birth name	William Clark Gable
birth date	February 01, 1901
birth place	Cadiz, Ohio
death date	November 16, 1960
death place	Los Angeles, California
death cause	Heart attack
restingplace	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
occupation	Actor
years active	1923-1960
spouse	Josephine Dillon (m.1924-1930; divorced) Maria "Ria" Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham (m.1931-1939; divorced) Carole Lombard (m.1939-1942; her death) Sylvia Ashley (m.1949-1952; divorced) Kay Williams (m.1955-1960; his death)
children	Judy Lewis, John Gable
signature	Clark Gable signature.svg }}

William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 - November 16, 1960), known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film ''Gone with the Wind'', in which he starred with Vivien Leigh. His performance earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor; he won for ''It Happened One Night'' (1934) and was also nominated for ''Mutiny on the Bounty'' (1935). Later movies included ''Run Silent, Run Deep'', a submarine war film, and his final film, ''The Misfits'' (1961), which paired Gable with Marilyn Monroe, also in her last screen appearance. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the greatest male stars of all time. He was nicknamed 'The King of Hollywood.'

Gable appeared opposite some of the most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with, was partnered with Gable in eight films, Myrna Loy worked with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer and Ava Gardner in three each. In the mid-1930s, Gable was often named the top male movie star, and second only to the top box-office draw of all, Shirley Temple.

Life and career

Early years

Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio to William Henry "Will" Gable, an oil-well driller, and Adeline (née Hershelman). He was named "William" after his father. In childhood he was almost always called "Clark"; some friends called him "Clarkie", "Billy", or "Gabe". He was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. Gable's ancestry included Pennsylvania Dutch (German) and Bavarian. When he was six months old, his ill mother had him baptized Catholic. She died when he was ten months old, possibly from a brain tumor. Following her death, Gable's father's family refused to raise him as a Catholic, provoking enmity with his mother's side of the family. The dispute was resolved when his father's family agreed to allow Gable to spend time with his uncle, Charles Hershelman, and his wife on their farm in Vernon, Pennsylvania.

In April 1903, Gable's father married Jennie Dunlap, whose family came from the small neighboring town of Hopedale. Gable was a tall, shy child with a loud voice. After his father purchased some land and built a house, the new family settled in. Jennie played the piano and gave her stepson lessons at home; later he took up brass instruments. She raised Gable to be well-dressed and well-groomed; he stood out from the other kids. Gable was very mechanically inclined and loved to strip down and repair cars with his father. At thirteen, he was the only boy in the men's town band. Even though his father insisted on Gable doing "manly" things, like hunting and hard physical work, Gable loved language. Among trusted company, he would recite Shakespeare, particularly the sonnets. Will Gable did agree to buy a seventy-two volume set of ''The World's Greatest Literature'' to improve his son's education, but claimed he never saw his son use it. In 1917, when Gable was in high school, his father had financial difficulties. Will decided to settle his debts and try his hand at farming and the family moved to Ravenna, just outside of Akron. Gable had trouble settling down in the area. Despite his father's insistence that he work the farm, Gable soon left to work in Akron's B.F. Goodrich tire factory.

At seventeen, Gable was inspired to be an actor after seeing the play ''The Bird of Paradise'', but he was not able to make a real start until he turned 21 and inherited some money. By then, his stepmother Jennie had died and his father moved to Tulsa to go back to the oil business. He toured in stock companies as well as working the oil fields and as a horse manager. Gable found work with several second-class theater companies and thus made his way across the Midwest to Portland, Oregon, where he then took work as a necktie salesman in the Meier & Frank department store. While there, he met Laura Hope Crews, a stage and film actress, who encouraged him to return to the stage and into another theater company. Many years later, Crews would play "Aunt Pittypat" in Gable's most famous film, ''Gone With the Wind'' (1939). His acting coach was a theater manager in Portland named Josephine Dillon, who was 17 years his senior. She paid to have his teeth repaired and his hair styled. She guided him in building up his chronically undernourished body, and taught him better body control and posture. She spent considerable time training his naturally high-pitched voice, which Gable slowly managed to lower, and to gain better resonance and tone. As his speech habits improved, Gable's facial expressions became more natural and convincing. After the long period of rigorous training, Dillon eventually considered him ready to attempt a film career.

Stage and silent films

In 1924, with Dillon's financial aid, the two went to Hollywood, where she became his manager—and first wife. He changed his stage name from W. C. Gable to Clark Gable. He found work as an extra in such silent films as Erich von Stroheim's ''The Merry Widow'' (1925), ''The Plastic Age'' (1925), which starred Clara Bow, and ''Forbidden Paradise'', plus a series of two-reel comedies called ''The Pacemakers''. He also appeared as a bit player in a series of shorts. However, Gable was not offered any major roles and so he returned to the stage. He became lifelong friends with Lionel Barrymore, who in spite of his bawling Gable out for amateurish acting initially, urged Gable to pursue a career on stage. During the 1927-28 theater season, Gable acted with the Laskin Brothers Stock Company in Houston, where he played many roles, gained considerable experience and became a local matinee idol. Gable then moved to New York and Dillon sought work for him on Broadway. He received good reviews in ''Machinal''; "He's young, vigorous and brutally masculine", wrote the critic at the ''Morning Telegraph''. The start of the Great Depression and the beginning of talking pictures caused a cancellation of many plays in the 1929-30 season and acting work became harder to get.

Early successes

In 1930, after his impressive appearance as the seething and desperate character Killer Mears in the Los Angeles stage production of ''The Last Mile'', Gable was offered a contract with MGM. His first role in a sound picture was as the unshaven villain in a low-budget William Boyd western called ''The Painted Desert'' (1931). He received a lot of fan mail as a result of his powerful voice and appearance; the studio took notice. (Robert Mitchum had an identical experience when he played an unshaven villain in a Boyd cowboy film a decade later).

In 1930, Gable and Josephine Dillon were divorced. A few days later, he married Texas socialite Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham, nicknamed "Ria". After moving to California, they were married again in 1931, possibly due to differences in state legal requirements. "His ears are too big and he looks like an ape", said Warner Bros. executive Darryl F. Zanuck about Clark Gable after testing him for the lead in Warner's gangster drama ''Little Caesar'' (1931). The same year, in ''Night Nurse'', Gable played a villainous chauffeur who was gradually starving two adorable little girls to death, then knocked Barbara Stanwyck's character unconscious with his fist, a supporting role originally slated for James Cagney until the release of ''The Public Enemy'' abruptly made Cagney a leading man. After several failed screen tests for Barrymore and Zanuck, Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. He became a client of well-connected agent Minna Wallis, sister of producer Hal Wallis and very close friend of Norma Shearer. Gable's timing in arriving in Hollywood was excellent, as MGM was looking to expand its stable of male stars and he fit the bill. Gable first worked mainly in supporting roles, often as the villain. He made two pictures in 1931 with Wallace Beery, a minor role in ''The Secret Six'', then with his part increasing in size to almost match Beery's in the naval aviation film ''Hell Divers''. MGM's publicity manager Howard Strickland developed Gable's studio image, playing up his he-man experiences and his 'lumberjack in evening clothes' persona.

To bolster his rocketing popularity, MGM frequently paired him with well-established female stars. Joan Crawford asked for him as her co-star in ''Dance, Fools, Dance'' (1931). He built his fame and public visibility in such movies as ''A Free Soul'' (1931), in which he played a gangster who shoved the character played by Norma Shearer (Gable never played a supporting role again). ''The Hollywood Reporter'' wrote "A star in the making has been made, one that, to our reckoning, will outdraw every other star... Never have we seen audiences work themselves into such enthusiasm as when Clark Gable walks on the screen". He followed that with ''Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)'' (1931) with Greta Garbo, and ''Possessed'' (1931), in which he and Crawford (then married to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) steamed up the screen. Adela Rogers St. John later dubbed Gable and Crawford's real-life relationship as "the affair that nearly burned Hollywood down". Louis B. Mayer threatened to terminate both their contracts, and for a while they kept apart. Gable shifted his attentions to Marion Davies. On the other hand, Gable and Garbo disliked each other. She thought he was a wooden actor while he considered her a snob.

Rising star

Gable was considered for the role of ''Tarzan'' but lost out to Johnny Weissmuller's better physique and superior swimming prowess. However Gable's unshaven lovemaking with braless Jean Harlow in ''Red Dust'' (1932) soon made him MGM's most important male star. After the hit ''Hold Your Man'' (1933), MGM recognized the goldmine of the Gable-Harlow pairing, putting them in two more films, ''China Seas'' (1935; with Gable and Harlow billed above Wallace Beery) and ''Wife vs. Secretary'' (1936). An enormously popular combination, on-screen and off-screen, Gable and Jean Harlow made six films together, the most notable being ''Red Dust'' (1932) and ''Saratoga'' (1937). Harlow died during production of ''Saratoga''. Ninety percent completed, the remaining scenes were filmed with long shots or the use of doubles like Mary Dees; Gable would say that he felt as if he was "in the arms of a ghost".

According to legend, Gable was lent to Columbia Pictures, then considered a second-rate operation, as punishment for refusing roles; however, this has been refuted by more recent biographies. MGM did not have a project ready for Gable and was paying him $2000 per week, under his contract, to do nothing. Studio head Louis B. Mayer lent him to Columbia for $2500 per week, making a $500 per week profit.

Gable was not the first choice to play the lead role of Peter Warne in ''It Happened One Night'' (1934). Robert Montgomery was originally offered the role, but he felt that the script was poor. Filming began in a tense atmosphere, but both Gable and Frank Capra enjoyed making the movie, although Colbert reportedly did not. Gable and Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Actress for their performances in the film and the movie itself won the Academy Award for Best Picture. He returned to MGM a bigger star than ever.

The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng mention that this was one of his favorite films. It has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Four things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs: the personality of a minor character, Oscar Shapely and his penchant for referring to Gable's character as "Doc", an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" that Gable's character uses to frighten Shapely, and most of all, a scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots while talking quickly with his mouth full, as Bugs does.

Gable also earned an Academy Award nomination when he portrayed Fletcher Christian in 1935's ''Mutiny on the Bounty''.

''Gone with the Wind''

Despite his reluctance to play the role, Gable is best known for his performance in ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Carole Lombard may have been the first to suggest that he play Rhett Butler (and she play Scarlett) when she bought him a copy of the bestseller, which he refused to read. thumb|left|230px|As Rhett Butler in the trailer for ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind'' (1939)]] Butler's last line in ''Gone with the Wind'', "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", is one of the most famous lines in movie industry history. Gable was an almost immediate favorite for the role of Rhett with both the public and producer David O. Selznick. But since Selznick had no male stars under long-term contracts, he needed to go through the process of negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio. Gary Cooper was Selznick's first choice. When Cooper turned down the role of Butler, he was quoted as saying, "''Gone With the Wind'' is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it'll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me." By then, Selznick had become determined to hire Gable, and set about finding a way to borrow him from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Gable was wary of potentially disappointing an audience that had decided that no one else could play the part. He later conceded, "I think I know now how a fly must react after being caught in a spider's web." ''Gone with the Wind'' was Gable's first Technicolor film. Also appearing in ''Gone with The Wind'' in the role of "Aunt Pittypat" was Laura Hope Crews who had coaxed Gable back into the theater from Portland.

