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Biography
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.
Career
Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from the Western Military Academy in 1918, he studied electrical engineering at Union College and then served as a second lieutenant in the Army during World War I. In the early 1920s, he decided to begin working as an actor. He made his Broadway debut in the original 1924 production of George Kelly's play The Show-Off. Two years later, he starred in the hit production of Broadway, for which he received the New York Drama Critics Award. In 1928, he created the role of reporter Hildy Johnson in the original Broadway production of The Front Page.
Early Life
Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from the Western Military Academy in 1918, he studied electrical engineering at Union College and then served as a second lieutenant in the Army during World War I. In the early 1920s, he decided to begin working as an actor. He made his Broadway debut in the original 1924 production of George Kelly's play The Show-Off. Two years later, he starred in the hit production of Broadway, for which he received the New York Drama Critics Award. In 1928, he created the role of reporter Hildy Johnson in the original Broadway production of The Front Page.
Movies & TV shows
1964.
2 Movies · 1 TV show
TV
Profiles in Courage
1964
Profiles in Courage is an American historical anthology series that was telecast weekly on NBC from November 8, 1964 to May 9, 1965. The series was based on the recently President John F. Kennedy's Pu...
The Big Parade of Comedy
1964
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
The Best Man
4.58
1964
The other party is in a state of disarray. There are five men vying for the party nomination for president. The front-runners begin to decide how badly they want the job as the first ballot closes, be...
1961.
2 TV shows
TV
87th Precinct
1961
87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season.
TV
Ben Casey
4.75
1961
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboa...
1959.
1 TV show
TV
New York Confidential
1959
New York Confidential was broadcast in the UK on Associated-Rediffusion and in the United States on syndicated television. ITC Entertainment and Television Programs of America were involved in the pro...
1956.
1 TV show
TV
Tony Awards
1956
The Tony Award for excellence in theatre is an award that recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. At an annual ceremony in New York City, the awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing...
1949.
2 TV shows
TV
Lights Out
1949
Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions ...
TV
Martin Kane, Private Eye
1949
Martin Kane, Private Eye was an early radio series and television crime series sponsored by United States Tobacco Company.
1947.
1 Movie
High Tide
1947
A car accident traps two men inside a car near the water. With the tide coming in, they discuss the circumstances that leading up to the accident.
1945.
2 Movies
Betrayal from the East
1945
A carnival showman tries to keep Japanese spies from sabotaging the Panama Canal.
1943.
1 Movie
Power of the Press
6.5
1943
Although he's credited only for story, the dialogue has Fuller's headline punch, and of course newspapering was an alternative universe he knew inside out. A publisher whose once-honest New York tablo...
1942.
1 Movie
The Payoff
1942
The city's District Attorney is murdered, and a newspaper reporter investigates. He starts finding out that everything wasn't quite as cut and dried as it appeared to be.
1940.
1 Movie
Millionaires in Prison
1940
Self-crowned king of a gray-walled world of treacherous men... He out-schemed, out-talked, out-fought them all!
1939.
1 Movie
The Spellbinder
1939
Jed Marlowe is a brilliant, scheming, unscrupulous criminal lawyer whose specialty is defending criminal he knows is guilty but gets them off through loop-holes or bribery. Then his daughter, misled b...
1938.
1 Movie
Crashing Hollywood
1938
Two gangsters provide details of an actual bank robbery when helping a neophite screenwriter create a hit Hollywood film.
1937.
3 Movies
Behind The Headlines
1937
A radio reporter sets out to rescue his ex-girlfriend when she is kidnapped by gangsters.
Criminal Lawyer
1937
Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group...
Cinema Circus
1937
Actor Lee Tracy presides as ringmaster over a show that combines the best elements of cinema with the circus, what he calls a Cinema Circus. Tracy introduces a number of professional circus acts, plus...
1936.
2 Movies
Wanted: Jane Turner
1936
Investigators set out to capture a gang of thieves transporting stolen cash through the U.S. mail.
Sutter's Gold
1936
Story of the gold strike on an immigrant's property that started the 1849 California Gold Rush.
1935.
3 Movies
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle
1935
Various Hollywood performers put on a pirate-themed variety show on Catalina Island, with a number of amiable stars in the audience.
Carnival
1935
"Chick" Thompson is a puppet-master in a traveling carnival whose wife dies in childbirth and leaves him with an infant son he names "Poochy." His father-in-law and the baby's grandfather sues him for...
Two-Fisted
1935
A fast-talking boxing manager and the somewhat hapless fighter he manages happen to run into a young man who was a good prizefighter in his day but is now out of the sport and has a drinking problem. ...
1934.
3 Movies
You Belong to Me
1934
When vaudeville performer Florette Faxon is left penniless with her six-year-old son Jimmy, she relies on the friendship of fellow performer Bud Hannigan to help her get a job. Bud is reluctant to bec...
The Lemon Drop Kid
1934
The Lemon Drop Kid is a fast-talking racetrack bum who swindles $100 from an old, ailing man. He takes it on the lam with his sidekick, The Professor.
I'll Tell the World
1934
Lee Tracy once again plays a Winchellesque newspaper reporter in Universal's I'll Tell the World. More interested in his sex life than his career, news hawk Brown (Tracy) nonetheless agrees to cover t...
1933.
7 Movies
Private Jones
1933
After America enters World War I, young William "Bill" Jones tries to avoid military service by telling the draft board that he is the sole supporter of his family and is employed by businessman Roger...
Bombshell
1933
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Clear All Wires!
1933
Buckley is an unethical reporter who manipulates the news for his own benefit as much as he reports it. When he is in Paris to get a medal for being rescued from his alleged kidnappers, he finds that ...
Turn Back the Clock
1933
While recuperating in a hospital after he's hit by an automobile, a struggling shopowner dreams what his life might have been like if he'd made different choices twenty years earlier.
Dinner at Eight
4
1933
An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial troubles, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their hi...
The Nuisance
1933
Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar...
Advice to the Lovelorn
1933
Los Angeles newspaper reporter Toby Prentiss is continually in trouble with his editor. He is demoted to running the paper's "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column because he missed the scoop on a major ea...
1932.
7 Movies
Washington Merry-Go-Round
1932
Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton...
The Night Mayor
1932
Opportunistic film seeking to capitalize on a scandal in New York mayor Jimmy Walker's office before his name was out of the newspapers. Tracy plays a mayor who has a penchant for the night life, spor...
Love Is a Racket
1932
A gossip columnist helps a Broadway ingenue who's beholden to a penthouse gangster.
Doctor X
5.17
1932
A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.
The Half Naked Truth
1932
A barker at a down-at-the-heels carnival becomes a powerhouse New York publicity man as he transforms a sideshow dancer into a Broadway sensation.
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
1932
A fast-talking reporter befriends a young woman and her male companion who are wanted for a policeman's shooting.
1930.
2 Movies
Born Reckless
1930
In order to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.
Liliom
1930
A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. B...
1929.
2 Movies
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This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lee_Tracy", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.