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Spencer Tracy filmography

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Tracy in the 1930s

Spencer Tracy (1900–1967) was an American actor. His film career began in 1930 with Up the River (directed by John Ford and co-starring Humphrey Bogart), and ended in 1967 with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (alongside Sidney Poitier and his longtime screen partner, Katharine Hepburn). Within his 37-year career, Tracy starred in 75 feature films and several short films.

He earned nine Academy Award for Best Actor nominations (tied for the most in that category with Laurence Olivier) throughout his career, and was the first male actor to win two consecutively, for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938) (directed by Victor Fleming and Norman Taurog, respectively). He set this record just one year after Luise Rainer became the first female, and actress in general, to win "bookend Oscars".

The other seven films he was nominated for Academy Awards were San Francisco (1936) (directed by W. S. Van Dyke); Father of the Bride (1950) (directed by Vincente Minnelli); Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958) (both directed by John Sturges); Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), and posthumously for his final film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). (The second actor in this category to be nominated posthumously after James Dean's two consecutive posthumous nominations one decade earlier.) The latter three films were all directed by Stanley Kramer, with whom Tracy had developed a partnership.

Other films which earned Tracy accolades include The Actress (1953) (directed by George Cukor—for which he won his only Golden Globe Award); The Mountain (1956) (directed by Edward Dmytryk); and The Last Hurrah (1958) (also directed by Ford). One of Tracy's biggest box office hits was his penultimate film (and the third of four working with Kramer), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). He received the Cannes Best Actor award for Bad Day at Black Rock and a posthumous BAFTA for "Dinner".

Hepburn & Tracy also became a legendary screen team. Their first pairing was in the film Woman of the Year (1942) (directed by George Stevens), which earned Hepburn her third Oscar nom. Subsequent Hepburn/Tracy films included Keeper of the Flame (1942) (once again, directed by Cukor), Without Love (1945) (directed by Harold S. Bucquet), Sea of Grass (1947) (directed by Elia Kazan), State of the Union (1948) (directed by Frank Capra); Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952) (both also directed by Cukor); Desk Set (1957) (directed by Walter Lang); and finally culminating with the aforementioned "Dinner", prior to Tracy's fatal heart attack in 1967 at the age of 67.

