Spencer Bonaventure
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born on April 5, 1900 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. He has a four years elder brother Carroll. His father John Edward was a truck salesman and his mother was Caroline Brown Tracy. He attended Marquette Academy alongwith Pat O'Brien and the both left school to join the Navy at the start of World War I. He was at Norfolk Navy Yard in Virginia and remained there at the end of the war. He entered Ripon College in February 1921 and soon become a popular student. At Ripon College he performed well as male lead in "The Truth" and decided to become an actor. After graduation he moved to New York and joined a new stock company based in White Plains. In New York, he alongwith O'Brien attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1923 they both got nonspeaking parts as robots in "R.U.R". In stock he did the jobs as bellhop, janitor and salesman. In 1926, he was offered a role in a new George M. Cohan's play called Yellow at Broadway. His next play, The Baby Cyclone was released in September, 1927 and proved to be a hit. John Ford saw his critically acclaimed performance in the lead role in The Last Mile in 1932 and signed him to Up the River for Fox. Despite performing in 16 films in Fox for the next 5 years, he could not achieve star status. In 1933, he appeared in The Power and the Glory, written by Preston Sturges. His performance as railroad tycoon Tom Garner received strong reviews. In 1935 he signed with MGM and his career flourished. His first film under the new contract was the The Murder Man. In 1936, his film Fury was released, which was a hit. He played the role of a man who swears revenge after narrowly escaping death by a lynch mob. The film and performance received excellent reviews. He became the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He was nominated for 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 had a brief romantic relationship with Loretta Young in the 1930s and a lifelong one with Katharine Hepburn in 1942. He divorced his wife Louise, though they lived apart. He suffered from severe alcoholism and diabetes, which unfortunately impacted his willingness to accept several tailor-made roles in films that would become big hits. Although his drinking habits were well known, he was considered one of the best actors in Hollywood among his peers and remained in demand. A few weeks after completion of Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967, he suffered from lung congestion and died of a heart attack.