By all accounts, Gable got along well with his co-stars during filming. Gable was great friends with actress Hattie McDaniel, and he even slipped her a real alcoholic drink during the scene they were supposed to be celebrating the birth of Scarlett and Rhett's daughter. Gable tried to boycott the premier of ''Gone with the Wind'' in Atlanta, Georgia, because the African-American McDaniel was not permitted to attend. He reportedly only went after she pleaded with him to go. Gable remained friends with McDaniel, and he always attended her Hollywood parties, especially when she was raising funds during World War II.

Gable did not want to shed tears for the scene after Bonnie's death. Olivia de Havilland made him cry, later commenting, "... Oh, he would not do it. He would not! Victor (Fleming) tried everything with him. He tried to attack him on a professional level. We had done it without him weeping several times and then we had one last try. I said, "You can do it, I know you can do it and you will be wonderful ..." Well, by heaven, just before the cameras rolled, you could see the tears come up at his eyes and he played the scene unforgettably well. He put his whole heart into it."

Decades later, Gable said that whenever his career would start to fade, a re-release of ''Gone with the Wind'' would soon revive his popularity, and he continued as a top leading actor for the rest of his life. Thanks in part to MGM's dominance in balloting, Gable was the lead actor in three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture between 1934 and 1939. Only Dustin Hoffman has subsequently enjoyed a similar trifecta. ''Gone with the Wind'' was given theatrical re-releases in 1947, 1954, 1961, 1967 (in a widescreen version), 1971, 1989, and 1998.

Marriage to Carole Lombard

Gable's marriage in 1939 to his third wife, actress Carole Lombard (1908–1942), was the happiest period of his personal life. As an independent actress, her annual income exceeded his studio salary until ''Gone with the Wind'' brought them to rough parity. From their marriage, she gained personal stability that she had lacked, and he thrived being around her with her youthful, charming, and frank personality. Lombard went hunting and fishing with Gable, and he became more sociable around her. Most of the time, she tolerated his philandering ways. He one or more times stated, "You can trust that little screwball with your life or your hopes or your weaknesses, and she wouldn't even know how to think about letting you down." The Gables purchased a ranch at Encino, California, and once Gable had become accustomed to Lombard's often blunt way of expressing herself, they found that they had much in common, despite Gable being a conservative Republican and Lombard a liberal Democrat. Their efforts to have a baby were unsuccessful. Lombard got pregnant once in 1940, but she suffered a miscarriage.

On January 16, 1942, Lombard was a passenger on Trans-World Airlines Flight 3. She had just finished her 57th movie, ''To Be or Not to Be'', and was on her way home from a successful war bond selling tour when the flight's DC-3 airliner crashed into a mountain near Las Vegas, Nevada, killing all aboard, including Lombard, her mother, and her MGM staff publicist Otto Winkler (who had been the best man at Gable's wedding to Lombard). Gable flew to the crash site, and he saw the forest fire that had been ignited by the burning airliner. Lombard was declared to be the first war-related American female casualty of World War II, and Gable received a personal condolence note from President Roosevelt. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation into the crash concluded that "pilot error" was its cause.

Gable returned to his and Lombard's empty house, and a month later, he returned to the studio to work with Lana Turner in the movie, ''Somewhere I'll Find You''. Gable was devastated by the tragic death of his wife for many months afterwards, and he began to drink heavily, but carried out his performances professionally on the movie sets. Gable was seen to break down for the first time in public when Lombard's funeral request note was given to him. He resided for the rest of his life at the home in Encino which he and Lombard had purchased. He acted in twenty-seven more movies, and re-married two more times. "But he was never the same", said Esther Williams. "His heart sank a bit."

World War II

:''For details of Gable's combat missions, see RAF Polebrook'' In 1942, following Lombard's death, Gable joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. Lombard had suggested that Gable enlist as part of the war effort, but MGM was reluctant to let him go, and he resisted the suggestion. Gable made a public statement after Lombard's death that prompted Commanding General of the Army Air Forces Henry H. Arnold to offer Gable a "special assignment" in aerial gunnery. Gable had earlier expressed an interest in officer candidate school (OCS), but he enlisted on August 12, 1942, with the intention of becoming an enlisted gunner on an air crew. MGM arranged for his studio friend, cinematographer Andrew McIntyre, to enlist with and accompany him through training.

However, shortly after his enlistment, he and McIntyre were sent to Miami Beach, Florida, where they entered USAAF OCS Class 42-E on August 17, 1942. Both completed training on October 28, 1942, commissioned as second lieutenants. His class of 2,600 fellow students (of which he ranked 700th in class standing) selected Gable as their graduation speaker, at which General Arnold presented them their commissions. Arnold then informed Gable of his special assignment: to make a recruiting film in combat with the Eighth Air Force to recruit gunners. Gable and McIntyre were immediately sent to Flexible Gunnery School at Tyndall Field, Florida, followed by a photography course at Fort George Wright, Washington and promoted to first lieutenants upon completion.

Gable reported to Biggs Army Air Base on January 27, 1943, to train with and accompany the 351st Bomb Group to England as head of a six-man motion picture unit. In addition to McIntyre, he recruited screenwriter John Lee Mahin; camera operators Sgts. Mario Toti and Robert Boles; and sound man Lt.Howard Voss to complete his crew. Gable was promoted to captain while with the 351st at Pueblo AAB, Colorado, for rank commensurate with his position as a unit commander. (As first lieutenants, he and McIntyre had equal seniority.) Gable spent most of the war in the United Kingdom at RAF Polebrook with the 351st. Gable flew five combat missions, including one to Germany, as an observer-gunner in B-17 Flying Fortresses between May 4 and September 23, 1943, earning the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. During one of the missions, Gable's aircraft was damaged by flak and attacked by fighters, which knocked out one of the engines and shot up the stabilizer. In the raid on Germany, one crewman was killed and two others were wounded, and flak went through Gable's boot and narrowly missed his head. When word of this reached MGM, studio executives began to badger the U.S. Army Air Corps to reassign their most valuable screen property to non-combat duty. In November 1943, he returned to the United States to edit the film, only to find that the personnel shortage of aerial gunners had already been rectified. He was allowed to complete the film anyway, joining the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Hollywood.

In May 1944, Gable was promoted to major. He hoped for another combat assignment but, when D-Day came and passed in June without further orders, he requested and was granted a discharge. His discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan, Hollywood actor and eventual President of the United States. Gable completed editing of the film, ''Combat America'', in September 1944, providing the narration himself and making use of numerous interviews with enlisted gunners as focus of the film.

Adolf Hitler favored Gable above all other actors; during the Second World War, Hitler offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and bring Gable to him unscathed.

After World War II

Immediately after his discharge from the service, Gable returned to his ranch and rested. He resumed a pre-war relationship with Virginia Grey and dated other starlets. He introduced his golf caddie Robert Wagner to MGM casting. Gable's first movie after World War II was the 1945 production of ''Adventure'', with his ill-matched co-star Greer Garson. It was a critical and commercial failure despite the famous teaser tagline "Gable's back and Garson's got him". After this film, Gable's career as a top star in Hollywood was damaged. After Joan Crawford's third divorce, she and Gable resumed their affair and lived together for a brief time. Gable was acclaimed for his performance in ''The Hucksters'' (1947), a satire of post-war Madison Avenue corruption and immorality. A very public and brief romance with Paulette Goddard occurred after that. In 1949, Gable married Sylvia Ashley, a British divorcée and the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. The relationship was profoundly unsuccessful; they divorced in 1952. Soon followed ''Never Let Me Go'' (1953), opposite Gene Tierney. Tierney was a favorite of Gable and he was very disappointed when she was replaced in ''Mogambo'' (due to her mental health problems) by Grace Kelly. ''Mogambo'' (1953), directed by John Ford, was a Technicolor but somewhat sanitized remake of his earlier Pre-Code film ''Red Dust'' with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, which had been a greater success. Gable's on-location affair with Grace Kelly (1929–1982), who was young enough to be his daughter, gradually ended after filming was completed.

Gable became increasingly unhappy with what he considered mediocre roles offered him by MGM, while the studio regarded his salary as excessive. Studio head Louis B. Mayer was fired in 1951 amid slumping Hollywood production and revenue, due primarily to the rising popularity of television. Studio chiefs struggled to cut costs. Many MGM stars were fired or not renewed, including Greer Garson and Judy Garland. In 1953, Gable refused to renew his contract, and began to work independently. His first two films were ''Soldier of Fortune'' and ''The Tall Men'', both profitable although only modest successes. In 1955, Gable married his fifth wife, Kay Spreckels (née Kathleen Williams), a thrice-married former fashion model and actress who had previously been married to sugar-refining heir Adolph B. Spreckels Jr. In 1955, Gable formed a production company with Jane Russell and her husband Bob Waterfield, and they produced ''The King and Four Queens'', Gable's one and only production. He found producing and acting to be too taxing on his health, and he was beginning to manifest a noticeable tremor, particularly in long takes. His next project was ''Band of Angels'', with relative newcomer Sidney Poitier and Yvonne De Carlo; it was a total disaster. ''Newsweek'' said, "Here is a movie so bad that it must be seen to be disbelieved." Next he paired with Doris Day in ''Teacher's Pet'', shot in black and white to better hide his aging face and overweight body. The film was good enough to bring Gable more movie offers, including ''Run Silent, Run Deep'', with co-star and producer Burt Lancaster, which featured his first on-screen death since 1937, and which garnered good reviews. Gable started to receive television offers but rejected them outright. At 57, Gable finally acknowledged, "Now it's time I acted my age". His next two films were light comedies for Paramount: ''But Not for Me'' with Carroll Baker and ''It Started in Naples'' with Sophia Loren (his last film in color). The last one, despite an icy critical reception, was a good box office success and was nominated for an Academy award and two Golden Globes.

Gable's last film was ''The Misfits'', written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and co-starring Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, and Thelma Ritter. This was also the final film completed by Monroe. Many critics regard Gable's performance to be his finest, and Gable, after seeing the rough cuts, agreed.

Politics

Gable was politically conservative, though he never publicly spoke about politics. His third wife, Carole Lombard, was an activist liberal Democrat, and she cajoled him into supporting Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. In 1944, he became an early member of the conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, alongside Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and other conservative actors and filmmakers. In February 1952, he attended a televised rally in New York where he enthusiastically urged General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for President. This was when Eisenhower was still being sought by both parties as their candidate. Despite having suffered a severe coronary thrombosis, Gable still managed to vote by mail in the 1960 presidential election.

