Katharine Hepburn, his frequent screen partner and longtime flame, never watched Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) because it was his last film and watching it with him gone was too painful for her.
Advertised Lucky Strike cigarettes.
As of 2009, he is only one of six performers who won a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actor/Actress in a Motion Picture Drama without being nominated for an Oscar for that same role (for The Actress (1953)). The others are Anthony Franciosa in Career (1959), Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965), Shirley MacLaine in Madame Sousatzka (1988), Jim Carrey in The Truman Show (1998) and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (2008).
Attended no fewer than six high schools: Wauwatosa (WI) High School; St. John's Cathedral School (Milwaukee); St. Mary's (near Topeka, Kansas); Rockhurst High School (Kansas City, Mo.) ; Marquette Academy (Milwaukee); WWI service; Northwestern Military and Naval Academy (Lake Geneva, WI); and West Division High School (Milwaukee), from which he graduated in 1921.
Attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin but did not graduate.
Attended the Democratic National Convention in 1944.
Born at 1:57am-CST
Cousin of Gabrielle Christian.
Didn't like to rehearse and would read through a scene only once, five days before shooting. He also never liked to shoot a scene more than once, and in most cases he didn't have to.
Died only 17 days after filming of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) had been completed.
Had two children from his marriage to Louise Treadwell: Son, John Ten Broeck Tracy (born 26 June 1924) and daughter, Louise Treadwell 'Susie' Tracy (born July 1 1932).
Has a street named after him in Iowa City, Iowa.
Has three films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Captains Courageous (1937) at #94, Boys Town (1938) at #81 and _Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)_ at #35.
He appears in four of the American Film Institute's 100 Funniest Movies: Adam's Rib (1949) at #22, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) at #40, Father of the Bride (1950) at #83 and Woman of the Year (1942) at #90.
He has a grandson, Joseph Spencer Tracy.
He is featured as a character in the mystery novel, Dead at the Box Office by John Dandola, which is set during the World Premiere of Edison, the Man (1940).
He is often mentioned alongside Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando as the greatest movie actor of all time. Unlike the other two, however, Tracy was not already successful and well-known as a stage actor before getting into films.
He was making a cup of coffee on the morning of 10 June 1967 when he suffered a sudden heart attack. Katharine Hepburn found him dead on the kitchen floor.
He was sought for Fredric March's role in The Desperate Hours (1955) opposite Humphrey Bogart, but would not take second billing.
He was supposed to appear in Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and The Cincinnati Kid (1965), but suffered a severe heart attack in 1963. Edward G. Robinson replaced him in both movies.