- Katharine Hepburn, his frequent screen partner and longtime flame, never watched Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) because it was his last film and watching it with him gone was too painful for her.
- In 1956/57 when his longtime friend Humphrey Bogart was dying of cancer, Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were two of the few people who visited Bogie (and wife Lauren Bacall) at their home on an almost daily basis. They would sit together at Bogie's bedside for half an hour or so every evening in the months and weeks leading up to his death. After Bogie's death, Bacall requested that Tracy deliver the eulogy at the funeral. He apologetically declined, saying it would simply be too difficult for him. He felt he would be too emotional and wouldn't be able to do it. Bacall understood and director John Huston delivered the eulogy instead.
- Was making a cup of coffee on the morning of 6/10/67 when he suffered a sudden heart attack. Katharine Hepburn found him dead on the kitchen floor.
- Offered the role of The Penguin in the TV series Batman (1966) before Burgess Meredith, he said he would only accept the role if he was allowed to kill Batman.
- Longtime companion Katharine Hepburn did not attend his funeral out of respect to his family.
- Died only 17 days after filming of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) had been completed.
- Katharine Hepburn on Tracy: "He's like an old oak tree, or the summer, or the wind. He belongs to an era when men were men".
- When he needed a break he would often go back to Milwaukee and frequent the local watering holes. However, finding him proved to be an almost impossible challenge for Katharine Hepburn, because there are so many bars in Milwaukee.
- Although he and Katharine Hepburn lived together for more than 25 years, they never talked about marriage. He was already married, and Hepburn was not interested in being married anyway.
- Son John was born deaf; as a result, his wife, Louise, became an activist for deaf education, establishing the John Tracy Clinic at USC.
- Didn't like to rehearse and would read through a scene only once, five days before shooting. He also never liked to shoot a scene more than once, and in most cases he didn't have to.
- One of the few truly famous actors who lived well into the age of television, but never made an appearance acting on a television program.
- Was seriously ill with emphysema as well as diabetes when he made his final film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967).
- Often mentioned alongside Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando as the greatest movie actor of all time. Unlike the other two, however, he was not already successful and well-known as a stage actor before getting into films.
- He suffered from severe insomnia his entire life.
- His Best Actor Oscar for Boys Town (1938) is inscribed with the name "Dick Tracy."
- Harold Clurman on Tracy: "He was the universal American: honest, calm, considerate, free of all phoniness. There was in him no petty motive or concealed malice. He was a man".
- Warner Bros. bought the rights to the book "Mute Witness", about a Boston detective who ate a lot of ice cream and never solved a case, with Tracy in mind to star. Upon his death, a chase scene was added to the script, the location changed to San Francisco, and the character--Detective Frank Bullitt--changed to be played by Steve McQueen.
- Turned down Cary Grant's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) because he was eager to make Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941).
- Named the #9 Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by The American Film Institute.
- Received a posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). His widow Louise attended the ceremony in the event that he would win. However, the award went instead to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night (1967).
- Was supposed to appear in Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and The Cincinnati Kid (1965), but suffered a severe heart attack in 1963. Edward G. Robinson replaced him in both movies.
- Turned down the role of the judge in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Edward Arnold's role in Come and Get It (1936), Michael Rennie's role in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Desi Arnaz's role in Forever, Darling (1956), William Powell's role in Mister Roberts (1955), Donald Crisp's role in National Velvet (1944), Melvyn Douglas's role in Ninotchka (1939), and Gregory Peck's role in The Yearling (1946).
- His political views are disputed. Some sources state that he was an arch-conservative during the 1930s, but his views moderated after he met Katharine Hepburn. Others say that he was always a moderate Democrat. He often said he believed actors had no place in politics.
- In 1935 MGM bought his contact from 20th Century-Fox, as Louis B. Mayer respected his talent and thought he would be a good second lead, particularly in support of the studio's #1 male star, Clark Gable. Tracy had never developed into a star in his five years at Fox (which was merged with Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures) and the studio had cooled on him. After four years of playing second-fiddle to Gable (and inevitably losing the girl to the man they called "The King" of Hollywood), Tracy came into his own as a star in MGM vehicles such as Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938), for both of which he won back-to-back Best Actor Oscars. Though he remained friends with Gable, the two never co-starred together after 1940.
