout of breathlessness. Doctors found that he was suffering from pulmonary edema, or fluid buildup in the lungs as a result of the heart's inability to pump properly. His blood pressure was also dangerously high, according to the doctors. Tracy was still young at this time, and Hepburn and his family moved into his house to provide consistent care. He was diagnosed with hypertensive heart disease in January 1965 and began treatment for a previously unknown diagnosis of Type II diabetes. Tracy almost died in September 1965 after a prostatectomy resulted in his kidneys failing, and he spent the night in a coma. His recovery the next day was described as "a kind of miracle" by his attending doctor.

Tracy spent the majority of the next two years at Hepburn, enjoying what she called a quiet life: reading, painting, and listening to music. Tracy awakened at 3 a.m. on June 10, 1967, 17 days after completing what was his last film role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. In her autobiography, Hepburn related following him to the kitchen: "Just as I was going to give [the door] a push, there was a sound of a cup smashing to the ground," she said—then clump—a loud clump." Tracy was discovered dead from a heart attack as she entered the room. He was 67 years old when he died. "He seemed so happy to be done with living," Hepburn said, "which had to be a frightening burden for him." Tracy had been alone when he died and was discovered by his housekeeper, according to MGM publicist Howard Strickling.

On June 12 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in East Hollywood, a Requiem Mass was held for Tracy. George Cukor, Stanley Kramer, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart, and John Ford were among the active recipients. Hepburn did not attend Tracy's funeral because of a lack of concern for her mother. Tracy is laid to rest at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park, near his wife Louise, son John, and daughter Susie.

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Career

Tracy joined a new stock company in White Plains, New York, where he was assigned peripheral roles immediately after graduating. He went to a Cincinnati company but didn't make a difference, but it wasn't a good one. He appeared on Broadway in the comedy A Royal Fandango, starring Ethel Barrymore, in November 1923. The show's reviews were sour and it ended after 25 performances; Tracy later said, "My ego took an awful beating." Tracy was earning 35 cents a day when he took up a job with a struggling business in New Jersey. He played his first leading role with a Winnipeg firm in January 1924, but the company was soon closed.

Tracy finally found some success by teaming up with William H. Wright, the legendary stock manager, in 1924's spring. Selena Royle, a young actress who had already made her name on Broadway, was the catalyst for a stage partnership. It was a huge draw, and their works were highly acclaimed. Tracy was dragged by a Broadway producer who gave him the lead in a new play during one of these performances. The Sheepman appeared in October 1925 but after its trial run in Connecticut, it received poor feedback and was shelved. Tracy was coerced back to Wright and the stock circuit after being dejected.

Tracy was given his third shot at Broadway in 1926: a new George M. Cohan play called Yellow. Tracy swore that if the play was not a success, he would leave stock and work in a "regular" environment instead. Tracy was nervous about working with Cohan, one of the most influential figures in American theatre, but Cohan announced, "Tracy, you're the greatest goddamned actor I've ever seen." Yellow opened on September 21; critiques were mixed but the production went for 135 performances. It was the start of a crucial relationship for Tracy: "I'd have left the stage completely," he later said, "if it hadn't been for George M. "Cohan" is a character in the film "Cohan." In his upcoming play, The Baby Cyclone, Cohan wrote specifically for Tracy. It opened on Broadway in 1927 and was a huge success.

Tracy continued this success with Whispering Friends, Cohan's second play, and Clark Gable took over in 1929 as a Broadway drama. Other roles followed, but it was the lead in Dread, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Owen Davis, that gave Tracy high hopes for success. Dread's tale of a man's descent into madness, Dread, was a hit in Brooklyn, but the New York stock exchange crashed on the next day, October 29. Since they were unable to obtain funds, Dread did not open on Broadway. Tracy considered leaving the theatre and returning to Milwaukee for a more settled life after this disappointment.

Tracy was contacted in January 1930 about a new play called The Last Mile. Producer Herman Shumlin met with Tracy to discuss the lead role of a murderer on death row, and later explained: "Beneath the surface, here was a man of passion, violence, empathy, and desperation: there was no ordinary man, but just the man for the role." Tracy's appearance was greeted by a standing ovation that lasted 14 curtain calls as the Last Mile opened on Broadway in February. He was dubbed "one of our finest and most versatile young actors" by the Commonweal. The play was a hit with critics and had 289 performances.

