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 screens for almost a year before returning to 20th Century Fox on loan and appearing as Henry M. Stanley in "Stanley and Livingstone", his only screen appearance of 1939. Curtis maintains that Tracy's non-visibility did little to affect his standing with the public or exhibitors. In October of that year, a "Fortune" magazine survey to find the nation's favorite movie actor listed Tracy in first place. MGM capitalized on Tracy's popularity, casting him in four movies for 1940. "I Take This Woman" with Hedy Lamarr was a critical and commercial failure, but the historical drama "Northwest Passage"—Tracy's first film in