The Films Of Spencer Tracy Paperback by Donald Deschner

This listing is for The Films Of Spencer Tracy Paperback by Donald Deschner.  

Title: The Films of Spencer Tracy

Author: Donald Deschner; Introduction-William O. Douglas

Publisher: The Citadel Press; First Paperbound Printing, (January 1, 1972)

Language: English

Paperback: 255 pages

Book Condition: Used - Good

ISBN 10: 080650272X

ISBN 13: 9780806502724

Filmography of Tracy's long and prolific career. Solid guide/tribute to Spencer Tracy covering in basic detail all his films during his long much- lauded career. Typical Citadel Press book of the day which in itself is high praise. Each film is documented with synopsis, credit lists, reviews, and a vast array of vivid photographs - all combining to form a permanent record of this gifted performer.

With an excellent article by Stanley Kramer: Film-Making with Spencer Tracy. Kramer, who became a close friend, directed Tracy in four of his last five films including his towering performances in "Inherit the Wind" and "Judgment at Nuremberg". Amongst a number of tributes to the actor (by critics James Powers & Bosley Crowther, studio head Dore Schary, entertainer Ed Sullivan & Justice William O. Douglas), there is also an informative 25 page biography by the author. "For over 35 years, Spencer Tracy's name was synonymous with performances of the highest calibre. He interpreted with equal finesse the highly dissimilar roles of rough longshoremen, eloquent attorney, Portuguese fisherman, wealthy industrialist, crooked politician and sympathetic priest."

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations. Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College, and he later received a scholarship for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. His breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful film debut in John Ford's Up the River (in which he starred with Humphrey Bogart), he was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. Tracy's five years with Fox featured one acting tour de force after another that were usually ignored at the box office, and he remained largely unknown to movie audiences after 25 films, nearly all of them starring him as the leading man. None of them were hits, although his performance in The Power and the Glory (1933) was highly praised at the time.

In 1935, he joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, at the time Hollywood's most prestigious studio. His career flourished from his fifth MGM film Fury (1936) onwards, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He teamed with Clark Gable, the studio's most prominent leading man for three major box office successes, so that by the early 1940s Tracy was one of MGM's top stars. In 1942, he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, beginning a professional and personal partnership, which led to nine films over 25 years. In 1955, Tracy won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Bad Day at Black Rock. Tracy left MGM in 1955, and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite several health issues and an increasing weariness and irritability as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a lifelong struggle against severe alcoholism and guilt over his son's deafness. Tracy and his wife Louise became estranged in the 1930s, but the couple never divorced; his 25-year long affair with Katharine Hepburn was an open secret. Towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), completed just 17 days before he died. During his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

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