Lee Tracy(1898-1968)
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Rangy, red-headed and straightforward to the bone while possessing
distinctively adenoidal vocal tones, this actor with a voracious
appetite for high living was a fine cinematic representation of the
racy and race-paced style of pre-Code Hollywood. Lee Tracy patented
with peerless skill the lightning rod timing and machine gun delivery
so identified with that period and would have continued on handsomely
in films had severe typecasting, a hair-trigger temper and a
notoriously reckless off-camera life not gotten the best of him.
Christened William Lee Tracy on April 14, 1898, the Atlanta-born actor
was the son of a traveling railroad superintendent and a former school
teacher. Lee attended Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois,
while growing up, and then relocated with his family to upstate New
York. Lee may have studied engineering at Union College in 1918, but he
also showed an interest in dramatics and was almost immediately asked
to join a theater company upon his graduation. WWI interrupted his
nascent stage career when he joined the army. Following his discharge,
he cast aside thoughts of a theater career and instead became a U.S.
Treasury agent. Within two years' time, however, he was back via the
vaudeville stage and touring stock companies. This all culminated in a
most auspicious Broadway debut in "The Showoff" in 1924.
It took but a couple of years for Tracy to achieve certified stardom
with the George Abbott production of
"Broadway" (1926), in which he played a song-and-dance man, receiving
the New York Drama Critics Award for his efforts. In 1928, following
more vaudeville work, Lee found his quintessential role in the form of
Hildy Johnson, the hustling, fast-talking newspaperman, in
Charles MacArthur and
Ben Hecht's timeless play "The Front
Page". If ever an actor and role fit together like a hand in a glove,
this was it, and it was highly unfortunate, with all due respect to
actor Pat O'Brien, that Tracy was not
afforded the proper chance to transfer this prototype Broadway part to
the 1931 film. During this time he was also developing an off-stage
reputation as a carouser and heavy drinker.
Nevertheless, Fox Studios immediately signed Tracy and offered up a
fine screen debut for him co-starring with
Mae Clarke in the early talkie
Big Time (1929) as the male half of a
husband-and-wife vaudeville team who breaks off with his mate and falls
on heavy times while she becomes a star. In
Born Reckless (1930), Tracy played
the first of his Walter Winchell-like,
staccato-styled characters. Tracy went on to perfectly evoke his
fast-talking image in such Depression-era films as the drama
Liliom (1930) and the ribald comedy
She Got What She Wanted (1930).
A highly impulsive man, Tracy abandoned Hollywood at this early stage
of the game and returned to his former glory, Broadway, appearing to
fine advantage in "Oh, Promise Me" and "Louder, Please" in 1930 and
1931, respectively. But films continued to beg for his services; this
time it was Warner Bros. He contributed greatly to both the melodrama
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
and the horror opus Doctor X (1932) and
easily stole the proceedings, this time in a comic mode, as the
cynical, scandal-sniffing columnist in
Blessed Event (1932). Columbia
Studios decided to get in on the action with a three-picture deal.
Tracy played a no-holds-barred politico in
Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932),
the title role in The Night Mayor (1932)
and an ex-con in Carnival (1935). In
between, however, trouble started brewing with his unrestrained night
life and patterned absences from the set.
A fourth big studio, MGM, took him on in 1933 with a contract boost
despite his "bad boy" reputation, yet more personality problems
surfaced. Despite excellent performances in such films as
Clear All Wires! (1933),
The Nuisance (1933),
Turn Back the Clock (1933),
Advice to the Forlorn (1933),
and the MGM classics
Dinner at Eight (1933) and
Bombshell (1933), both showcasing MGM's
comedic sex siren Jean Harlow, Tracy went
too far. During the filming of
Viva Villa! (1934) in Mexico City,
Tracy displayed shocking, ungentlemanly behavior that resulted in
fisticuffs with the law and a high-profile arrest on public morals
charges. MGM not only kicked Tracy off the picture but felt compelled
to apologize publicly to the Mexican people for his disrespect and
terminate the actor's five-year contract.
Tracy freelanced thereafter, often for RKO, but the quality of his
pictures began to slide and his constant rash of quicksilver reporters,
columnists and press agents had worn out their welcome. He returned to
the stage in both New York ("Bright Star") and London ("Idiot's
Delight") and was warmly received. In the midst of it all, he married
Helen Thoms Wyse, a nonprofessional, in 1938 and, defying all odds,
made the marriage work. She survived him by thirty years.
With his last postwar film at the time being
High Tide (1947), Tracy's looks had
hardened dramatically and he looked at TV being a possible medium for
his talents. Throughout the '50s and early '60s, he appeared on a
number of shows, including "Kraft Television Theatre", "Wagon Train"
and "Ben Casey". He also took on series leads, such as
The Amazing Mr. Malone (1951),
Martin Kane (1949),
and
New York Confidential (1959).
And there was always the stage.
