Lee Tracy
Encyclopedia
William Lee Tracy was an American actor.
.After graduating from Western Military Academy
in 1918 he studied electrical engineering
at Union College, and then served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor. He became a Broadway
star by way of his starring role in the original 1924 production of George Kelly's play The Show-Off.
(1928) and a Walter Winchell
-type gossip columnist in Blessed Event
(1932). Tracy starred as the columnist in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), very loosely based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts
by Nathanael West
, and played a conscience-stricken editor in the 1943 drama Power of the Press, based on a story by former newspaperman Samuel Fuller
.
He 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
.
His flourishing film career was temporarily disrupted on 19 November 1933, while on location in Mexico filming Viva Villa!
. According to Desi Arnaz
, Tracy stood on his balcony and urinated on a military parade that was passing below in Mexico City
. In his autobiography, Arnaz, who worked on the picture, referenced that from then on, if you watched the crowds, they would visibly disperse anytime an American got out onto a balcony.
However, other crew members there at the time refute this, giving a 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 said, in effect, Tracy had insulted Mexico, Mexicans in general and the Mexican 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. Original director Howard Hawks was also fired for refusing to testify against Tracy, and subsequently replaced by Jack Conway. Tracy was replaced by Stuart Erwin
.
During World War II he returned to uniform. Tracy did continue on in films and also had two television series in the 1950s, New York Confidential, and was one of the actors who portrayed the television detective Martin Kane. He also portrayed the President of the United States
in both the stage and film versions of The Best Man
(1964), written by Gore Vidal
. The movie version featured Henry Fonda
and remains practically the only film of the period in which both the protagonists are atheists. Remarkably, Vidal's script was filmed with no studio interference. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as 'President Art Hockstader' in The Best Man.
Early life
Tracy was born in Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
.After graduating from Western Military Academy
Western Military Academy
Western Military Academy was a private military preparatory school located in Alton,Il. Founded in 1879, Western Military Academy closed in 1971. The campus is located in the National Register of Historic Places District...
in 1918 he studied electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
at Union College, and then served as a 2nd lieutenant in World War I. In the early 1920s he decided to work as an actor. He became a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
star by way of his starring role in the original 1924 production of George Kelly's play The Show-Off.
Career
He arrived in Hollywood in 1929, where he played the role of newspapermen in quite a number of pictures. He played reporter Hildy Johnson in the original stage production of The Front PageThe Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
(1928) and a Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
-type gossip columnist in Blessed Event
Blessed Event
Blessed Event is a 1932 comedy-drama film starring Lee Tracy as a newspaper gossip columnist who becomes entangled with a gangster.-Cast:*Lee Tracy as Alvin Roberts*Mary Brian as Gladys Price*Allen Jenkins as Frankie Wells...
(1932). Tracy starred as the columnist in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), very loosely based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts
Miss Lonelyhearts
Miss Lonelyhearts, published in 1933, is Nathanael West's second novel. It is an Expressionist black comedy set in New York City during the Great Depression.-Plot summary:...
by Nathanael West
Nathanael West
Nathanael West was a US author, screenwriter and satirist.- Early life :...
, and played a conscience-stricken editor in the 1943 drama Power of the Press, based on a story by former newspaperman Samuel Fuller
Samuel Fuller
Samuel Michael Fuller was an American screenwriter, novelist, and film director known for low-budget genre movies with controversial themes.-Personal life:...
.
He played The Buzzard, the criminal who leads Liliom (Charles Farrell
Charles Farrell
Charles Farrell was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor...
) into a fatal robbery, in the film version of Liliom
Liliom
Liliom is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was very famous in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.- Plot :...
(1930). He also played Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez was a Mexican film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had...
's frenetic manager in Gregory LaCava's The Half-Naked Truth
The Half-Naked Truth
The Half-Naked Truth is a pre-Hayes Code comedy directed by Gregory LaCava and featuring Lee Tracy as a carnival pitchman who finagles his girlfriend, a fiery hoochie dancer played by Lupe Vélez, into a major Broadway revue under the auspices of an impresario portrayed by Frank...
(1932), and portrayed John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
's agent in Dinner at Eight (1933), directed by George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
.
His flourishing film career was temporarily disrupted on 19 November 1933, while on location in Mexico filming Viva Villa!
Viva Villa!
Viva Villa! is a 1934 American film starring Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa and was written by Ben Hecht, adapted from a biography by Edgecumb Pinchon and Odo B. Stade. The picture was directed by Jack Conway. There was special, uncredited help with the script by Howard Hawks, James Kevin...
. According to Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is probably best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to...
, Tracy stood on his balcony and urinated on a military parade that was passing below in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. In his autobiography, Arnaz, who worked on the picture, referenced that from then on, if you watched the crowds, they would visibly disperse anytime an American got out onto a balcony.
However, other crew members there at the time refute this, giving a different account of events. In his autobiography, Charles G. Clarke
Charles G. Clarke
Charles G. Clarke ASC an American cinematographer who worked in Hollywood for over 40 years and was treasurer and president of the American Society of Cinematographers.-Career:...
