Spencer Tracy Tracy left MGM in 1955, and continued to work regularly as a freelance star, despite an increasing weariness as he aged. His personal life was troubled, with a lifelong struggle against severe alcoholism and guilt over his son's deafness. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, but never divorced, conducting a long-term relationship with Katharine Hepburn in private. 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" in 1967, completed just 17 days before his death. During his
Spencer Tracy and the stock circuit. In the fall of 1926, Tracy was offered his third shot at Broadway: a role in a new George M. Cohan play called "Yellow". Tracy swore that if the play failed to be a hit he would leave stock and work in a "regular" business instead. Tracy was nervous about working with Cohan—one of the most important figures in American theatre—but during rehearsals Cohan announced, "Tracy, you're the best goddamned actor I've ever seen!" "Yellow" opened on September 21; reviews were mixed but it ran for 135 performances. It was the beginning of an important collaboration