In 1930, Broadway was being searched for actors to work in the new medium of sound films. Tracy was cast in two Vitaphone shorts (Taxi Talks and The Hard Guy), but he had no intention of becoming a film actor, but he later said in an interview, "I had no ambition in that direction and I was perfectly happy on stage." Director John Ford was one of the few people to watch Tracy in The Last Mile.

Tracy was selected by Ford for the lead role in his next film, a prison film. Tracy was suspicious of the fact that he did not photograph well, but Ford assured them that he was right for the job. Both Tracy and Humphrey Bogart made their film debuts in Up the River (1930). After the rushes, Fox offered Tracy a long-term deal. Tracy, knowing that he needed the money for his family, with his young son af and recovering from polio, he joined Fox and moved to California. He appeared on stage only once in his life.

Winfield Sheehan, the Fox's CEO, has pledged to make Tracy a profitable commodity. With the caption "A New Star Shines," the studio promoted the actor, releasing ads for his second film Quick Millions (1931). Three films were released in a fast succession, none of which were unsuccessful at the box office. Tracy was often cast in comedies, whether playing a crook or a con man. The mold was destroyed in his seventh film, Disorderly Conduct (1932), and it was the first of his films since Up the River to bring a profit.

Tracy was virtually unknown to the general public in mid-1932, after nine photographs. When his deal was up for renewal, he considered leaving Fox, but a rise in his weekly income convinced him to stay. He continued to appear in unpopular films, with Me and My Gal (1932) setting an all-time low attendance record for the Roxy Theatre in New York City. In Sing Sing Sing (1932), a prison drama co-starring Bette Davis, he was loaned to Warner Bros. Tracy was hoping that it would be his break out role, but it didn't come true despite promising reports.

Critics began to notice Tracy with The Power and the Glory (1933). Preston Sturges and Tracy's role as railroad tycoon Tom Garner received unanimous praise. "This sterling performer has finally been given the opportunity to demonstrate an ability that has been boxed in by gangster roles," Mr. Tracy said in a film. "No more convincing result has been given on film than Spencer Tracy's impersonation of Tom Garner," Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times said. Tracy, meanwhile, was convicted of having a previously unseen sex appeal and helped him advance his position. Despite this curiosity, Tracy's next two movies were largely unnoticed. Man's Castle (1933) with Loretta Young was supposed to be a success but instead, it was only a small amount. The Show-Off (1934), in which he was loaned to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was extremely popular, but his subsequent outings were unsuccessful.

Tracy drank heavily during his time with Fox as a alcoholic and gained a reputation as an alcoholic. After a two-week binge, he refused to film on Marie Galante in June 1934 and was discovered in his hotel room, almost unconscious. Tracy was suspended from the Fox payroll while recovering in a hospital and later sued for $125,000 for delaying the production. He took just two more photographs with the studio.

Tracy's friendship with Fox is unclear: later in life, Tracy maintained that he was fired because of his inebriation, but Fox reports contradict this. When MGM announced their interest in the actor, he was still under contract with the studio. They were in need of a new male actor, and Tracy was contacted on April 2, 1935, giving him a seven-year contract. Tracy and Fox's employment was ended "by mutual consent" on the afternoon. Tracy shot a total of 25 pictures in the five years he was with Fox Film Corporation, the bulk of which was lost at the box office.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was Hollywood's most respected movie production studio in the 1930s. Tracy was about unknown when he arrived. "Tracy was barely noticeable on the box office barometer in 1935, a critics' darling and little more," biographer James Curtis writes. However, he was known as a manipulator. Irving Thalberg, a producer who was still eager about working with the actor, told journalist Louella Parsons, "Spencer Tracy will be one of MGM's most valuable actors."

