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person_profile-Lee Tracy

Lee Tracy Died at age: 70

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Lee Tracy

Date of Birth:

Apr 13, 1898

Country of birth:

USA

Died:

Oct 18, 1968

Biography of

Lee Tracy

    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

Photos of

Lee Tracy

Photos ( 3 Photos

Filmography of

Lee Tracy

Found 38 Movies in total

The Big Parade of Comedy

(archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1964

The Best Man

President Art Hockstader ( Actor )

... 1964

High Tide

Hugh Fresney ( Actor )

... 1947

I'll Tell the World

Gabriel Patton ( Actor )

... 1945

Betrayal from the East

Eddie Carter ( Actor )

... 1945

Power of the Press

Griff Thompson ( Actor )

... 1943

The Payoff

Brad McKay ( Actor )

... 1942

Millionaires in Prison

Nick Burton ( Actor )

... 1940

The Spellbinder

Jed Marlowe ( Actor )

... 1939

Fixer Dugan

Charlie "Fixer" Dugan ( Actor )

... 1939

Crashing Hollywood

Michael Winslow ( Actor )

... 1938

Behind The Headlines

Eddie Haines ( Actor )

... 1937

Criminal Lawyer

Brandon ( Actor )

... 1937

Wanted: Jane Turner

Tom Mallory ( Actor )

... 1936

Sutter's Gold

Pete Perkin ( Actor )

... 1936

Two-Fisted

Hap Hurley ( Actor )

... 1935

Carnival

Chick Thompson ( Actor )

... 1935

The Lemon Drop Kid

Wally Brooks aka The Lemon Drop Kid ( Actor )

... 1934

You Belong to Me

Bud Hannigan ( Actor )

... 1934

I'll Tell the World

Stanley Brown ( Actor )

... 1934

Dinner at Eight

Max Kane ( Actor )

... 1933

Advice to the Lovelorn

Toby Prentiss ( Actor )

... 1933

Bombshell

E.J. 'Space' Hanlon ( Actor )

... 1933

Turn Back the Clock

Joe Gimlet ( Actor )

... 1933

The Nuisance

Joseph Phineas 'Joe' Stevens ( Actor )

... 1933

Private Jones

Pvt. William 'Bill' Jones ( Actor )

... 1933

Clear All Wires!

Buckley Joyce Thomas ( Actor )

... 1933

The Half-Naked Truth

Bates ( Actor )

... 1932

Washington Merry-Go-Round

Button Gwinett Brown ( Actor )

... 1932

Blessed Event

Alvin Roberts ( Actor )

... 1932

The Night Mayor

Mayor Bobby Kingston ( Actor )

... 1932

Doctor X

Lee Taylor ( Actor )

... 1932

Love Is a Racket

Stanley Fiske ( Actor )

... 1932

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain

Scott 'Scotty' Cornell ( Actor )

... 1932

Liliom

The Buzzard ( Actor )

... 1930

Born Reckless

Bill O'Brien ( Actor )

... 1930

Big Time

Eddie Burns ( Actor )

... 1929

Salute

Radio Announcer (uncredited) ( Actor )

... 1929