William Tracy was an American character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

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Tracy is perhaps best known for the role of Pepi Katona, the delivery boy, in The Shop Around the Corner

The Shop Around the Corner

-External links:* Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 1, 2010...

. He also starred in the John Ford

John Ford

John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

 film Tobacco Road

Tobacco Road (film)

Tobacco Road is a 1941 film directed by John Ford starring Charley Grapewin, Marjorie Rambeau, Gene Tierney, William Tracy and Dana Andrews. It was based on the novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell, but the plot was rewritten for the film.-Cast:...

(1941). That same year, he began a recurring role as Sgt. Dorian "Dodo" Doubleday in a string of Hal Roach's Streamliners

Hal Roach's Streamliners

Hal Roach's Streamliners were a series of short comedy films created by Hal Roach that were longer than a short subject and less than a feature film not exceeding 50 minutes in length. Twenty of the twenty-nine features that Roach produced for United Artists were in the streamliner format...

  service comedies, the first of which was Tanks a Million

Tanks a Million

Tanks a Million is a 1941 American film directed by Fred Guiol. It was the first of Hal Roach's Streamliners, short films under an hour designed for the lower half of a double feature. The film was also the first pairing of William Tracy and Joe Sawyer in a series of films of the two in the...

. Surprisingly, this B-movie comedy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Musical Score. The series continued for a total of eight films, the last one — Mr. Walkie Talkie — being set during the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

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In the 1950s, Tracy primarily did television work, where his most notable role was as "Hotshot Charlie" in the 1953 series Terry and the Pirates

Terry and the Pirates (TV series)

Terry and the Pirates is a short-lived American adventure series based on Milton Caniff's popular comic strip, was telecast from June 26, 1953 to November 21, 1953. The syndicated series ran for 18 episodes and was produced by Don Sharpe Enterprises...

. He previously played the lead role of Terry Lee in the 1940 serial with the same title

Terry and the Pirates (serial)

Terry and the Pirates was the 10th film serial released by Columbia. It was based on the comic strip Terry and the Pirates created by Milton Caniff...

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Tracy died in Hollywood, California, at the age of 49.

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