Curtis says the studio treated Tracy with care, a welcome departure from the actor's ineptitude and apathy when he was at Fox, which was like a "shot of adrenaline" for him. The Murder Man (1935), James Stewart's first film under new direction, was the first film under his new contract. Thalberg began planning to pair Tracy with the studio's best actresses: Whipsaw (1935), which co-starred Myrna Loy and was a commercial success. Tracy was opposite Jean Harlow in Riffraff (1936). However, both films were produced and promoted to showcase their leading ladies, thus extending Tracy's fame as a secondary actress.

Fury (1936) was the first film to show that Tracy could be a success on his own merits. Tracy, a man who pleaded for revenge after barely escaping death by a lynch crowd, was directed by Fritz Lang. The film and performance received rave reviews. Around the world, it earned $1.3 million. "Audiences who had no idea what they were doing a year earlier were now bringing him to him," Curtis says. It was a change that was nothing short of miraculous... [and] showed a willingness on the part of the people to embrace a leading man who was neither textbook handsome nor larger than life."

Fury was followed one month later with the debut of the big-budget disaster film San Francisco (1936). In the film, Tracy played a supporting role alongside Clark Gable, allowing viewers to see him as the best male actor in Hollywood. Tracy reportedly felt a great deal in representing the faith as a priest. Tracy was lauded for his role on film and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor despite only 17 minutes on screen. San Francisco's 1936 portrait became the highest-grossing picture of 1936. Fury and San Francisco were the "two films that changed his career and gave him the reputation of a major actor," says Dennis Deschner in his book "Tractor."

Tracy's professionalism was evident by this time, and MGM expressed delight with Tracy's professionalism. With Libeled Lady (also 1936), a screwball comedy starring William Powell, Loy, and Harlow, his public image continued to rise. "Powell, Harlow, and Loy were among the industry's top draws, and equal billing in such a powerhouse firm would only help to advance Tracy's fame," Curtis said. Libeled Lady was his third hit picture in less than six months.

Tracy appeared in four films released in 1937. They Gave Him a Gun, a crime-drama, went unnoticed, but Captains Courageous was one of the year's biggest film premieres. In the adventure film based on Rudyard Kipling's book, Tracy played a Portuguese fisherman. He was uncomfortable feigning a foreign accent and resenting his hair cut, but the role was a hit with audiences, and Tracy received the Academy Award for Best Actor. Captains Courageous was followed by Big City with Luise Rainer and Mannequin, both of whom did well at the box office. Tracy rose to fame in the United States after two years of hit films and industry recognition. Tracy was ranked sixth in males by a 1937 survey of 20 million people.

Tracy was reunited with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy for Test Pilot (1938). The film was another huge commercial and critical hit, permanently establishing the notion of Gable and Tracy as a team in the public imagination.

MGM has cast Tracy as a priest in Boys Town again based on the positive feedback he had received in San Francisco (also 1938). "I'm so excited to do a good job as Father Flanagan, it makes me sleep at night," Portraying Edward J. Flanagan, a Catholic priest and founder of Boys Town, Nebraska, was a role Tracy took seriously: Tracy's success attracted raves worldwide, and the film grossed $4 million worldwide. Tracy received the Academy Award for Best Actor for his second year in a row. In his acceptance address, he was humbled to receive the honor: "I honestly don't think that I should accept this award." I can only accept it as it was meant to be for a great man—Father Flanagan." Despite keeping his Oscar, a second statuette was struck and sent straight to Flanagan. Tracy was named as the fifth biggest box office star of 1938.

Tracy was off-screen for almost a year before returning to Fox on loan and playing Henry M. Stanley (1939) with Nancy Kelly. Curtis continues to claim that Tracy's absence from being visible did not have no effect on his public or exhibitors' standing. Tracy came in first place in a Fortune magazine poll of the country's top movie stars in October 1939.

Tracy was in four films for 1940, MGM profited from his fame by casting him in four films. I Take This Woman with Hedy Lamarr, a critical and commercial failure, but the historical drama Northwest Passage, Tracy's first film in Technicolor, has gained a following. Thomas Edison was later depicted in Edison, the Man, by Thomas Edison. Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune was not captivated by the tale, but noted that Tracy, "by sheer persuasion of his performance," made the film worthy. Boom Town was the third and final Gable-Tracy film starring Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr, making it one of the year's most awaited films. The film attracted the most devoted audience since Gone With the Wind.

