Spencer Tracy Hepburn, living what she described as a quiet life: reading, painting, and listening to music. On June 10, 1967, 17 days after completing what was his last film role in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", Tracy awakened at 3:00 am to make himself a cup of tea in his apartment in Beverly Hills, California. Hepburn described in her autobiography how she followed him to the kitchen: "Just as I was about to give [the door] a push, there was a sound of a cup smashing to the floor—then clump—a loud clump." She entered the room to find Tracy lying dead
Spencer Tracy interred at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park, near his wife, Louise and son, John. Tracy had a high reputation among his peers and received considerable praise from the film industry. After his death, Dore Schary, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, said, "There can be no question that he was the best and most protean actor of our screen." Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, James Cagney, John Ford, Garson Kanin and Katharine Hepburn also called Tracy the greatest actor of his generation. Richard Widmark, who idolized Tracy, said: "He's the greatest movie actor there ever was ... I've learned more about acting from watching