- Twice earned Best Actor Oscar nominations for playing "foreign" fishermen: as Manuel in Captains Courageous (1937) for which he did win his first Oscar, and then as The Old Man in The Old Man and the Sea (1958), almost 20 years later.
- Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Garden of Everlasting Peace, on the right just after entering.
- His father, John Tracy, worked as a clerk at a railroad office.
- Was announced as co-star with Paul Newman and Robert Mitchum in the Jerry Wald production of "The Enemy Within", based on the book by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, which in 1962/63 was in preparation for 20th Century-Fox.
- His father was of Irish descent and his mother was descended from the earliest English settlers in America.
- Along with Laurence Olivier, he is one of only two actors to receive nine nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for San Francisco (1936), Captains Courageous (1937), Boys Town (1938), Father of the Bride (1950), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). He won the award for both Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938).
- Had two children from his marriage to Louise Treadwell: Son, John Ten Broeck Tracy (b. 6/26/24, d. 6/15/2007) and daughter, Louise Treadwell 'Susie' Tracy (b. 7/1/32).
- Appears in four of the American Film Institute's 100 Funniest Movies: Adam's Rib (1949) at #22, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) at #40, Father of the Bride (1950) at #83 and Woman of the Year (1942) at #90.
- Usually regarded as one of the finest naturalistic actors of all time.
- In 2006 his performance as Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind (1960) is ranked #67 on "Premiere Magazine''s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.
- William Holden was quoted as saying that Fredric March and Tracy were his acting idols.
- Has a street named after him in Iowa City, IA.
- The first actor--of only two--to ever receive back-to-back, consecutive Best Actor Oscars. Tracy won for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938). He would hold this record for 55 years until the second recipient, Tom Hanks, would win for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994).
- Has three films on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Captains Courageous (1937) at #94, Boys Town (1938) at #81 and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) at #35.
- He was voted the 19th Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Premiere Magazine".
- Director Vincente Minnelli quoted the actor as saying, "It was a badge of honor for an actor to be a drunk".
- As of 2009 he is only one of six performers who won a Golden Globe Award as Best Lead Actor/Actress in a Motion Picture Drama without being nominated for an Oscar for that same role (for The Actress (1953)). The others are Anthony Franciosa in Career (1959), Omar Sharif in Doctor Zhivago (1965), Shirley MacLaine in Madame Sousatzka (1988), Jim Carrey in The Truman Show (1998) and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (2008).
- Was supposed to star in Ten North Frederick (1958), but had to withdraw due to poor health and was replaced by Gary Cooper.
- He was sought for Fredric March's role in The Desperate Hours (1955) opposite Humphrey Bogart, but would not take second billing.
- Won an Oscar for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938), making him one of 18 actors to win the Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony (as of 2015). The other 17 and their respective performances are: Gary Cooper for playing Alvin C. York in Sergeant York (1941), Patty Duke for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962), Jason Robards for playing Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976), Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Robert De Niro for playing Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), Jeremy Irons for playing Claus von Bülow Reversal of Fortune (1990), Susan Sarandon for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995), Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996), Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich-Ellis in Erin Brockovich (2000), Jim Broadbent for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001), Jennifer Connelly for playing Alicia Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001), Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), Sandra Bullock for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side (2009), Melissa Leo for playing Alice Eklund in The Fighter (2010), Christian Bale for playing Dickie Eklund in The Fighter (2010), Meryl Streep for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) and Eddie Redmayne for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014).
- Mentioned in Hare Remover (1946).
- In October 1997 he was ranked #64 in "Empire" (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
- Attended no fewer than six high schools: Wauwatosa (WI) High School; St. John's Cathedral School (Milwaukee, WI); St. Mary's (near Topeka, KS); Rockhurst High School (Kansas City, MO) ; Marquette Academy (Milwaukee); WWI service; Northwestern Military and Naval Academy (Lake Geneva, WI); and West Division High School (Milwaukee), from which he graduated in 1921.
- He came to Hollywood's attention after eight years on stage with his performance as Killer Mears in "The Last Mile." His subsequent screen tests were not a big success, but after John Ford saw him twice in the role, Fox allowed him to hire the actor for his debut film, Up the River (1930).
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