Tracy signed a new deal with MGM in April 1941, which paid $5,000 a week and limited him to three photographs a year (Tracy had previously stated the desire to minimize his hours). For the first time, the actor's salary would be "that of a celebrity." Contrary to popular belief, the deal did not contain a guarantee that he be paid top billing, but every film Tracy starred in featured his name in pole position from this point forward.

Tracy regained her fatherhood role in the sequel Men of Boys Town (1941). Tracy's first venture into the horror genre, an adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (also 1941), co-starring Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner, was followed by Tracy's co-starring Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Tracy was dissatisfied with the film, disliking the heavy make-up he needed to portray Hyde. The film's critical reaction was split. "Mr. Tracy's portrait of Hyde is not so bad incarnate as it is the ham rampant," Theodore Strauss of The New York Times wrote. The film was also profitable at the box office, grossing more than $2 million.

Tracy was supposed to appear in a 1942 film adaptation of The Yearling, but MGM had to cancel due to numerous on-set challenges and bad weather on location. With the completion of the project, he was in possession of the new Katharine Hepburn film Woman of the Year (1942). Tracy was adored by Hepburn, who described him as "the best movie actor there was" at the time. The Philadelphia Story (1940) - She had longed for him as a comeback vehicle. Tracy was thrilled that he was selected for Woman of the Year, saying, "I was just humiliated grateful he was able to work with me." The romantic comedies did well at the box office and received raves. "To start with, it has Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the leading roles," William Boehnel wrote in the New York World-Telegram. This alone would be enough to make any film memorable. But there's always something to cheer about when Tracy and Hepburn put on such good shows to boot.

The Woman of the Year was followed by an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat (also 1942) which received a tepid response. In the dark mystery Keeper of the Flame (1942), MGM did not hesitate to repeat Tracy and Hepburn's teaming and casting them. Despite a poor critical reception, the film out-grossed Woman of the Year, demonstrating the strength of their relationship.

Tracy's next three appearances were all war-based. With Irene Dunne's assistance, a Guy Named Joe (1943) became the highest-grossing film to date. The Seventh Cross (1944), a suspense film about an escape from a Nazi concentration camp, received critical praise. It was followed by the aviation film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). The annual Quigley poll revealed Tracy to be MGM's top money-making actor of 1944, his third film after that was titled Without Love (1945), a light romantic comedy that did well at the box office amid muted excitement from critics.

Tracy returned to the stage for the first time in 15 years in 1945. He had been going through a tough patch personally, with a hospital stay, and Hepburn believed that a play would help him regain his focus. "I'm going back to Broadway to see if I can still act," Tracy told a journalist in April. Robert E. Sherwood's play The Rugged Path was on display. It first premiered in Providence on September 28, to a sold-out crowd and tepid response. It was a difficult production, as director Garson Kanin later wrote: "All the important relationships had deteriorated in the ten days leading up to the New York premiere." Spencer, who was both dramatic and unbending, was unable to or wouldn't go in a direction. Tracy considered leaving the program before it opened on Broadway and lasted just six weeks before announcing his intention to withdraw from the program. After 81 performances, it came to a close on January 19, 1946. "I couldn't say those goddamn lines over and over again every night," Tracy said to a friend. At least every day is a new day for me in films. This thing—every day, every day—over and over again."

Tracy was missing from televisions in 1946, the first year since his motion picture debut that no Spencer Tracy was released. His next film was The Sea of Grass (1947), a melodrama set in the American Old West with Hepburn. A lukewarm response from critics prevented Keeper of the Flame and Without Love from being a financial success both at home and abroad. He continued it later this year with Cass Timberlane, in which he appeared as a judge. Tracy was a commercial success, but Curtis notes that Lana Turner, a co-star, overshadowed Tracy in most of the studies.

In 1948, Frank Capra's political drama State of the Union, Hepburn, was released in a fifth film. In the film, Tracy played a presidential candidate, which was warmly received. He appeared in Edward, My Son (1949), with Deborah Kerr. Tracy disliked the role and told director George Cukor, "It's disconcerting to me to find how quickly I play a heel." The New Yorker wrote of Mr. Tracy's "hopeless miscasting." Tracy's biggest money loseer at MGM was Tracy's film.