Children

Gable had a daughter, Judy, the result of an affair with actress Loretta Young that began on the set of ''The Call of the Wild'' in 1934. In an elaborate scheme, Young took an extended vacation and went to Europe to hide the fact that she was pregnant. After a few months, she came back and gave birth to their child in Venice, California. Someone sent Gable, who had spent much of the pregnancy out of the country, but was in New York City, an unsigned telegram that said "the baby was born, she is beautiful, and has blonde hair." Young and her mother both denied sending the telegram, but Loretta believed that Carter Hermann (her sister Polly's husband who was also Judy's godfather) sent it.

Nineteen months after the birth, Young claimed to have adopted Judy. The child grew up to look almost exactly like Gable, including having large ears that stuck out like Gable's. She went by the name Judy Lewis after Young married Tom Lewis when Judy was four years old. According to Lewis, Gable visited her home once, when she was fifteen, asked about her life, and kissed her on her forehead upon leaving. He did not tell her that he was her biological father. Neither Gable nor Young would ever publicly acknowledge their daughter's real parentage, but many people in Hollywood and the public believed Gable was her father because of the very strong resemblance and timing of her birth. This belief was so widely known that, in Lewis' autobiography ''Uncommon Knowledge'', she wrote that she was shocked to hear rumors of it from other children at school.

Lewis finally confronted her mother about her true parentage when she was thirty-one years old, and Gable had been dead for five years. Loretta promptly threw up and confirmed that she was her biological mother and Gable was her father. Young never officially acknowledged the fact while she was alive to the public, which she said would be the same as admitting to a "venial sin". However, Young finally gave her biographer permission to include it only on the condition that the book not be published until after her death. She died on August 12, 2000, at the age of 87 of ovarian cancer. Judy Lewis, Gable's only child while he was alive, died on November 25, 2011, of cancer.

On March 20, 1961, Kay Williams (Gable) gave birth to Gable's only son, John Clark Gable, four months after Gable's death of a heart attack at age 59. There are widespread but unconfirmed rumors that Gable was also the unacknowledged biological father of David Janssen.

Death

Gable died in Los Angeles on November 16, 1960, from a coronary thrombosis ten days after suffering a severe heart attack. There was much speculation that Gable's physically demanding role in ''The Misfits'' contributed to his sudden death soon after filming was completed. In an interview with Louella Parsons, published soon after Gable's death, Kay Gable was quoted as saying "It wasn't the physical exertion that killed him. It was the horrible tension, the eternal waiting, waiting, waiting. He waited around forever, for everybody. He'd get so angry that he'd just go ahead and do anything to keep occupied." Monroe said that she and Kay had become close during the filming and would refer to Clark as "Our Man", while Arthur Miller, observing Gable on location, noted that "no hint of affront ever showed on his face". Others have blamed Gable's crash diet before filming began. The 6'1" (185 cm) Gable weighed about at the time of ''Gone with the Wind'', but by his late 50s, he weighed . To get in shape for ''The Misfits'', he dropped to 195 lbs (88 kg). In addition, Gable was in poor health from years of heavy smoking (three packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day over thirty years, as well as cigars and typically at least two bowlfuls of pipe tobacco a day) and periodically taking amphetamines to lose weight, which gave him head tremors.

Gable is interred in The Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California beside his wife, Carole Lombard.

Quotes about Gable

In a photo essay of Hollywood film stars, ''Life Magazine'' called Gable, "All man... and then some."

Doris Day summed up Gable's unique personality: "He was as masculine as any man I've ever known, and as much a little boy as a grown man could be – it was this combination that had such a devastating effect on women."

Longtime friend, eight time co-star and on-again, off-again romance Joan Crawford concurred, stating on David Frost's TV show in 1970 that "he was a king wherever he went. He walked like one, he behaved like one, and he was the most masculine man that I have ever met in my life."

Robert Taylor said Gable "was a great, great guy and certainly one of the great stars of all times, if not the greatest. I think that I sincerely doubt that there will ever be another like Clark Gable; he was one of a kind."

Filmography

Gable is known to have appeared as an extra in 13 films between 1924 and 1930. He then appeared in a total of 67 theatrically released motion pictures, as himself in 17 "short subject" films, and he narrated and appeared in a World War II propaganda film entitled ''Combat America'', produced by the United States Army Air Forces.

In popular culture

Warner Bros. cartoons sometimes caricatured Gable. Examples include ''Have You Got Any Castles?'' (in which his face appears seven times from inside the novel ''The House of the Seven Gables''), ''The Coo-Coo Nut Grove'' (in which his ears flap on their own), ''Hollywood Steps Out'' (in which he follows an enigmatic woman), and ''Cats Don't Dance'' in which he appears on a billboard promotion for ''Gone With The Wind''.

In the film ''Broadway Melody of 1938'', Judy Garland (aged 15) sings "You Made Me Love You" while looking at a composite picture of Gable. The opening lines are: "Dear Mr. Gable, I am writing this to you, and I hope that you will read it so you'll know, my heart beats like a hammer, and I stutter and I stammer, every time I see you at the picture show, I guess I'm just another fan of yours, and I thought I'd write and tell you so. You made me love you, I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it..."

Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film ''It Happened One Night'', in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire.

The Postal Service's album ''Give Up'' (2003) features a track entitled "Clark Gable".

In the song ''Prince of Darkness'', Big Daddy Kane uses the lyric "You'll be Gone With the Wind for messin' with Dark Gable."

Portrayals

James Brolin in ''Gable and Lombard'' (1976)

Gene Daily in ''The Rocketeer'' (1991)

Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in ''Blonde'' (2001)

Charles Unwin in ''Lucy'' (2003)

Larry Pennell in ''Marilyn: The Untold Story'' (1980)

Edward Winter in ''Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War'' (1980)

Boyd Holister in ''Grace Kelly'' (1983)

Gary Wayne in ''Malice in Wonderland'' (1985)

Bibliography

Harris, Warren G. (2002). ''Clark Gable: A Biography''. New York: Harmony. ISBN 0-609-60495-3.

Lewis, Judy. ''Uncommon Knowledge'' (book by Gable's daughter with Loretta Young). (Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster 1994), ISBN 0-671-70019-7

Spicer, Chrystopher (2002). ''Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1124-4.

Clark Gable in the 8th Air Force, ''Air Power History'', Spring 1999

Garceu,Jean.(1961) "Dear Mr.G-" (Four square/The new English library Ltd Barnard's INN London)

References

External links

Clark Gable at Virtual History

Snopes on the false rumor of Gable killing a pedestrian while he was driving drunk

''Combat America'' at the Internet Archive:

* Part 1

* Part 2

* Part 3

* Part 4

Clark Gable in Ohio Birth Records and 1910 US Census.

Category:1901 births Category:1960 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:Actors from Ohio Category:American film actors Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American people of German descent Category:American silent film actors Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:California Republicans Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:First Motion Picture Unit personnel Category:Kentucky colonels Category:Ohio Republicans Category:People from Cadiz, Ohio Category:Recipients of the Air Medal Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Category:United States Army Air Forces officers

ar:كلارك غيبل an:Clark Gable az:Klark Qeybl bg:Кларк Гейбъл bs:Clark Gable ca:Clark Gable cs:Clark Gable cy:Clark Gable da:Clark Gable de:Clark Gable el:Κλαρκ Γκέιμπλ es:Clark Gable eo:Clark Gable eu:Clark Gable fa:کلارک گیبل fr:Clark Gable ga:Clark Gable gd:Clark Gable gl:Clark Gable ko:클라크 게이블 hy:Կլարկ Գեյբլ hr:Clark Gable io:Clark Gable id:Clark Gable it:Clark Gable he:קלארק גייבל ka:კლარკ გეიბლი kk:Кларк Гейбл la:Clericus Gable hu:Clark Gable mk:Кларк Гејбл nl:Clark Gable ja:クラーク・ゲーブル no:Clark Gable oc:Clark Gable pl:Clark Gable pt:Clark Gable ro:Clark Gable ru:Гейбл, Кларк simple:Clark Gable sk:Clark Gable sl:Clark Gable sr:Кларк Гејбл sh:Clark Gable fi:Clark Gable sv:Clark Gable ta:கிளார்க் கேபிள் th:คลาร์ก เกเบิล tr:Clark Gable uk:Кларк Гейбл vi:Clark Gable yo:Clark Gable zh:克拉克·盖博

birth name	Harlean Harlow Carpenter
birth date	March 03, 1911
birth place	Kansas City, Missouri
death date	June 07, 1937
death place	Los Angeles, California
death cause	kidney failure
resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
spouse	Charles McGrew (m.1927-1929; divorced) Paul Bern (m.1932; his death) Harold Rosson (m.1933-1934; divorced)
significant other	William Powell (1935-1937; her death)
occupation	Actress
years active	1928-1937
website	}}

Jean Harlow (March 3, 1911 - June 7, 1937) was an American film actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Known as the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde" (owing to her platinum blonde hair), Harlow was ranked as one of the greatest movie stars of all time by the American Film Institute. Harlow starred in several films, mainly designed to showcase her magnetic sex appeal and strong screen presence, before making the transition to more developed roles and achieving massive fame under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Harlow's enormous popularity and "laughing vamp" image were in distinct contrast to her personal life, which was marred by disappointment, tragedy, and ultimately her sudden death from renal failure at the age of 26.

Early life

Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri. The name is sometimes incorrectly spelled Carpentier, which came from later studio press releases in an attempt to sound more aristocratic, and the inaccuracy has been frequently repeated. Her father, Mont Clair Carpenter (1877–1974), was a dentist who came from a working-class background and attended dental college in Kansas City. Her mother, Jean Poe Carpenter (née Harlow), was the daughter of a wealthy real estate broker, Skip Harlow, and his wife Ella Harlow (née Williams). The marriage was arranged by Skip Harlow in 1908 and Jean, an intelligent and strong-willed woman, was resentful and became very unhappy in the marriage. The couple lived in Kansas City in a house owned by Skip Harlow.

Harlean was nicknamed "The Baby", a name that would stick with her for the rest of her life. She did not learn that her name was actually Harlean and not "Baby" until the age of five, when she began to attend Miss Barstow's Finishing School for Girls in Kansas City. Harlean and Mother Jean, as she became known when Harlean became a film star, remained very close as the relationship eased Mother Jean's empty existence and unhappy marriage. "She was always all mine," she said of her daughter. Harlean's mother was extremely protective and coddling, instilling a sense that her daughter owed everything she had to her.

With her daughter at school, Mother Jean became increasingly frustrated and filed for divorce, which was finalized, uncontested, on September 29, 1922. She was granted sole custody of Harlean, who loved her father but would rarely see him for the rest of her life.