, 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 said, in effect, Tracy had insulted Mexico, Mexicans in general and the Mexican 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. Original director Howard Hawks was also fired for refusing to testify against Tracy, and subsequently replaced by Jack Conway. Tracy was replaced by Stuart Erwin
Stuart Erwin
Stuart Erwin was an American actor. Erwin began acting in college in the 1920s, first appearing on the stage, then breaking into films in 1928 in Mother Knows Best...
.
During World War II he returned to uniform. Tracy did continue on in films and also had two television series in the 1950s, New York Confidential, and was one of the actors who portrayed the television detective Martin Kane. He also portrayed the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in both the stage and film versions of The Best Man
The Best Man (1964 film)
The Best Man is a 1964 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner with a screenplay by Gore Vidal based on his play of the same title. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Lee Tracy, the film details the seamy political maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate...
(1964), written by Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
. The movie version featured Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
and remains practically the only film of the period in which both the protagonists are atheists. Remarkably, Vidal's script was filmed with no studio interference. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as 'President Art Hockstader' in The Best Man.
Partial filmography
- Big Time (1929)
- Born RecklessBorn Reckless (1930 film)Born Reckless is a American crime comedy directed by Andrew Bennison and John Ford, from a screenplay written by Donald Henderson Clarke based on his novel Louis Beretti. The film starred Edmund Lowe and Catherine Dale Owen.-Plot:...
(1930) as Bill O'Brien - Love Is a RacketLove Is a RacketLove Is a Racket is a romantic comedy drama 1932 film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Ann Dvorak. The movie was written by Courtney Terrett from the novel by Rian James, and directed by William A. Wellman....
(1932) - Doctor XDoctor X (film)Doctor X is a First National/Warner Bros. horror and mystery film based on the play of the same name. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lee Tracy, Fay Wray, and Lionel Atwill....
(1932) as Lee Taylor - Blessed EventBlessed EventBlessed Event is a 1932 comedy-drama film starring Lee Tracy as a newspaper gossip columnist who becomes entangled with a gangster.-Cast:*Lee Tracy as Alvin Roberts*Mary Brian as Gladys Price*Allen Jenkins as Frankie Wells...
(1932) - The Half-Naked TruthThe Half-Naked TruthThe Half-Naked Truth is a pre-Hayes Code comedy directed by Gregory LaCava and featuring Lee Tracy as a carnival pitchman who finagles his girlfriend, a fiery hoochie dancer played by Lupe Vélez, into a major Broadway revue under the auspices of an impresario portrayed by Frank...
(1932) - The Strange Love of Molly LouvainThe Strange Love of Molly LouvainThe Strange Love of Molly Louvain is a 1932 film directed by Michael Curtiz....
(1932) - Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)
- Night MayorNight MayorNight Mayor is a 2009 short film by Guy Maddin, about a fictional inventor in Winnipeg who uses the Aurora Borealis to broadcast images of Canada from coast to coast in 1939, until the Canadian government shuts down his illegal project....
(1932) - Turn Back the ClockTurn Back the Clock (film)Turn Back the Clock is an MGM comedy drama film directed by Edgar Selwyn, written by Edgar Selwyn and Ben Hecht, and starring by Lee Tracy and Mae Clarke...
(1933) - Dinner at EightDinner at Eight (film)Dinner at Eight is a Pre-Code 1933 comedy of manners/drama produced by MGM Studios. The film was adapted to the screen by Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz from the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, with additional dialogue supplied by Donald Ogden Stewart. Produced by David O...
(1933) - BombshellBombshell (film)Bombshell is a Pre-Code film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, C. Aubrey Smith, Mary Forbes and Franchot Tone.-Plot:...
(1933) - Advice to the Lovelorn (1933)
- The NuisanceThe NuisanceThe Nuisance is a 1921 silent comedy film featuring Oliver Hardy.-Cast:* Jimmy Aubrey - The nuisance* Rosa Gore - A widow* Leila McCarthy - Her daughter* Oliver Hardy - The walrus * Jack Lloyd - City slicker* George Fox - City slicker...
(1933) - The Lemon Drop KidThe Lemon Drop KidThe Lemon Drop Kid is a 1951 comedy film based on the short story of the same name by Damon Runyon, starring Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell, and directed by Sidney Lanfield.The song "Silver Bells," sung by Hope and Maxwell, was introduced in the film...
(1934) - CarnivalCarnival (1935 film)Carnival is a 1935 American film directed by Walter Lang and starring Jimmy Durante, Lee Tracy, and Sally Eilers.The film also includes a young Lucille Ball in a small uncredited role as a nurse....
(1935) - The Power of the PressThe Power of the PressThe Power of the Press is a 1928 silent film directed by Frank Capra and starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr as an aspiring newspaper reporter and Jobyna Ralston as a young woman suspected of murder....
(1943) - Betrayal from the EastBetrayal from the EastBetrayal from the East is a 1945 film starring Lee Tracy and Nancy Kelly. The movie was directed by William A. Berke and based on the book, Betrayal from the East: The Inside Story of Japanese Spies in America, by Alan Hynd.-Cast:...
(1945) - The Best ManThe Best Man (1964 film)The Best Man is a 1964 film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner with a screenplay by Gore Vidal based on his play of the same title. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Lee Tracy, the film details the seamy political maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate...
(1964) as President Art Hockstader