Tracy finished off the 1940s with Malaya (1949), James Stewart's adventure film, and Adam's Rib (also 1949), a comedy starring Tracy and Hepburn playing married lawyers who defy each other in court. Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, Tracy and Hepburn's relatives, wrote the scripts specifically for the two leads. The film received critical feedback and became the highest-grossing Tracy-Hepburn film to date. "Mr. Tracy and Miss Hepburn are the outstanding performers in this film, and their seamless synchrony in comedies is delightful to see," film critic Bosley Crowther said.

Tracy received his first Academy Award nomination in a decade (1950) for his role as Stanley Banks in Father of the Bride. Banks is attempting to plan for his daughter's upcoming wedding (Elizabeth Taylor) in the comedic film. "It's the second good comedy in a row for Spencer Tracy, playing the title role, and it socks it," Variety said. Tracy's career was the most commercially successful of the film, grossing $6 million worldwide. MGM wanted a sequel, and although Tracy was uncertain, he accepted it. Little Dividend (1951), Father's Little Dividend (1951), was released ten months later and did well at the box office and had a fruitful career. Tracy polled as one of the country's top actors once more in the two films.

Tracy appeared in The People Against O'Hara (1951), and re-teamed with Hepburn (1952), the second feature written specifically for them by Kanin and Gordon. Pat and Mike became one of the duo's most well-known and critically acclaimed films. Tracy followed it with Plymouth Adventure (also 1952), an historical drama based on the Mayflower, co-starring Gene Tierney. MGM reported a loss of $1.8 million as a result of poor critical and box office responses. In The Actress (1953), Tracy returned to the role of a concerned father. "That film [acclaim] from the critics more than any film I ever made in any of the years, but we didn't make enough to pay for the ushers in the theater," producer Lawrence Weingarten recalled. Tracy received a Golden Globe Award for his role in The Actress and was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for his role in The Actress.

Tracy was loaned by MGM to Fox for the well-received Western film Broken Lance, his first film since 1954. Tracy turned down William Wyler's The Desperate Hours in 1955 because he refused to pay second-billing to Humphrey Bogart. In Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), a film directed by John Sturges, Tracy instead appeared as a one-armed protagonist confronting the hostility of a small desert town. Tracy earned his fifth Oscar nomination for his film work and was named Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his work.

Tracy had been dissatisfied with the pictures and threatened to leave during production. Tracy's lethargic and cynical lifestyle became a normal part of her daily life. In the summer of 1955, he started working on Tribute to a Bad Man but eventually decided that the shooting location in the Colorado mountains gave him altitude sickness. Tracy's relationship with MGM was strained as a result of the picture's fractures. Tracy was one of the studio's two remaining stars in June 1955 (the other being Robert Taylor), but with his deal up for renewal, he decided to freelance for the first time in his film career.

Tracy's first post-MGM appearance was in The Mountain (1956), which was his much younger brother (Wagner had previously appeared in Broken Lance). The location filming in the French Alps was a challenging experience, and he threatened to leave the project. His success earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. Tracy and Hepburn were then joined together for the eighth time in the office comedy Desk Set (1957). He had to be persuaded to continue with the film, which had a weak reaction.

Tracy appeared in The Old Man and the Sea (1958), a five-year initiative that had been in progress. Leland Hayward, Hemingway's agent, had earlier written to the author: "Out of all Hollywood people, the one that comes closest to me in appearance, appearance, and ability, is Spencer Tracy." Tracy was thrilled to be given the opportunity. He was supposed to shed some of his 210 pounds before filming began, but he refused to do so. Tracy was a "terrible risk to the picture," according to Hemingway, and he had to be assured that the actor was being meticulously photographed to mask his weight loss. Tracy rated The Old Man and the Sea as the most difficult part he's ever played, despite being on screen alone for the majority of the film. Jack Moffitt of The Hollywood Reporter said it was "so personal and revealing of universal human experience that, to me, it almost transcended acting and became reality." Tracy has been nominated for the work by both Oscar and BAFTA Award for her work.