Mother Jean moved with Harlean to Hollywood in 1923 with hopes of becoming an actress. Harlean attended the Hollywood School for Girls and met some of Hollywood's future figures, including Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joel McCrea and Irene Mayer Selznick. Mother Jean's dream of stardom did not come true as she was too old, at age 34, to begin a film career in an era when major roles were usually assigned to teenage girls. Facing dwindling finances, the pair returned to Kansas City within two years after Skip Harlow issued the ultimatum that they return or he would disinherit her. Harlean dropped out of school in Hollywood in the spring of 1925. Several weeks later, Skip Harlow sent her to a summer camp called Camp Cha-Ton-Ka in Michigamme, Michigan, where Harlean became ill with scarlet fever. Mother Jean traveled to Michigan to care for Harlean, rowing herself across the lake to the camp when she was told that she could not see her daughter.

Marriage

Harlean attended the Ferry Hall School (now Lake Forest Academy) in Lake Forest, Illinois. Mother Jean had ulterior motives for Harlean's attendance at the school, as it was close to the Chicago home of Mother Jean's beau, Marino Bello. Freshmen were paired with a "big sister" from the senior class and Harlean's big sister introduced her to Charles "Chuck" McGrew, heir to a large fortune, in the fall of 1926. And soon, the two began to date. On January 18, 1927, Mother Jean married Bello, although Harlean was not present.

Sixteen-year-old Harlean and twenty-year-old McGrew eloped on September 21, 1927. McGrew turned 21 two months after the marriage and received part of his large inheritance. The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1928, settling into a home in Beverly Hills, where Harlean thrived as a wealthy socialite. McGrew hoped to distance Harlean from her mother with the move. Neither McGrew nor Harlean worked, and both, especially McGrew, were thought to drink heavily.

Career beginnings

In Los Angeles, Harlean befriended Rosalie Roy, a young aspiring actress. Lacking a car, Roy asked Harlean to drive her to Fox Studios for an appointment. It was there that Harlean was noticed by Fox executives sitting in the car waiting for her friend. Harlean was approached by the executives, but stated that she was not interested. She was given dictated letters of introduction to Central Casting. Recounting this story a few days later, Rosalie Roy made a wager with Harlean that she did not have the nerve to go back and audition for roles. Unwilling to lose a wager and pressed by her enthusiastic mother, Harlean drove to Central Casting and signed in under her mother's maiden name, Jean Harlow.

After several calls from Central Casting, who had called for "Miss Harlow", and a number of rejected job offers, Harlean was pressured by her mother, now relocated to Los Angeles, into accepting work. Harlow then appeared in her first film, ''Honor Bound'', as an unbilled extra for $7 a day. This led to bit parts in silent films such as ''Moran of the Marines'' (1928), ''Chasing Husbands'', ''Why Is a Plumber?'' (1927) and ''Unkissed Man''. In December 1928, she signed a five-year contract with Hal Roach Studios for $100 per week. She had more substantial roles in Laurel and Hardy's short ''Double Whoopee'', and appeared in two other films alongside the double act. In March 1929, however, she parted with Roach, who tore up her contract after Harlow told him, "It's breaking up my marriage; what can I do?" In June 1929, Harlow separated from her husband and moved-in with her mother and Bello.

After her separation, Harlow worked as extra in several movies, and was cast as an extra in ''The Love Parade'' (1929), followed by small roles in ''This Thing Called Love'' and ''The Saturday Night Kid'' (1929), a Clara Bow movie. Her next extra work was in ''Weak But Willing'' (1929). During filming of ''Weak But Willing'' in 1929, she was spotted by James Hall, an actor filming a Howard Hughes film called ''Hell's Angels''. Hughes, re-shooting the film from silent into sound, needed a new actress because the original actress, Greta Nissen, had a Norwegian accent that proved undesirable for a talkie. Harlow made a test and got the part.

Hughes signed Harlow to a five-year, $100 per week contract on October 24, 1929. ''Hell's Angels'' premiered in Hollywood on May 27, 1930 at Grauman's Chinese Theater. During the shooting, Harlow met MGM executive Paul Bern. The movie made Harlow an international star and a sensation with audiences, but critics were less than enthusiastic. ''Variety'' was a bit more charitable in remarking, "It doesn't matter what degree of talent she possesses ... nobody ever starved possessing what she's got." ''The New Yorker'' called Harlow "plain awful." She was again an uncredited extra, in the 1931 Chaplin film City Lights.

With no projects planned for Harlow, Hughes sent her to New York, Seattle and Kansas City for ''Hell's Angels'' premieres. In 1931, loaned out by Hughes' Caddo Company to other studios, Harlow began to gain more attention when she appeared in ''The Secret Six'' with Wallace Beery and Clark Gable, ''Iron Man'' with Lew Ayres and Robert Armstrong, and ''The Public Enemy'' with James Cagney. Though the films ranged from moderate to smash hits, Harlow's acting ability was damned by critics as awful and was mocked. Concerned, Hughes sent her on a brief publicity tour, which was not a success, as Harlow dreaded such personal appearances.

Harlow was next cast in ''Platinum Blonde'' (1931) with Loretta Young. Hughes convinced the producers of ''Platinum Blonde'' to rename it from its original title of ''Gallagher'' in order to promote Harlow's image, for whom the tag had just been invented by Hughes's publicity director. Many of Harlow's female fans began dyeing their hair platinum to match hers. To capitalize on this craze, Hughes' team organized a series of "Platinum Blonde" clubs across the nation, with a prize of $10,000 to any beautician who could match Harlow's shade. However, Harlow herself denied her hair was dyed.

Harlow next filmed ''Three Wise Girls'' (1932), after which Paul Bern arranged to borrow her for ''The Beast of the City'' (1932). When the shooting wrapped, Bern booked a ten-week personal appearance tour on the East Coast. To the surprise of many, especially Harlow herself, she packed every theater in which she appeared, often appearing multiple nights in one venue. Despite critical disparagement and poor roles, Harlow's popularity and following was large and growing, and in February 1932, the tour was extended for an additional six weeks.

Apprised of this, Paul Bern, by now romantically involved with Harlow, spoke to Louis B. Mayer about buying-out her contract with Hughes and signing her to MGM, however Mayer would have none of it. MGM's leading ladies were presented in an elegant way, and Harlow's silver screen image was that of a floozy, which was abhorrent to Mayer. Bern then began urging close friend Irving Thalberg, production head of MGM, to sign Harlow, noting Harlow's pre-existing popularity and established image. After initial reluctance, Thalberg agreed, and on March 3, 1932, Harlow's twenty-first birthday, Bern called her with the news that MGM had purchased Harlow's contract from Hughes for $30,000. Harlow officially joined the studio on April 20, 1932. Her first task at MGM would be a screen test for ''Red-Headed Woman''.

According to Fay Wray, who played Ann Darrow in the classic ''King Kong'' (1933), Harlow was the original choice to play the screaming blonde heroine. Because MGM put Harlow under exclusive contract during the pre-production phase of the film, she became unavailable for ''Kong'', and the part went to the brunette Wray, wearing a blonde wig.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Harlow became a superstar at MGM and was given superior movie roles to show off not only her beauty but also what turned out to be a genuine comedic talent. In 1932, she had the starring role in ''Red-Headed Woman'', for which she received $1,250 a week, and ''Red Dust'', her second film with Clark Gable. These films showed her to be much more at ease in front of the camera and highlighted her skill as a comedienne. Harlow and Gable worked well together and co-starred in a total of six films. She was also paired multiple times with Spencer Tracy and William Powell. As her star ascended, the power of Harlow's name was sometimes used to boost up-and-coming male co-stars, such as Robert Taylor and Franchot Tone.

At this point, MGM began to distance Harlow's public persona from that of her screen characters, changing her childhood surname from common "Carpenter" to chic "Carpentier", claiming that writer Edgar Allan Poe was one of her ancestors, and publishing photographs of Harlow doing charity work. MGM tried to change her image from a brassy, exotic platinum blonde to the more mainstream, all-American type preferred by studio boss Mayer. Her early image proved difficult to change, and once Harlow was heard muttering, "My God, must I always wear a low-cut dress to be important?" Though Harlow's screen image changed dramatically throughout her career, one constant was her apparent sense of humor.

During the making of ''Red Dust,'' Harlow's second husband, MGM producer Paul Bern, was found shot dead at their home, creating a lasting scandal. Initially, there was speculation that Harlow had killed Bern, though Bern's death was officially ruled a suicide. Harlow kept silent, survived the ordeal, and became more popular than ever.

After Bern's death, Harlow began an indiscreet affair with boxer Max Baer. Although he was separated from his wife, Dorothy Dunbar, at the time of their affair, Dunbar threatened divorce proceedings, naming Harlow as a correspondent for "alienation of affection", a legal term for adultery. MGM defused the situation by arranging a marriage between Harlow and cinematographer Harold Rosson. Still feeling the aftershocks of Bern's mysterious death, the studio did not want another Harlow scandal on its hands. Rosson and Harlow were friends, and Rosson went along with the plan. They quietly divorced seven months later.

After the box office hits ''Hold Your Man'' and ''Red Dust'', MGM realized it had a goldmine in the Harlow-Gable teaming and paired them in two more films: ''China Seas'' with Wallace Beery and Rosalind Russell and ''Wife vs. Secretary'' with Myrna Loy and young James Stewart. Other co-stars included Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor and William Powell.

By the mid-1930s, Harlow was one of the biggest stars in the United States and, it was hoped, MGM's next Greta Garbo. Still young, her star continued to rise while the popularity of other female stars at MGM, such as Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer, waned. Harlow's movies continued to make huge profits at the box office, even during the middle of the Depression. Some credit them with keeping MGM profitable at a time when other studios were falling into bankruptcy.

Following the end of her third marriage in 1934, Harlow met William Powell, another MGM star, and quickly fell in love. Reportedly, the couple were engaged for two years, but differences kept them from formalizing their relationship (she wanted children; he did not). Harlow also said that Louis B. Mayer would never allow them to marry.

Late career and death

Harlow was a registered Democrat and visited Franklin D. Roosevelt on the occasion of his 1937 birthday.

Harlow complained about ill health on May 20, 1937, when she was filming ''Saratoga''. Her symptoms – fatigue, nausea, water weight and abdominal pain – did not seem very serious to her doctor, who believed she was suffering from gall bladder infection and flu. However, he was apparently unaware of Harlow’s ill health during the previous year: a severe sunburn, bad flu attack and septicemia after a wisdom tooth extraction. In addition, her friend and co-star Myrna Loy noticed Harlow’s grey complexion, fatigue and weight gain. On May 29, Harlow was shooting a scene in which the character she was playing had a fever. Harlow was clearly sicker than her character, and when she leaned against her co-star Clark Gable between scenes she said, "I feel terrible. Get me back to my dressing room." Harlow requested that the assistant director phone William Powell, who left his own set to escort Harlow back home.

