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 ordinary man, and just the man for the part." "The Last Mile" opened on Broadway in February, where Tracy's performance was met by a standing ovation that lasted 14 curtain calls. The "Commonweal" described him as "one of our best and most versatile young actors". The play was a hit with critics, and ran for 289 performances. In 1930, Broadway was being heavily scouted for actors to work in the "talkies", the new medium of sound film. Tracy was cast in two Vitaphone short movies ("Taxi Talks" and "The Hard Guy"), but he had not considered becoming a film actor: