
Spencer Tracy
Actor · 1900 – 1967 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy won two Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations, sharing the record for nominations in that category with Laurence Olivier. Tracy first discovered his talent for acting while attending Ripon College, and he later received a scholarship for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He spent seven years in the theatre, working in a succession of stock companies and intermittently on Broadway. Tracy's breakthrough came in 1930, when his lead performance in The Last Mile caught the attention of Hollywood. After a successful film debut in John Ford's Up the River starring Tracy and Humphrey Bogart, he was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. His five years with Fox featured one acting tour de force after another that were usually ignored at the box office, and he remained largely unknown to audiences after 25 films, almost all of them starring Tracy as the leading man. None of them were hits although The Power and the Glory (1933) features arguably his most acclaimed performance in retrospect. In 1935, Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, at the time Hollywood's most prestigious studio. His career flourished with a series of hit films, and in 1937 and 1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys Town. He made three smash hit films supporting Clark Gable, the studio's principal leading man, firmly fixing the notion of Gable and Tracy as a team in the public imagination. By the 1940s, Tracy was one of the studio's top stars. In 1942, he appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, beginning another popular partnership that produced nine movies over 25 years. 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 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.
Movies24
Movie7.0AdventureComedyA group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
1963 · 717 votes
Movie8.0DramaHistoryIn 1947, four German judges who served on the bench during the Nazi regime face a military tribunal to answer charges of crimes against humanity. Chief Justice Haywood hears evidence and testimony not only from lead defendant Ernst Janning and his defense attorney Hans Rolfe, but also from the widow of a Nazi general, an idealistic U.S. Army captain and reluctant witness Irene Wallner.
Judgment at Nuremberg
1961 · 988 votes
Movie7.6DramaRomanceA couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967 · 937 votes
Movie7.0WesternThe epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
How the West Was Won
1962 · 514 votes
Movie7.7DramaSchoolteacher Bertram Cates is arrested for teaching his students Darwin's theory of evolution. The case receives national attention and one of the newspaper reporters, E.K. Hornbeck, arranges to bring in renowned defense attorney and atheist Henry Drummond to defend Cates. The prosecutor, Matthew Brady is a former presidential candidate, famous evangelist, and old adversary of Drummond.
Inherit the Wind
1960 · 489 votes
Movie7.3WesternDramaOne-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
Bad Day at Black Rock
1955 · 437 votes
Movie7.1ComedyRomanceA woman's attempted murder of her uncaring husband results in everyday quarrels in the lives of Adam and Amanda, a pair of happily married lawyers who end up on opposite sides of the case in court.
Adam's Rib
1949 · 346 votes
Movie6.5DocumentaryTV MovieGene Kelly is a legend of the heyday of the Hollywood musical. His name stands for masterpieces such as "Singin' in the Rain" and "An American in Paris". As a singer, dancer, actor, choreographer and director, he was a true all-round artist who revolutionized the world of dance in particular. Kelly, who loved to experiment, explored new forms of dance expression and helped a whole generation of young talents to fame. From his beginnings in cabarets and on Broadway to his recognition as a choreographer and director, the documentary shows how the good-looking star with a charming smile expanded the boundaries of dance expression: He danced in the open air in the streets of New York, with a cartoon character or his own reflection. But this dazzling entertainer image should not obscure the fact that Kelly, as a staunch supporter of the American civil rights movement, also saw dancing as a political statement.
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceProud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.
Father of the Bride
1950 · 244 votes
Movie7.0ComedyRomanceRival reporters Sam Craig and Tess Harding fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess' hectic lifestyle.
Woman of the Year
1942 · 169 votes
Movie6.7WarDramaIn the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
1944 · 72 votes
Movie6.5AdventureDramaSantiago is an aging, down-on-his-luck, Cuban fisherman who, after catching nothing for nearly 3 months, hooks a huge Marlin and struggles to land it far out in the Gulf Stream.
The Old Man and the Sea
1958 · 170 votes
Movie7.5CrimeDramaJoe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.
Fury
1936 · 261 votes
Movie7.4DocumentaryFamilyVarious MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
That's Entertainment!
1974 · 71 votes
Movie7.3ComedyRomanceWhen a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her. Soon Haggerty's harried fiancée, Gladys Benton, and his dashing friend Bill Chandler are in on a scheme that aims to discredit Connie, with amusing and unexpected results.
Libeled Lady
1936 · 136 votes
Movie6.5DramaHorrorDr. Jekyll believes good and evil exist in everyone and creates a potion that allows his evil side, Mr. Hyde, to come to the fore. He faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run amok.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1941 · 195 votes
Movie7.4AdventureDramaHarvey, the arrogant and spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. Harvey fails to persuade them to take him ashore, nor convince the crew of his wealth. The captain offers him a low-paid job, until they return to port, as part of the crew that turns him into a mature, considerate young man.
Captains Courageous
1937 · 196 votes
Movie6.5AdventureDramaTensions erupt within an Arizona cattle baron's household when his three sons vie for control of the ranch.
Broken Lance
1954 · 88 votes
Movie7.6ComedyTV MovieGeorge Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery. (Sixteen French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)
La Classe américaine
1993 · 253 votes
Movie6.8ComedyDramaAn industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.
State of the Union
1948 · 76 votes
Movie6.8DramaDevout but iron-willed Father Flanagan leads a community called Boys Town, a different sort of juvenile detention facility where, instead of being treated as underage criminals, the boys are shepherded into making themselves better people. But hard-nosed petty thief and pool shark Whitey Marsh, the impulsive and violent younger brother of an imprisoned murderer, might be too much for the good father's tough-love system.
Boys Town
1938 · 109 votes
Movie6.8DramaWarIn Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up seven crosses and, as the Gestapo returns each escapee he is put to death on a cross. The seventh cross is still empty as George Heisler attempts an escape to freedom in Holland.
The Seventh Cross
1944 · 43 votes
Movie6.4ComedyRomancePat Pemberton is a brilliant athlete, except when her domineering fiancé is around. The ladies golf championship is in her reach until she gets flustered by his presence at the final holes. He wants them to get married and forget the whole thing, but she cannot give up on herself that easily. She enlists the help of Mike Conovan, a slightly shady sports promoter. Together they face mobsters, a jealous boxer, and a growing mutual attraction.
Pat and Mike
1952 · 76 votes
Movie5.9DocumentaryA deliciously scandalous portrait of unsung Hollywood legend Scotty Bowers, whose bestselling memoir chronicled his decades spent as sexual procurer to the stars.
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
2018 · 44 votes
Series1
TV7.5The original concept of the show was to allow the viewer to see the inner workings of a movie studio and featured interviews with MGM stars and explanations of how movies were made. Later, the format changed to show edited versions of MGM films.
MGM Parade
1955 · 2 votes