On May 30, Powell checked on Harlow, and recalled her mother from a holiday trip when he found her condition had not improved and summoned her doctor to her home. Harlow felt better on June 3 and co-workers expected her back on the set by Monday, June 7. Press reports were contradictory, with headlines like "Jean Harlow seriously ill" and "Harlow past illness crisis". When Harlow said on June 6 that she could not see Powell properly, he again called a doctor. As she slipped into a deep slumber and experienced difficulty breathing, the doctor finally realized that she was suffering from something other than gall bladder infection or flu. Hospital records mention uremia.

For years, rumors circulated about Harlow’s death. Some claimed that her mother refused to call a doctor because she was a Christian Scientist, or that Harlow herself declined hospital treatment or surgery. There were also rumors that Harlow had died because of alcoholism, a botched abortion, over-dieting, sunstroke, poisoning due to platinum hair dye, or various venereal diseases. However, based on medical bulletins, hospital records and testimony of her relatives and friends, it was proven to be a case of kidney disease. From the onset of her illness, despite resting at home, Harlow was attended by a doctor, two nurses visited her house and various equipment was brought from a nearby hospital. However, Harlow’s mother barred some visitors, such as the MGM doctor, who later stated that it was because they were Christian Scientists. It has been suggested that she still wanted to control her daughter, but there is no truth to the allegation that she refused medical care for Harlow.

Harlow's kidney failure could not have been cured in the 1930s. The death rate from acute kidney failure has decreased to 25% only after the advent of antibiotics, dialysis and kidney transplantation. Harlow’s grey complexion, recurring illnesses and severe sunburn were signs of the disease as her kidneys had been slowly failing and toxins accummulated in her body, exposing her to other illnesses and causing symptoms included swelling, fatigue and lack of appetite. Toxins also adversely impacted her brain and central nervous system.

News of Harlow’s death spread quickly. Spencer Tracy wrote in his diary, "Jean Harlow died today. Grand gal." One of the MGM writers later said: ”The day Baby died there wasn’t one sound in the commissary for three hours.” MGM closed down on the day of Harlow’s funeral on June 9. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California in the Great Mausoleum in a private room of multicolored marble which William Powell bought for $25,000. She was buried in the gown she wore in ''Libeled Lady'', and in her hands she held a white gardenia and a note in which Powell had written: ”Goodnight, my dearest darling.” Spaces in the same room were reserved for Harlow’s mother and William Powell. but Powell remarried in 1940 and was buried elsewhere when he died in 1984. There is a simple inscription on Harlow’s grave, "Our Baby".

MGM planned to replace Harlow in ''Saratoga'' with another actress, but because of public objections the film was finished by using three doubles (one for close-ups, one for long shots and one for dubbing Harlow’s lines) as well as writing her character out of some scenes. True to their star until the end, fans came out in droves to see Harlow's last movie, ''Saratoga''. The film was MGM's highest grossing picture of 1937 and proclaimed to be her best film. Ever since the film's release, viewers have tried to spot these stand-ins and signs of Harlow’s illness.

Film portrayals

In 1965, two films about Jean Harlow were released, both called ''Harlow''. One starred Carroll Baker and the other, Carol Lynley. Both were poorly received and did not perform well at the box office. In 1978, Lindsay Bloom portrayed her in ''Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell''. More recently, Gwen Stefani briefly appeared as Harlow in Martin Scorsese's 2004 Howard Hughes biopic ''The Aviator''.

Filmography

+ Features
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1928	''Honor Bound''		Uncredited unconfirmed
1928	''Moran of the Marines''		Uncredited
1929	''New York Nights''	Party Guest	Uncredited
1929	''This Thing Called Love''		Uncredited
1929	''Fugitives''		Uncredited
1929	''Why Be Good?''		Uncredited
1929	''Close Harmony''		Uncredited
1929	''''	Pearl	Uncredited
1929	''''	Lady-in-Waiting	Uncredited
1929	''Weak But Willing''		Uncredited
1930		Helen	as Jean Harlowe
1931	''City Lights''	Extra in restaurant scene	Uncredited
1931	''''	Anne Courtland
1931	''''	Gwen Allen
1931		Rose Mason
1931		Goldie
1931		Anne Schuyler
1931	''Beau Hunks''	Jeanie-Weenie (in photo)	Uncredited
1932	''Three Wise Girls''	Cassie Barnes
1932	''''	Daisy Stevens, aka Mildred Beaumont
1932	''Red-Headed Woman''	Lillian 'Lil'/'Red' Andrews Legendre
1932	''Red Dust''	Vantine
1933	''Hold Your Man''	Ruby Adams
1933		Kitty Packard
1933		Lola Burns
1934	''''	Eadie
1935		Mona Leslie
1935		Dolly 'China Doll' Portland
1936		Hattie
1936	''Wife vs. Secretary''	Helen "Whitey" Wilson
1936		Suzy
1936	''Libeled Lady''	Gladys Benton
1937		Crystal Wetherby
1937		Carol Clayton

+ Short subjects
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1928	''Chasing Husbands''	Bathing beauty	Uncredited
1929		Woman in cab	as Harlean Carpenter
1929	''Why Is a Plumber?''
1929	''''		Uncredited
1929	''Double Whoopee''	Swanky blonde
1929	''Thundering Toupees''
1929	''Bacon Grabbers''	Mrs. Kennedy
1929	''Weak But Willing''
1932	''Screen Snapshots''	Herself
1933	''Hollywood on Parade No. A-12''	Herself
1933	''Hollywood on Parade No. B-1''	Herself
1934	''Hollywood on Parade No. B-6''	Herself
1937	''''	Herself	Uncredited

Notes

Bibliography

Golden, Eve: ''Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow''. Abbeville Press, 1991.

Stenn, David. ''Bombshell: The Life and Death of Jean Harlow''. Bentam Doubleday Dell Publishing, New York, 1993.

Viera, Mark A. Rooney Darrel, Harlow in Hollywood: The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937. Angel City Press. 2011.

External links

Jean Harlow tribute site

Jean Harlow at Franklin D. Roosevelt's 55th birthday party, 1937

Photographs and literature

Category:1911 births Category:1937 deaths Category:People from Kansas City, Missouri Category:American film actors Category:American silent film actors Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Deaths from renal failure Category:Former Christian Scientists Category:People from Los Angeles, California Category:20th-century actors Category:Howard Hughes Category:California Democrats

an:Jean Harlow da:Jean Harlow de:Jean Harlow es:Jean Harlow eu:Jean Harlow fr:Jean Harlow fy:Jean Harlow ko:진 할로우 hr:Jean Harlow id:Jean Harlow it:Jean Harlow ka:ჯინ ჰარლოუ la:Ioanna Harlow lb:Jean Harlow hu:Jean Harlow nl:Jean Harlow ja:ジーン・ハーロウ no:Jean Harlow nds:Jean Harlow pl:Jean Harlow pt:Jean Harlow ru:Джин Харлоу simple:Jean Harlow sr:Џин Харлоу sh:Jean Harlow fi:Jean Harlow sv:Jean Harlow tl:Jean Harlow tr:Jean Harlow uk:Джин Гарлоу vi:Jean Harlow zh:珍·哈露

name	Carole Lombard
birth name	Jane Alice Peters
birth date	October 06, 1908
birth place	Fort Wayne, Indiana
death date	January 16, 1942
death place	Mount Potosi, Nevada
death cause	Plane crash
resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
spouse	William Powell (m. 1931–1933; divorced) Clark Gable (m. 1939–1942; her death)
occupation	Actress
years active	1921–1942
other names	}}

Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) was an American actress. She is particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s. She is listed as one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time and was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s, earning around US$500,000 per year (more than five times the salary of the US President). Lombard's career was cut short when she died at the age of 33 in a plane crash while returning from a World War II Bond tour.

Queen of the 1930s screwball comedies, she personified the anxiety of a nervous age. Graham Greene praised the "heartbreaking and nostalgic melodies" of her faster-than-thought delivery. "Platinum blonde, with a heart-shaped face, delicate, impish features and a figure made to be swathed in silver lamé, she wriggled expressively through such classics of hysteria as ''Twentieth Century'' and ''My Man Godfrey''."

Ancestry and early life

Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her parents were Frederick C. Peters (1875–1935) and Elizabeth Knight (1877 – January 16, 1942). Her paternal grandfather, John Claus Peters, was the son of German immigrants, Claus Peters and Caroline Catherine Eberlin. On her mother's side, she was a descendant of Thomas Hastings who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634. Lombard was the youngest of three children, having two older brothers, Fred C. Peters Jr. and Stuart Peters. She spent her early childhood in a sprawling, two-story house at 704 Rockhill Street in Fort Wayne, near the St. Mary's River. Her father had been injured during a work-related accident and was left with constant headaches which caused him to burst out in paroxysms of anger which disturbed the family. Lombard's parents divorced and her mother took the three children to Los Angeles in 1914, where Lombard attended Virgil Jr. High School and then Fairfax High School. She was elected May Queen in 1924. She quit school to pursue acting full-time but eventually graduated from Fairfax in 1927. Lombard was a second generation Bahá'í who formally enrolled in 1938.

Career

Lombard made her film debut at the age of twelve after she was seen playing baseball in the street by director Allan Dwan; he cast her as a tomboy in ''A Perfect Crime'' (1921). In the 1920s, she worked in several low-budget productions credited as Jane Peters, and later as Carol Lombard. Her friend Miriam Cooper helped Lombard land small roles in her husband Raoul Walsh's films. In 1925, she was signed as a contract player with Fox Film Corporation (which merged with Daryl Zanuck's Twentieth Century Productions in 1935). She also worked for Pathé Exchange and appeared as one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties in 1928. She quickly became a well-known actress and made a smooth transition to sound films, starting with ''High Voltage'' (1929). In 1930, she won a contract with Paramount Pictures after having been dropped from both Twentieth Century and Pathé Exchange.

Lombard achieved a few minor successes in the early 1930s. In 1930's ''Safety in Numbers'' with Charles "Buddy" Rogers and 1932's ''No Man of Her Own'' with Clark Gable, but she was continually cast in second-rate films. It was not until 1934 that her career began to take off. That year, director Howard Hawks encountered Lombard at a party and became enamored with her saucy personality, thinking her just right for his latest project. He hired her for ''Twentieth Century'', alongside stage legend John Barrymore. Lombard was at first intimidated by Barrymore, but the two quickly developed a good working rapport. The film bolstered Lombard's reputation immensely and brought her a level of fame that her previously lackluster career had denied her.