Tracy's next film, The Last Hurrah (1958), after dropping two projects, including a proposed remake of The Blue Angel with Marilyn Monroe. After 28 years and his childhood pal Pat O'Brien, it brought him and his debut director, John Ford, together. Tracy took a year to commit to the campaign, in which he played an Irish-American mayor seeking re-election. The film was well-reviewed, but it was not commercially profitable. The National Board of Review named Tracy the year's Best Actor at the end of 1958. Curtis wrote that he was "chronically ill, sick, and uninterested in work" when he began to consider retirement, though Curtis said he was "chronically ill, miserable, sick, and uninterested in work.

Tracy did not appear on the screen again until the introduction of Inherit the Wind (1960), a film based on the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" in which it was argued that evolution is not permitted in schools. From the start, director Stanley Kramer wanted Tracy for the role of lawyer Henry Drummond (based on Clarence Darrow). Fredric March, Tracy's co-star, in a film variety pairing that Variety referred to as "a stroke of casting genius" — a distinction Variety characterized as "a stroke of casting genius." Both men are spellbinders in the most laudatory sense of the word. Tracy's film received some of his best reviews of his career—he was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and the Golden Globe Award for his work, but not a commercial success.

Tracy appeared in the volcano tragedy film The Devil at 4 o'clock (1961), for the fourth time in his career. Frank Sinatra, his co-star, has pleaded with top-billing to promise Tracy for the film. Tracy was briefly out of the project before recommitting, continuing his pattern of indecisiveness. Critics were unimpressed by the film, which was also Tracy's most profitable box-office outing since Father of the Bride.

Stanley Kramer and Tracy Coordination started an ongoing friendship, with Tracy Kramer and Tracy; Kramer supervised Tracy's three final films. Nuremberg Judgment, who was announced at the end of 1961, was their second film together. The film "Judge's Trial" depicts the persecution of Nazi judges for their service in the Holocaust. With Tracy in mind, Abby Mann wrote the role of Judge Haywood; Tracy called it the best script he's ever read. Tracy gave a 13-minute address at the end of the film. He made it in one go and got a round of applause from the cast and crew. Mann wrote to Tracy: "Every writer should have the privilege of having Spencer Tracy do his lines." There is nothing in the world quite like it." The film received rave reviews and a large audience; Tracy received his eighth Oscar nomination for his role.

Tracy starred in Long Day's Journey into Night (1962) and The Leopard (1963), but it was necessary to pull out of MGM's all-star How the West Was Won (1962) when it clashed with Judgment at Nuremberg (1962). He was able to film the film's narration track, but not quite so good. Tracy was in such bad shape by this time, and it was difficult to work. He appeared in Kramer's comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), a minor but significant part that he was able to complete in nine non-consecutive days. In November 1963, the film was released. Tracy's name appeared on the list of top tenors, and his film became one of the year's highest-grossing American films. He had to cancel commitments to Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and The Cincinnati Kid (1965), as his health worsened. Film roles continued to appear, but Tracy did not return to work until 1967, when he appeared in Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), Tracy's ninth and final film with Hepburn.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner explored the topic of interracial marriage, with Tracy playing a centrist-minded newspaper publisher whose assumptions are challenged as his daughter's desire to marry a black man, played by Sidney Poitier. Tracy seemed excited to be back to work, but he told journalists on the set that it would be his last foretch before he retires permanently due to his health issues. Tracy had to be reimbursed for the high cost of $71,000 if he died during filming; Hepburn and Kramer stayed in escrow until Tracy finished his scenes. Tracy could only function for two to three hours a day in poor health. On May 24, 1967, he shot his last scene. On June 10, Tracy died 17 days later from a heart attack.

The film was released in December 1967, and although studies were mixed, Curtis notes that "Tracy's success was lauded in virtually every case." Tracy gave "a faultless, and under the circumstances, tragic appearance," Brendan Gill of The New Yorker wrote. Tracy's highest grossing picture was the film. He was nominated for Best Actor at the 40th Academy Awards, his ninth—at the 40th Academy Awards, as well as a Golden Globe Award nomination and a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor.

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