Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born on April 5, 1900 in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin to the parentage of John Tracy and Caroline Brown. He had an older brother, Carroll.
As a youth, Spencer hated school and enrolled in the Navy to find "excitement" during World War I. He ended up spending the entirity of the war at a Navy yard in Virginia. He eventually enrolled at Ripon College and there found a love for acting in the school plays. He auditioned for Sargent school in New York, and while there, he and his roommate survived on $30 a month.
Tracy joined a stock company in 1923 and while acting with the troupe met and fell in love with Louise Treadwell, whom he married. They had a child and they named him John, whom they eventually discovered to be deaf. After this his wife created the John Tracy Clinic, and the couple had a daughter named Susie in 1932.
Tracy's big break came when he received a role in the film "Up the River." After this he got a contract with Fox Films and he and his family moved to Hollywood in 1931. He later signed with MGM, doing numerous movies with co-stars such as Bette Davis, Jean Harlow and Loretta Young.
In 1942 Tracy made his first film with Katharine Hepburn, "Woman of the Year." The two would begin to make a number of movies together and eventually fell in love. Tracy and his wife separated, and his relationship with Hepburn lasted until his death in 1967 of heart failure. One of his last films would be "Inherit the Wind," which he received an Oscar nomination for his performance as attorney Henry Drummond.
During his career, Tracy received a total of eight Oscar nominations. He is considered by many one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history.
Other movie credits include:
"Me and My Gal"
"Face in the Sky"
"Dante's Inferno"
"The Murder Man"
"Now I'll Tell"
"Adam's Rib"
"Boys Town"
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
"Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo"
"Sea of Grass"
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