Person Details

Birthday:

Aliases: No known aliases

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 20

TV Involvements: 3


Most Famous Work

Biography

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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lee Tracy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Most Famous Work

Tony Awards
Average
5

Tony Awards

(1956) Self - Presenter
Profiles in Courage
Average
5

Profiles in Courage

(1964) Senator Robert A. Taft
New York Confidential
Average
0

New York Confidential

(1959) Lee Cochran
Liliom
Average
7

Liliom

(1930) The Buzzard
The Payoff
Average
6

The Payoff

(1942) Brad McKay
Power of the Press
Average
6

Power of the Press

(1943) Griff Thompson
Love Is a Racket
Average
6

Love Is a Racket

(1932) Stanley Fiske
Behind The Headlines
Average
6

Behind The Headlines

(1937) Eddie Haines

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
1964 Senator Robert A. Taft
(archive footage)
President Art Hockstader
1962 N/A
1961 N/A
N/A
1959 Lee Cochran
1956 Self - Presenter
1949 N/A
1947 Hugh Fresney
1946 N/A
1945 Gabriel Patton
Eddie Carter
1943 Griff Thompson
1942 Brad McKay
1940 Nick Burton
1939 Jed Marlowe
Charlie "Fixer" Dugan
1938 Michael Winslow
1937 Eddie Haines
Brandon
Himself - Ringmaster
1936 Tom Mallory
Pete Perkin
1935 Pirate (uncredited)
Hap Hurley
Chick Thompson
1934 Wally Brooks aka The Lemon Drop Kid
Bud Hannigan
Stanley Brown
1933 Max Kane
Toby Prentiss
E.J. 'Space' Hanlon
Joe Gimlet
Joseph Phineas 'Joe' Stevens
Pvt. William 'Bill' Jones
Buckley Joyce Thomas
1932 Bates
Button Gwinett Brown
Alvin Roberts
Mayor Bobby Kingston
Lee Taylor
Stanley Fiske
Scott 'Scotty' Cornell
1930 N/A
The Buzzard
Bill O'Brien
1929 Eddie Burns
Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Year Character Movie/Tv

Writing

Year Role Movie/Tv
1930 Writer
Year Role Movie/Tv

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