Tracy's last hurrah, both on Broadway and in film, was
Gore Vidal's blistering political drama
The Best Man (1964). Recreating his
1961 Tony-nominated role of the crusty, terminally ill U.S. president,
he received his only Oscar nod for this standout part. The rest of his
working years went by with less distinction. In the summer of 1968 he
was diagnosed with liver cancer and succumbed to the illness on October
18 of that year in a Santa Monica hospital.
distinctively adenoidal vocal tones, this actor with a voracious
appetite for high living was a fine cinematic representation of the
racy and race-paced style of pre-Code Hollywood. Lee Tracy patented
with peerless skill the lightning rod timing and machine gun delivery
so identified with that period and would have continued on handsomely
in films had severe typecasting, a hair-trigger temper and a
notoriously reckless off-camera life not gotten the best of him.
Christened William Lee Tracy on April 14, 1898, the Atlanta-born actor
was the son of a traveling railroad superintendent and a former school
teacher. Lee attended Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois,
while growing up, and then relocated with his family to upstate New
York. Lee may have studied engineering at Union College in 1918, but he
also showed an interest in dramatics and was almost immediately asked
to join a theater company upon his graduation. WWI interrupted his
nascent stage career when he joined the army. Following his discharge,
he cast aside thoughts of a theater career and instead became a U.S.
Treasury agent. Within two years' time, however, he was back via the
vaudeville stage and touring stock companies. This all culminated in a
most auspicious Broadway debut in "The Showoff" in 1924.
It took but a couple of years for Tracy to achieve certified stardom
with the George Abbott production of
"Broadway" (1926), in which he played a song-and-dance man, receiving
the New York Drama Critics Award for his efforts. In 1928, following
more vaudeville work, Lee found his quintessential role in the form of
Hildy Johnson, the hustling, fast-talking newspaperman, in
Charles MacArthur and
Ben Hecht's timeless play "The Front
Page". If ever an actor and role fit together like a hand in a glove,
this was it, and it was highly unfortunate, with all due respect to
actor Pat O'Brien, that Tracy was not
afforded the proper chance to transfer this prototype Broadway part to
the 1931 film. During this time he was also developing an off-stage
reputation as a carouser and heavy drinker.
Nevertheless, Fox Studios immediately signed Tracy and offered up a
fine screen debut for him co-starring with
Mae Clarke in the early talkie
Big Time (1929) as the male half of a
husband-and-wife vaudeville team who breaks off with his mate and falls
on heavy times while she becomes a star. In
Born Reckless (1930), Tracy played
the first of his Walter Winchell-like,
staccato-styled characters. Tracy went on to perfectly evoke his
fast-talking image in such Depression-era films as the drama
Liliom (1930) and the ribald comedy
She Got What She Wanted (1930).
A highly impulsive man, Tracy abandoned Hollywood at this early stage
of the game and returned to his former glory, Broadway, appearing to
fine advantage in "Oh, Promise Me" and "Louder, Please" in 1930 and
1931, respectively. But films continued to beg for his services; this
time it was Warner Bros. He contributed greatly to both the melodrama
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
and the horror opus Doctor X (1932) and
easily stole the proceedings, this time in a comic mode, as the
cynical, scandal-sniffing columnist in
Blessed Event (1932). Columbia
Studios decided to get in on the action with a three-picture deal.
Tracy played a no-holds-barred politico in
Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932),
the title role in The Night Mayor (1932)
and an ex-con in Carnival (1935). In
between, however, trouble started brewing with his unrestrained night
life and patterned absences from the set.
A fourth big studio, MGM, took him on in 1933 with a contract boost
despite his "bad boy" reputation, yet more personality problems
surfaced. Despite excellent performances in such films as
Clear All Wires! (1933),
The Nuisance (1933),
Turn Back the Clock (1933),
Advice to the Forlorn (1933),
and the MGM classics
Dinner at Eight (1933) and
Bombshell (1933), both showcasing MGM's
comedic sex siren Jean Harlow, Tracy went
too far. During the filming of
Viva Villa! (1934) in Mexico City,
Tracy displayed shocking, ungentlemanly behavior that resulted in
fisticuffs with the law and a high-profile arrest on public morals
charges. MGM not only kicked Tracy off the picture but felt compelled
to apologize publicly to the Mexican people for his disrespect and
terminate the actor's five-year contract.
Tracy freelanced thereafter, often for RKO, but the quality of his
pictures began to slide and his constant rash of quicksilver reporters,
columnists and press agents had worn out their welcome. He returned to
the stage in both New York ("Bright Star") and London ("Idiot's
Delight") and was warmly received. In the midst of it all, he married
Helen Thoms Wyse, a nonprofessional, in 1938 and, defying all odds,
made the marriage work. She survived him by thirty years.
With his last postwar film at the time being
High Tide (1947), Tracy's looks had
hardened dramatically and he looked at TV being a possible medium for
his talents. Throughout the '50s and early '60s, he appeared on a
number of shows, including "Kraft Television Theatre", "Wagon Train"
and "Ben Casey". He also took on series leads, such as
The Amazing Mr. Malone (1951),
Martin Kane (1949),
and
New York Confidential (1959).
And there was always the stage.
Tracy's last hurrah, both on Broadway and in film, was
Gore Vidal's blistering political drama
The Best Man (1964). Recreating his
1961 Tony-nominated role of the crusty, terminally ill U.S. president,
he received his only Oscar nod for this standout part. The rest of his
working years went by with less distinction. In the summer of 1968 he
was diagnosed with liver cancer and succumbed to the illness on October
18 of that year in a Santa Monica hospital.