Also in 1934, she starred in ''Bolero'' with George Raft and it was for this film that she turned down the role of Ellie Andrews in ''It Happened One Night''. In 1935 she starred in Mitchell Leisen's ''Hands Across the Table'' which helped to establish her reputation as a top comedy actress. 1936 proved to be a big year for Lombard with her casting in the screwball comedy ''My Man Godfrey'' alongside ex-husband William Powell who refused to do the film unless Carole was cast opposite him. Although divorced, Lombard and Powell remained close until her death. Her performance earned Lombard an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. It was followed by ''Nothing Sacred'' in 1937, casting her opposite Fredric March and under the direction of William A. Wellman. It was Lombard's only film in Technicolor and was regarded a critical and commercial smash. ''Nothing Sacred'' put Lombard at the top of the Hollywood tier and established her as one of the highest paid actresses in the business.

In 1938, Lombard suffered a flop with ''Fools for Scandal'' and moved on to dramatic films for the next few years. In 1939, Lombard took roles opposite James Stewart in producer David O. Selznick's ''Made for Each Other'' (1939) and Cary Grant in ''In Name Only'' (1939). She also starred in the dramatic ''Vigil in the Night'' in 1940.

Audiences did not respond as well to Lombard in dramatic roles and she made a return to comedy, teaming with director Alfred Hitchcock in ''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (1941). The film gave Lombard's career a much needed boost and she followed her success with what proved to be her last film, and one of her most successful, ''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942).

Personal life

In October 1930, Lombard met William Powell. They had worked together in the films ''Man of the World'' and ''Ladies' Man''. Unlike many of Lombard's other suitors at the time, Powell was urbane and sophisticated. He also appreciated her blunt personality and bawdy sense of humor. They married on June 26, 1931. Lombard commented to fan magazines that she did not believe their sixteen-year age difference would present a problem, but friends felt they were ill-suited, as Lombard had an extroverted personality while Powell was more reserved. They divorced in 1933, but remained good friends and worked together without acrimony, notably in ''My Man Godfrey''.

In 1934, following her divorce from Powell, Lombard moved into a house on Hollywood Boulevard. She lived with a friend from the days of Mack Sennett, Madalynne Fields, who became Lombard's personal secretary and whom Lombard called "Fieldsie." Lombard became known as one of Hollywood's great hostesses for her outrageous parties with unconventional themes. During this time she carried on relationships with actors Gary Cooper and George Raft, as well as the screenwriter Robert Riskin.

Also during 1934, Lombard met and began a serious affair with crooner Russ Columbo. Columbo reportedly proposed marriage, but was killed in a freak shooting accident at the age of 26. To reporters, Lombard said Columbo was the love of her life.

Lombard's most famous relationship came in 1936 when she became involved with actor Clark Gable. They had worked together previously in 1932's ''No Man of Her Own'', but at the time, Lombard was still happily married to Powell and knew Gable to have the reputation of a roving eye. They were indifferent to each other on the set and did not keep in touch.

It was not until 1936, when Gable and Lombard reunited at the Mayfair Ball, of which Lombard was hostess, that their romance began to take off. Gable, however, was married at the time to oil heiress Ria Langham, and the affair was kept quiet. The situation proved a major obstacle in Gable accepting the role of Rhett Butler in ''Gone with the Wind'', as MGM head Louis B. Mayer sweetened the deal for a reluctant Clark Gable by giving him enough money to settle a divorce agreement with Langham and marry Lombard. Gable divorced Langham on March 7, 1939 and proposed to Lombard in a telephone booth at the Brown Derby.

On March 29, 1939, during a break in production on ''Gone with the Wind,'' Gable and Lombard drove out to Kingman, Arizona and were married in a quiet ceremony with only Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler, in attendance. They bought a ranch previously owned by director Raoul Walsh in Encino, California and lived a happy, unpretentious life, calling each other "Ma" and "Pa" and raising chickens and horses. They also attempted to have children but were not successful.

Off-screen, Lombard was much loved for her down-to-earth personality and well known for an earthy sense of humor and use of blue language. Friends of Lombard's included Alfred Hitchcock, Marion Davies, William Haines, Jean Harlow, Fred MacMurray, Cary Grant, Jack Benny, Jorge Negrete, William Powell, and Lucille Ball.

Death

When the US entered World War II at the end of 1941, Lombard traveled to her home state of Indiana for a war bond rally with her mother, Bess Peters, and Clark Gable's press agent, Otto Winkler. After raising over $2 million in defense bonds, Lombard addressed her fans, saying: "Before I say goodbye to you all, come on and join me in a big cheer! V for Victory!" Lombard, anxious to return home to husband Clark Gable, wanted to take a plane instead of a train. Her mother and Winkler were both afraid of flying. They begged her to take the train. Lombard said they would flip a coin, heads the train, tails the plane. The coin came up tails.

On January 16, 1942, Lombard, her mother, and Winkler boarded a Transcontinental and Western Air DC-3 airplane to return to California. After refueling in Las Vegas, TWA Flight 3 took off and 23 minutes later, crashed into "Double Up Peak" near the level of Mount Potosi, southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 aboard, including 15 army servicemen, were killed instantly.

On January 18, 1942, Jack Benny did not perform his usual program, both out of respect for Lombard and grief at her death. Instead, he devoted his program to an all-music format.

Shortly after her death at the age of 33, Gable (who was inconsolable and devastated by her loss) joined the United States Army Air Forces. After officer training, Gable headed a six-man motion picture unit attached to a B-17 bomb group in England to film aerial gunners in combat, flying five missions himself. Gable attended the launch of the Liberty ship on January 15, 1944.

Lombard's final film, ''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942), directed by Ernst Lubitsch and co-starring Jack Benny, a satire about Nazism and World War II, was in post-production at the time of her death. The film's producers decided to cut part of the film in which Lombard's character asks, "What can happen on a plane?" as they felt it was in poor taste, given the circumstances of her death.

At the time of her death, Lombard had been scheduled to star in the film ''They All Kissed the Bride''; when production started, her role was given to Joan Crawford. Crawford donated all of her pay for this film to the Red Cross.

Lombard is interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. The name on her crypt marker is Carole Lombard Gable. Although Gable remarried, he was interred next to her when he died in 1960. Bess Peters was also interred beside her daughter.

Awards and honors

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the 50 greatest American female screen legends. She received one Academy Award for Best Actress nomination, for ''My Man Godfrey''. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6930 Hollywood Blvd.

Lombard's Fort Wayne childhood home has been designated a historic landmark. The city named the nearby bridge over the St. Mary's River the Carole Lombard Memorial Bridge.

Portrayals

She has been played by:

Jill Clayburgh in ''Gable and Lombard'' (1976)

Sharon Gless in ''Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War'' (1980)

Denise Crosby in ''Malice in Wonderland'' (1985)

Anastasia Hille in ''RKO 281'' (1999)

Vanessa Gray in ''Lucy'' (2003)

Filmography

Features

''A Perfect Crime'' (1921)

''Gold Heels'' (1924)

''Dick Turpin'' (1925)

''Marriage in Transit'' (1925)

''Gold and the Girl'' (1925)

''Hearts and Spurs'' (1925)

''Durand of the Bad Lands'' (1925)

''The Plastic Age'' (1925)

''Ben-Hur'' (1925)

''The Road to Glory'' (1926)

''The Johnstown Flood'' (1926)

''The Fighting Eagle'' (1927)

''My Best Girl'' (1927)

''The Divine Sinner'' (1928)

''Power'' (1928)

''Me, Gangster'' (1928)

''Show Folks'' (1928)

''Ned McCobb's Daughter'' (1928)

''High Voltage'' (1929)

''Big News'' (1929)

''The Racketeer'' (1929)

''The Arizona Kid'' (1930)

''Safety in Numbers'' (1930)

''Fast and Loose'' (1930)

''It Pays to Advertise'' (1931)

''Man of the World'' (1931)

''Ladies' Man'' (1931)

''Up Pops the Devil'' (1931)

''I Take This Woman'' (1931)

''No One Man'' (1932)

''Sinners in the Sun'' (1932)

''Virtue'' (1932)

''No More Orchids'' (1932)

''No Man of Her Own'' (1932)

''From Hell to Heaven'' (1933)

''Supernatural'' (1933)

''The Eagle and the Hawk'' (1933)

''Brief Moment'' (1933)

''White Woman'' (1933)

''Bolero'' (1934)

''We're Not Dressing'' (1934)

''Twentieth Century'' (1934)

''Now and Forever'' (1934)

''Lady by Choice'' (1934)

''The Gay Bride'' (1934)

''Rumba'' (1935)

''Hands Across the Table'' (1935)

''Love Before Breakfast'' (1936)

''The Princess Comes Across'' (1936)

''My Man Godfrey'' (1936)

''Swing High, Swing Low'' (1937)

''Nothing Sacred'' (1937)

''True Confession'' (1937)

''Fools for Scandal'' (1938)

''Made for Each Other'' (1939)

''In Name Only'' (1939)

''Vigil in the Night'' (1940)

''They Knew What They Wanted'' (1940)

''Mr. & Mrs. Smith'' (1941)

''To Be or Not to Be'' (1942)

Short subjects

''Smith's Pony'' (1927)

''Gold Digger of Weepah'' (1927)

''The Girl from Everywhere'' (1927)

''Run, Girl, Run'' (1928)

''The Beach Club'' (1928)

''Smith's Army Life'' (1928)

''The Best Man'' (1928)

''The Swim Princess'' (1928)

''The Bicycle Flirt'' (1928)

''The Girl from Nowhere'' (1928)

''His Unlucky Night'' (1928)

''Smith's Restaurant'' (1928)

''The Campus Vamp'' (1928)

''Motorboat Mamas'' (1928)

''Hubby's Weekend Trip'' (1928)

''The Campus Carmen'' (1928)

''Matchmaking Mamma'' (1929)

''Don't Get Jealous'' (1929)

''Hollywood on Parade No. 11'' (1933)

''Hollywood on Parade No. A-12'' (1933)

''The Fashion Side of Hollywood'' (1935)

''Screen Snapshots Series 16, No. 3'' (1936)

''Breakdowns of 1938'' (1938)

''Hollywood Goes to Town'' (1938)

''Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 9'' (1939)

References

External links

Carole Lombard

Photographs and bibliography

The Carole Lombard Photo Archives

Descendants of Thomas Hastings website

Descendants of Thomas Hastings on Facebook

"The house on Carole Lombard's street"

Category:1908 births Category:1942 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:20th-century Bahá'ís Category:Accidental deaths in Nevada Category:Actors from Indiana Category:American Bahá'ís Category:American film actors Category:American people of English descent Category:American people of German descent Category:American silent film actors Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:California Democrats Category:Fairfax High School (Los Angeles) alumni Category:Indiana Democrats Category:People from Fort Wayne, Indiana Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States

an:Carole Lombard bg:Карол Ломбард ca:Carole Lombard cs:Carole Lombard da:Carole Lombard de:Carole Lombard es:Carole Lombard fa:کارول لمبارد fr:Carole Lombard id:Carole Lombard it:Carole Lombard he:קרול לומברד ka:კეროლ ლომბარდი nl:Carole Lombard ja:キャロル・ロンバード no:Carole Lombard pl:Carole Lombard pt:Carole Lombard ro:Carole Lombard ru:Кэрол Ломбард sr:Карол Ломбард sh:Carole Lombard fi:Carole Lombard sv:Carole Lombard vi:Carole Lombard

name	Norma Shearer
birth name	Edith Norma Shearer
birth date	August 10, 1902
birth place	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
death date	June 12, 1983
death place	Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
spouse	Irving Thalberg (1927–1936), his deathMartin Arrougé (1942—1983) her death
occupation	Actress
years active	1919–1942 }}

Edith Norma Shearer (August 10, 1902 – June 12, 1983) was a Canadian actress. Shearer was one of the most popular actresses in North America from the mid-1920s through the 1930s. Her early films cast her as the girl-next-door but for most of the Pre-Code film era beginning with the 1930 film ''The Divorcee'', for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, she played sexually liberated women in sophisticated contemporary comedies. Later she appeared in historical and period films.

