1898-04-13 ( 126 years old ) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American actor. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the 1964 film The Best Man. In 1929, Tracy arrived in Hollywood, where he played the role of newspapermen in several films. He, for example, played a Walter Winchell-type gossip columnist in Blessed Event (1932). Tracy also starred as the columnist in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), very loosely based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West; and he played a conscience-stricken editor in the 1943 drama The Power of the Press, based on a story by former newspaperman Samuel Fuller.
Tracy played "The Buzzard," the criminal who leads Liliom (Charles Farrell) into a fatal robbery, in the film version of Liliom (1930). He also played Lupe Vélez's frenetic manager in Gregory LaCava's The Half-Naked Truth (1932) and portrayed John Barrymore's agent in Dinner at Eight (1933), directed by George Cukor.
Lee Tracy's flourishing film career was temporarily disrupted on 19 November 1933, while he was on location in Mexico filming the Wallace Beery vehicle Viva Villa! According to the actor and producer Desi Arnaz, in his published autobiography The Book (1976), Tracy stood on a balcony in Mexico City and urinated down onto a passing military parade. Elsewhere in his autobiography, Arnaz claims that from then on, if one watched other crowds of spectators, they would visibly disperse any time an American stepped out onto a balcony. However, other crew members there at the time disputed this story, giving a sharply different account of events. In his autobiography, Charles G. Clarke, the cinematographer on the picture, said that he was standing outside the hotel during the parade and the incident never happened. Tracy, he said, was standing on the balcony observing the parade when a Mexican in the street below made an obscene gesture at him. Tracy replied in kind; and the next day a local newspaper printed a story that, in effect, Tracy had insulted Mexico, Mexicans in general, and their national flag in particular. The story caused an uproar in Mexico, and MGM decided to sacrifice Tracy in order to be allowed to continue filming there. The young actor Stuart Erwin replaced Tracy. The film's original director, Howard Hawks, was also fired for his refusal to testify against Tracy. Jack Conway replaced him.
During World War II, Tracy returned to military service. Later, he had two television series in the 1950s. One was Martin Kane: Private Eye, in which he was one of four actors to play the title role. The others were William Gargan, Lloyd Nolan, and Mark Stevens. In 1958, he returned to a newspaper reporter role in the syndicated New York Confidential. After World War II, his screen career was largely relegated to television, but he portrayed the former President of the United States, Art Hockstader, a character loosely based on Harry Truman, in both the stage and film versions of The Best Man (1964), written by Gore Vidal. The movie version featured Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in the film.
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Movies
The Big Parade of Comedy
1964-09-02
The Best Man
1964-04-05
High Tide
1947-09-13
I'll Tell the World
1945-06-08
Betrayal from the East
1945-04-24
Power of the Press
1943-01-29
The Payoff
1942-11-24
Millionaires in Prison
1940-07-12
The Spellbinder
1939-07-28
Fixer Dugan
1939-04-21
Crashing Hollywood
1938-01-07
Behind The Headlines
1937-05-14
Criminal Lawyer
1937-01-29
Cinema Circus
1937-01-27
Wanted: Jane Turner
1936-12-04
Sutter's Gold
1936-03-01
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle
1935-11-20
Two-Fisted
1935-10-03
Carnival
1935-02-15
The Lemon Drop Kid
1934-09-27
You Belong to Me
1934-09-08
I'll Tell the World
1934-04-20
Dinner at Eight
1933-12-22
Advice to the Lovelorn
1933-12-01
Bombshell
1933-10-13
Turn Back the Clock
1933-08-25
The Nuisance
1933-06-03
Private Jones
1933-03-25
Clear All Wires!
1933-02-24
The Half-Naked Truth
1932-12-16
Washington Merry-Go-Round
1932-10-15
Blessed Event
1932-09-10
The Night Mayor
1932-08-18
Doctor X
1932-08-03
Love Is a Racket
1932-06-18
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
1932-05-28
She Got What She Wanted
1930-11-09
Liliom
1930-09-27
Born Reckless
1930-05-11
Big Time
1929-09-07
Salute
1929-09-01
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