Filmography

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Year Title Role Studio Notes
1930 Taxi Talks Taxi Driver Warner Bros. Short subject
The Hard Guy Guy Warner Bros. Short subject
Up the River Saint Louis Fox With Humphrey Bogart
1931 Quick Millions Daniel J. "Bugs" Raymond Fox With George Raft in key supporting role
Six Cylinder Love William Donroy Fox With Edward Everett Horton
Goldie Bill Fox With Jean Harlow
1932 She Wanted a Millionaire William Kelley Fox With Joan Bennett
Sky Devils Wilkie United Artists Co-written by Robert Benchley
Disorderly Conduct Dick Fay Fox
Young America Jack Doray Fox Directed by Frank Borzage
Society Girl Briscoe Fox
The Painted Woman Tom Brian Fox
Me and My Gal Danny Dolan Fox With Joan Bennett
20,000 Years in Sing Sing Tommy Connors Warner Bros. With Bette Davis
1933 Face in the Sky Joe Buck Fox With Stuart Erwin
Shanghai Madness Pat Jackson Fox With Fay Wray
The Power and the Glory Tom Garner Fox Written by Preston Sturges
The Mad Game Edward Carson Fox With Claire Trevor
Man's Castle Bill Columbia With Loretta Young
1934 The Show-Off J. Aubrey Piper MGM Tracy's first MGM film
Looking for Trouble Joe Graham 20th Century Pictures with United Artists With Jack Oakie
Bottoms Up "Smoothie" King Fox
Now I'll Tell Murray Golden Fox With Helen Twelvetrees
Marie Galante Dr. Crawbett Fox
1935 It's a Small World Bill Shevlin Fox With Wendy Barrie
The Murder Man Steven "Steve" Grey MGM First credited screen role of James Stewart
Dante's Inferno Jim Carter Fox With Claire Trevor and dancer Rita Hayworth (billed as Rita Cansino)
Whipsaw Ross "Mac" McBride MGM With Myrna Loy
1936 Riffraff Dutch Muller MGM With Jean Harlow and Mickey Rooney
Fury Joe Wilson MGM With Sylvia Sidney
San Francisco Father Tim Mullin MGM With Clark Gable
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed]
Libeled Lady Warren Haggerty MGM The film was nominated for Best Picture, but lost out to The Great Ziegfeld. With William Powell, Jean Harlow, and Myrna Loy
1937 They Gave Him a Gun Fred P. Willis MGM With Gladys George
Captains Courageous Manuel Fidello MGM With Lionel Barrymore, John Carradine, Melvyn Douglas, Mickey Rooney, and Freddie Bartholomew
Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed]
Big City Joe Benton MGM With Luise Rainer
Mannequin John L. Hennessey MGM With Joan Crawford
1938 Test Pilot Gunner Morris MGM With Clark Gable and Myrna Loy
Boys Town Father Flanagan MGM With Mickey Rooney
Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed]
Another Romance of Celluloid Himself MGM Behind-the-scenes short film, includes filming of Test Pilot, and shows Tracy accepting his Academy Award for Boys Town
Screen Snapshots Series 17, No. 9 Himself Columbia Short subject showing Tracy accepting his Academy Award for Boys Town
Hollywood Goes to Town Himself MGM Short subject, showing notable Hollywood performers preparing for the world premiere of Marie Antoinette
1939 Stanley and Livingstone Henry M. Stanley 20th Century Fox With Nancy Kelly
For Auld Lang Syne Himself Will Rogers Memorial Commission Fund-raising short film in which several actors, including Tracy, appeal for funds for the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital
Hollywood Hobbies Himself MGM Behind-the-scenes short film
1940 I Take This Woman Dr. Karl Decker MGM With Hedy Lamarr
Young Tom Edison Man Admiring Portrait of Thomas A. Edison MGM With Mickey Rooney
Tracy appears as a man admiring a portrait of Edison; he plays the older Edison in Edison, the Man in the same year
Uncredited
Northwest Passage Major Rogers MGM With Walter Brennan
Edison, the Man Thomas Edison MGM
Boom Town Jonathan Sand MGM With Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr
Northward, Ho! Himself MGM Behind-the-scenes short film about the filming of Northwest Passage
1941 Men of Boys Town Father Flanagan MGM With Mickey Rooney
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dr. Henry Jekyll / Mr Edward Hyde MGM With Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner
1942 Woman of the Year Sam Craig MGM First film with Katharine Hepburn
Tortilla Flat Pilon MGM With John Garfield
Ring of Steel Narrator Warner Brothers Military documentary for U.S. Office for Emergency Management
1943 Keeper of the Flame Steven "Stevie" O'Malley MGM With Katharine Hepburn
His New World Narrator MGM War documentary
A Guy Named Joe Pete Sandidge MGM With Van Johnson
1944 The Seventh Cross George Heisler MGM
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle MGM With Van Johnson and Robert Walker
1945 Without Love Pat Jamieson MGM With Katharine Hepburn
1947 The Sea of Grass Col. James B. "Jim" Brewton MGM With Katharine Hepburn
Cass Timberlane Cass Timberlane MGM With Lana Turner
1948 State of the Union Grant Matthews MGM With Katharine Hepburn
1949 Edward, My Son Arnold Boult MGM With Deborah Kerr
Adam's Rib Adam Bonner MGM With Katharine Hepburn
Malaya Canaghan MGM With James Stewart and Lionel Barrymore
Some of the Best Himself MGM Retrospective of MGM's history
1950 Father of the Bride Stanley T. Banks MGM Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor. With Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor
1951 Father's Little Dividend Stanley T. Banks MGM With Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor
The People Against O'Hara James P. Curtayne MGM With Pat O'Brien
For Defense for Freedom for Humanity Himself MGM Short film in which Tracy urges support for Red Cross fund-raising
1952 Pat and Mike Mike Conovan MGM With Katharine Hepburn
Plymouth Adventure Captain Christopher Jones MGM With Gene Tierney
1953 The Actress Clinton Jones MGM Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed] With Jean Simmons
1954 Broken Lance Matt Devereaux 20th Century Fox With Robert Wagner
1955 Bad Day at Black Rock John J. Macreedy MGM Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival) Prix d'interprétation masculine
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed]
1956 The Mountain Zachary Teller Paramount Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
1957 Desk Set Richard Sumner 20th Century Fox With Katharine Hepburn, and Tracy's last film with Zanck and Schneck and Fox
1958 The Old Man and the Sea The Old Man / Narrator Warner Bros. NBR Award for Best Actor (also for The Last Hurrah)
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed]
The Last Hurrah Mayor Frank Skeffington Columbia NBR Award for Best Actor (also for The Old Man and the Sea)
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor[citation needed]
1960 Inherit the Wind Henry Drummond United Artists Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
1961 The Devil at 4 O'Clock Father Matthew Doonan Columbia With Frank Sinatra
Judgment at Nuremberg Chief Judge Dan Haywood United Artists Fotogramas de Plata Award for Best Foreign Performer
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor - With Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Widmark, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift
1962 How the West Was Won Narrator (voice) MGM
1963 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World Captain T. G. Culpeper United Artists With Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Ethel Merman, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, many more
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Matt Drayton Columbia With Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (post-humous)
Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actor (post-humous)
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (post-humous)
Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (post-humous)[citation needed]
(final film role)

Box office ranking

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For several years, exhibitors voted Tracy among the most popular film stars in the country:

  • 1937 - 18th (US)
  • 1938 - 5th (US), 3rd (UK)
  • 1939 - 3rd (US), 6th (UK)
  • 1940 - 2nd (US), 3rd (UK)
  • 1941 - 5th (US), 3rd (UK)
  • 1942 - 10th (US), 3rd (UK)
  • 1943 - 19th (US)
  • 1944 - 5th (US), 9th (UK)
  • 1945 - 5th (US), 7th (UK)
  • 1946 - 21st (US)
  • 1947 - 14th (US)
  • 1948 - 9th (US)
  • 1949 - 24th (US)[1]
  • 1950 - 9th (US)
  • 1951 - 10th (US)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Hope Tops Crosby At the Boxoffice By Richard L. Coe. The Washington Post (1923-1954) [Washington, D. C] 30 Dec 1949: 19.
  • "Spencer Tracy Filmography by type". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  • Curtis, James (2011). Spencer Tracy: A Biography. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-178524-6.
  • Deschner, Donald (1972). The Films of Spencer Tracy. Secaucus, New Jersey: The Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-0272-X.