Unlike many of her MGM contemporaries, Shearer's fame declined steeply after retirement. By the time of her death in 1983, she was largely remembered at best for her "noble" roles in ''The Women'', ''Marie Antoinette'', and ''Romeo and Juliet''. Shearer's legacy began to be re-evaluated in the 1990s with the publication of two biographies and the TCM and VHS release of her films, many of them unseen since the implementation of the Production Code some sixty years before. Focus shifted to her pre-Code "divorcee" persona and Shearer was rediscovered as "the exemplar of sophisticated [1930's] woman-hood... exploring love and sex with an honesty that would be considered frank by modern standards".

Simultaneously, Shearer's ten-year collaboration with portrait photographer George Hurrell and her lasting contribution to fashion through the designs of Adrian were also recognized.

Shearer is widely celebrated by some as one of cinema's feminist pioneers: ''"the first American film actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and not a virgin on screen"''. In March 2008, two of her most famous pre-code films, ''The Divorcee'' and ''A Free Soul'', were released on DVD.

Early life

Shearer's childhood was spent in Montreal and was one of privilege due to the success of her father's construction business. However, the marriage between her parents was not a happy one. Andrew Shearer was prone to manic depression and "moved like a shadow or a ghost around the house," while (her mother) Edith Shearer was attractive, flamboyant and stylish, prompting gossip that she was a heroin addict and unfaithful to her husband. Neither rumor was ever proven, but Edith proved to be bored with her marriage very early on and focused her energy on Norma, who she decided would one day become a famous concert pianist.

Shearer was interested in music as well, but after seeing a vaudeville show for her ninth birthday, announced her intention to become an actress. Edith offered support but, as Shearer entered adolescence, became secretly fearful that her daughter's physical flaws would jeopardize her chances. Fortunately, Shearer herself "had no illusions about the image I saw in the mirror." She acknowledged her "dumpy figure, with shoulders too broad, legs too sturdy, hands too blunt", and was also acutely aware of her small eyes that appeared crossed due to a cast in her right eye. But by her own admission, she was "ferociously ambitious, even as a young girl" and planned to overcome her deficiencies through careful camouflage, sheer determination and charm.

The childhood and adolescence that Shearer once described as "a pleasant dream" ended in 1918, when her older sister, Athole, suffered her first serious mental breakdown and her father's company collapsed. Forced to move into a small, dreary house in a "modest" Montreal suburb, the sudden plunge into poverty only strengthened Shearer's determined attitude: "At an early age, I formed a philosophy about failure. Perhaps an endeavor, like my father's business, could fail, but that didn't mean Father had failed."

Edith Shearer thought otherwise. Within weeks, she had left her husband and moved into a cheap boarding house with her two daughters. A few months later, encouraged by her brother, who believed his niece should try her luck in "the picture business", then operating largely on the East Coast, Edith sold her daughter's piano and bought three train tickets for New York. Also in her pocket was a letter of introduction for Norma, acquired from a local theatre owner, to Florenz Ziegfeld, who was currently preparing a new season of his famous Follies.

Career

Early Career

In January 1920, the three Shearer women arrived in New York, each of them dressed up for the occasion. "I had my hair in little curls," Shearer remembered, "and I felt very ambitious and proud." Her heart sank, however, when she saw their rented apartment: "There was one double bed, a cot with no mattress and a stove with one gas jet. The communal bathroom was at the end of a long dimly lit hallway. Athole and I took turns sleeping with mother in the bed, but sleep was impossible anyway—the elevated trains rattled right past our window every few minutes."

The introduction to Ziegfeld proved equally disastrous. He turned Shearer down flat, reportedly calling her a "dog", and criticized her crossed eyes and stubby legs. She continued doing the rounds with her determination undimmed: "I learned that Universal Pictures was looking for eight pretty girls to serve as extras. Athole and I showed up and found fifty girls ahead of us. An assistant casting director walked up and down looking us over. He passed up the first three and picked the fourth. The fifth and sixth were unattractive, but the seventh would do, and so on, down the line until seven had been selected—and he was still some ten feet ahead of us. I did some quick thinking. I coughed loudly and, when the man looked in the direction of the cough, I stood on my tiptoes and smiled right at him. Recognizing the awkward ruse to which I'd resorted, he laughed openly and walked over to me and said, 'You win, Sis. You're Number Eight.'"

Other extra parts followed, including one in ''Way Down East'', helmed by director, D. W. Griffith. Taking advantage of a break in filming and standing shrewdly near a powerful arc light, Shearer introduced herself to Griffith and began to confide her hopes for stardom. "The Master looked down at me, studied my upturned face in the glare of the arc, and shook his eagle head. Eyes no good, he said. A cast in one and far too blue; blue eyes always looked blank in close-up. You'll never make it, he declared, and turned solemnly away."

Still undeterred, Shearer risked some of her savings on a consultation with Dr. William Bates, a pioneer in the treatment of incorrectly aligned eyes and defective vision. He wrote out a series of muscle-strengthening exercises that, after many years of daily practice, would successfully conceal Norma's cast for long periods of time on the screen. She spent hours in front of the mirror, exercising her eyes and striking poses that concealed or improved the physical flaws opined by Ziegfeld or Griffith. At night, she sat in the galleries of Broadway theatres, studying the entrances of Ina Claire, Lynn Fontanne, and Katharine Cornell.

In desperate need of money, Shearer resorted to some modeling work, which proved successful. On the modeling career, she commented: "I could smile at a cake of laundry soap as if it were dinner at the Ritz. I posed with a strand of imitation pearls. I posed in dust-cap and house dress with a famous mop, for dental paste and for soft drink, holding my mouth in a whistling pose until it all but froze that way." She became the new model for Springfield Tires, was bestowed with the title "Miss Lotta Miles" and depicted seated inside the rim of a tire, smiling down at traffic from a large floodlit billboard. Years later, MGM rival Joan Crawford would disparagingly refer to Shearer as "Miss Lotta Miles".

Finally, a year after her arrival in New York, she received a break in film: fourth billing in a B-movie titled ''The Stealers'' (1921). More silent films followed, which brought her to the attention of producer Hal Roach, out from Hollywood searching for new talent. Early in 1923, after a successful meeting, Roach made Shearer an offer on behalf of Louis B. Mayer Pictures, run by mogul Louis B. Mayer. After three years of hardship, she found herself signing a contract for $250 a week for six months, with options for renewal and a test for a leading role in a major film called ''The Wanters''.

Hollywood

Shearer left New York in the spring of 1923. Accompanied by her mother, she felt "dangerously sure of herself" as her train neared Los Angeles. Still not welcomed an hour after her arrival, she realized that there would be no star treatment from her new studio. Dispirited, she allowed Edith to hail them a taxi.

The next morning, Shearer went to the Mayer Company on Mission Road to meet with the Vice-President, Irving Thalberg. Shearer was momentarily thrown by their confused introduction, but soon found herself "impressed by his air of dispassionate strength, his calm self-possession and the almost black, impenetrable eyes set in a pale olive face."

The actress

Shearer was less impressed, however, with her first screen test: "The custom then was to use flat lighting—to throw a great deal of light from all directions, in order to kill all shadows that might be caused by wrinkles or blemishes. But the strong lights placed on either side of my face made my blue eyes look almost white, and by nearly eliminating my nose, made me seem cross-eyed. The result was hideous."

The day after the test had been screened to Mayer and Thalberg, cameraman Ernest Palmer found Shearer frantic and trembling in the hallway. Speaking with her, he was struck by her "fierce, almost raging disappointment" and, after viewing the test himself, agreed that she had been "poorly handled." Under Palmer's own supervision, a second test was made and judged a success by the studio brass. The lead in ''The Wanters'' seemed hers, until the film's director objected, finding her "unphotogenic". Again, Shearer was to be disappointed, relegated to a minor role.

She accepted her next role in ''Pleasure Mad'', knowing "it was well understood that if I didn't deliver in this picture, I was through." After only a few days of shooting, things were not looking good. Shearer was struggling. Finally, the film's director complained to Mayer that he could get nothing out of the young actress, and when summoned to Mayer's office, she fully expected the axe to fall: "But to my surprise, Mr. Mayer's manner was paternal. 'There seems to be a problem,' he said, 'tell me about it.' I told him that the director had shouted at me and frightened me. Nobody had warned me that Mayer was a better actor than any of us, and I was unprepared for what happened next. He staged an alarming outburst, screaming at me, calling me a fool and a coward, accusing me of throwing away my career because I couldn't get on with a director. It worked. I became tearful, but obstinate. 'I'll show you!' I said to him. 'You'll see!' Delighted, Mayer resumed the paternal act. ‘That's what I wanted to hear,’ he said, smiling." Returning to the set, Shearer plunged into an emotional scene. "I took that scene lock, stock, and barrel, fur, fins and feathers," she remembered, earning her the respect of her director and her studio. As a reward, Thalberg cast her in six films in eight months.

It was an apprenticeship that would serve Shearer well. By the time Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924 and she was cast in the studio's first official production, ''He Who Gets Slapped'', she had become one of MGM's biggest box-office attractions. In 1925, she signed a new contract paying her $1,000 a week, rising to $5,000 over the next five years. Soon after, she bought a house for herself and Edith, right under the Hollywood Sign, at 2004 Vine Street.

Irving Thalberg

Having become a star, Shearer's new challenge was to remain one. There were many other talented actresses at the studio and she realized she would have to fight hard to stay ahead of the pack. Seeing that sensational newcomer Greta Garbo was one of a kind, she went to Thalberg and "demanded recognition as one of another kind". It was just one of the many visits she paid to his office, always to plead for better material, better parts. Thalberg would listen patiently, then invariably advise Norma to keep toeing the line, that MGM knew best, and that the movies she complained about had made her a popular actress. Occasionally Shearer would burst into tears, but this seemed to make "no more impression than rain on a raincoat."

