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 career, Tracy appeared in 75 films and developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Tracy was born on April 5, 1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the second son of Caroline (née Brown; 1874–1942) and John Edward Tracy (1873–1928), a truck salesman. His mother was a Presbyterian from a wealthy Midwestern family, and his father was of Irish Catholic background. His one brother, Carroll, was four years older. Spencer was a difficult and hyperactive child with