Privately, Thalberg was very impressed by Shearer. In a story conference, when her name was suggested to him for the part of a girl threatened with rape, Thalberg shook his head and, with a wry smile, said: "She looks too well able to take care of herself."

Shearer, for her part, found herself increasingly attracted to her boss. "Something was understood between us, an indefinite feeling that neither of us could analyse." Thalberg's appeal was not primarily sexual. What attracted Shearer was his commanding presence and steely grace; the impression he gave that wherever he sat was always the head of the table. In spite of his youth, Thalberg became a father figure to the 23-year-old actress.

At the end of a working day in July 1925, Shearer received a phone call from Irving's secretary, asking if she would like to accompany Thalberg to the premiere of Chaplin's ''The Gold Rush''. That night, she and Thalberg made their first appearance as a couple. A few weeks later, Shearer went to Montreal to visit her father. While there, she had a reunion with an old school friend, who remembered: "At the end of lunch, over coffee, Norma leant in across the table. 'I'm madly in love', she whispered. 'Who with?' I asked. 'With Irving Thalberg,' she replied, smiling. I asked how Thalberg felt. 'I hope to marry him,' Norma said, and then, with the flash of the assurance I remembered so well, 'I believe I will.'"

"It is impossible to get anything major accomplished without stepping on some toes. Enemies are inevitable when one is a ‘doer’." — Norma Shearer

Over the next two years, both Shearer and Irving would see other people, but Hollywood insiders knew it was something of a charade - she was just waiting for him to propose. Louise Brooks remembered: "I held a dinner party sometime in 1926. All the place cards at the dinner table were books. In front of Thalberg's place was Dreiser's ''Genius'' and in front of Norma's place I put ''The Difficulty of Getting Married''. It was so funny because Irving walked right in and saw ''Genius'' and sat right down, but Norma kept walking around. She wouldn't sit down in front of ''The Difficulty of Getting Married'' – no way!"

By 1927, Shearer had made a total of thirteen silent films for MGM. Each had been produced for under $200,000 and had, without fail, been a substantial box office hit, often making a $200,000+ profit for the studio. She was rewarded for this consistent success by being cast in Ernst Lubitsch's ''The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg'', her first prestige production, with a budget of over $1,000,000. While she was finishing ''The Student Prince'', Shearer received a call summoning her to Thalberg's office. She entered to find Thalberg sitting at his desk before a tray of diamond engagement rings. He granted her the option to choose her own ring; she picked out the biggest. After weeks of rumors, provoked by wearing the ring, it was announced in August 1927 that the couple was to wed. On September 29, 1927, they were married in the Hollywood wedding of the year. Shearer had two children with Thalberg, Irving Junior (1930–1988) and Katherine (1935–2006). Before they were married Shearer converted to Judaism so that she could marry Thalberg.

Early talkies

One week after the Thalberg marriage, ''The Jazz Singer'' was released. The first feature-length motion picture with sound, it effectively changed the cinematic landscape overnight and signaled the end of the silent motion picture era. It also spelled the end of many silent careers, and Shearer was determined hers would not be one of them. Her brother, Douglas Shearer, was instrumental in the development of sound at MGM, and every care was taken to prepare her for the microphone.

Her first talkie, ''The Trial of Mary Dugan'' (1929), turned out to be a tremendous success. Shearer's "medium pitched, fluent, flexible Canadian accent, not quite American but not at all foreign" was critically applauded, and thereafter widely imitated by other actresses, nervous about succeeding in talkies. Despite the popularity of her subsequent early talking films, ''The Last of Mrs. Cheyney'' and ''Their Own Desire'' (both 1929), Shearer feared the public would soon tire of her "good girl" image, and took the advice of friend and co-star Ramón Novarro to visit an unknown photographer named George Hurrell. There she took a series of sensual portraits which convinced her husband that she could play the lead in MGM's racy new film, ''The Divorcee'' (1930).

Pre-Code

Shearer won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in ''The Divorcee'', and a series of highly successful pre-Code films followed, including ''Let Us Be Gay'' (1930), ''Strangers May Kiss'' (1931), ''A Free Soul'' (1931), ''Private Lives'' (1931) and ''Riptide'' (1934). All of these were box-office hits, placing Shearer in competition with Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo as MGM's top actress through the remainder of the decade.

Shearer's marriage to Thalberg gave her a degree of power in Hollywood that was resented by rivals such as Crawford, who complained that Shearer would always be offered the best roles and best conditions: "How can I compete with Norma when she's sleeping with the boss."

Shearer mixed pre-Code films with period dramas and theatrical adaptations. ''Smilin' Through'' (1932), which co-starred Fredric March, was one of the most successful films of its year. An adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's four hour experimental ''Strange Interlude'' (1932), which also starred Clark Gable, was critically panned but managed to turn a profit at the box office.

The Queen of MGM

The enforcement of the Production Code in 1934 forced Shearer to drop her celebrated "free soul" image and move exclusively into period dramas and "prestige" pictures. Of these, ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'' (1934) would prove her most successful at the box office, making a profit of $668,000. In that movie, she played the part made famous by Katharine Cornell. Shearer also took on another play popularized by Cornell in ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1936) (her first film of the 30's to lose money) and ''Marie Antoinette'' (1938) (a budget of almost $2,500,000 was too great for the studio to expect a profit), though their elaborate sets and costumes helped make the films immensely popular with audiences.

Shearer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress on six occasions, winning only for her role in ''The Divorcee'' in 1930. She was nominated the same year for ''Their Own Desire'', for ''A Free Soul'' in 1931, ''The Barretts of Wimpole Street'' in 1934, ''Romeo and Juliet'' in 1936, and ''Marie Antoinette'' in 1938. Marion Davies later recalled that Shearer came to a party at San Simeon in her Marie Antoinette costume, which required removing the door so she could enter, and four chairs so she could sit at the table.

In 1939, she attempted an unusual role in the dark comedy ''Idiot's Delight'', adapted from the 1936 Robert E. Sherwood play. It was the last of Shearer's three films with Clark Gable, after ''A Free Soul'' (1931) and ''Strange Interlude'' (1932). ''The Women'' (1939) followed, with an entirely female cast of more than 130 speaking roles.

Shearer was also one of the many actresses considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in ''Gone With The Wind'' (1939). However, Shearer expressed no interest, joking, "Scarlett is a thankless role. The one I'd really like to play is Rhett (Butler)!"

Critics praised the suspenseful atmosphere in her next film, ''Escape'' (1940), where she played the lover of a Nazi general who helps an American free his mother from a concentration camp. With increasing interest in the war in Europe, the film performed well at the box office, but Shearer made errors in judgment, passing up roles in the highly successful films ''Now, Voyager'' and ''Mrs. Miniver'', in order to star in ''We Were Dancing'' and ''Her Cardboard Lover'' (1942), which both failed at the box office. In 1942, Shearer unofficially retired from acting.

Retirement and death

After Thalberg's death, Shearer retained a lawyer to ensure that Thalberg's percentages of films he had worked on were still paid to his estate, which was contested by MGM, even though Thalberg's estate was worth around three million dollars. When she took the story to gossip columnist Louella Parsons, the studio was forced to give in and granted all the profits from MGM movies made and released from 1924 to 1938, meaning the estate eventually received over $1.5 million in percentage payments. Nevertheless, Shearer's contract was renewed for six films at $150,000 each. During this time she embarked on romances with the then married actor George Raft, Mickey Rooney, and James Stewart.

Following her retirement in 1942, she married Martin Arrougé (March 23, 1914 – August 8, 1999), a former ski instructor twelve years her junior. Although often attending public events in her later life, Shearer withdrew from the glamor side of Hollywood and preferred anonymity, with her secretary stating in 1960: "Miss Shearer does not want any publicity. She doesn't talk to anyone. But I can tell you that she has refused many requests to appear in motion pictures and TV shows." They were still married at the time of her death on June 12, 1983 (from pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease) at 80 years old, although in her declining years she repeatedly called Martin "Irving". She spent her last days at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California.

Legacy

In 1957, Shearer was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.

Shearer has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6636 Hollywood Boulevard. She is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, in a crypt marked Norma Shearer Arrouge, along with her first husband Irving Thalberg. Her friend Jean Harlow is in the crypt next door. Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer.

On June 30, 2008, Canada Post issued a postage stamp in its "Canadians in Hollywood" series to honour Norma Shearer, along with others for Raymond Burr, Marie Dressler, and Chief Dan George.

Filmography

References

Sources

Jack Jacobs and Myron Braum:; The Films of Norma Shearer, A. S. Barnes and Company, South Brunswick and New York 1976 ISBN 0-498-01552-1

External links

Photographs of Norma Shearer

Category:1902 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Actors from Quebec Category:American film actors Category:American female models Category:American silent film actors Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Converts to Judaism Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Canadian female models Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States Category:Canadian silent film actors Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:People from Westmount, Quebec Category:People from Montreal Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:American Jews Category:Canadian Jews Category:Jewish actors Category:Volpi Cup winners

an:Norma Shearer be:Норма Шырэр bg:Норма Шиърър cs:Norma Shearerová da:Norma Shearer de:Norma Shearer es:Norma Shearer eu:Norma Shearer fr:Norma Shearer it:Norma Shearer he:נורמה שירר ka:ნორმა შირერი hu:Norma Shearer nl:Norma Shearer ja:ノーマ・シアラー no:Norma Shearer pl:Norma Shearer pt:Norma Shearer ro:Norma Shearer ru:Ширер, Норма sr:Норма Ширер sh:Norma Shearer fi:Norma Shearer sv:Norma Shearer tg:Норма Шеарер tr:Norma Shearer uk:Норма Ширер vi:Norma Shearer yo:Norma Shearer

name	Spencer Tracy
birth date	April 05, 1900
birth place	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
death date	June 10, 1967
death place	Los Angeles, California
resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
occupation	Actor
years active	1922-1967
birth name	Spencer Bonaventure Tracy
spouse	Louise Tracy (m.1923-1967; his death)
partner	Katharine Hepburn (1941-1967; his death)
signature	Spencer Tracy signature.svg }}

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 - June 10, 1967) was an American actor. Respected for his natural style and versatility, Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. In a screen career that spanned 37 years, he was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor—a record he holds with Laurence Olivier—of which he won two.

Tracy discovered his talent for acting while a student at Ripon College, and subsequently gained 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 ''Up the River'', Tracy was signed to a contract with Fox Film Corporation. His five years with Fox were unremarkable, and he remained largely unknown to audiences after 25 films. In 1935, Tracy joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 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''. 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 a 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 alcoholism and a pervading Catholic-guilt over his son's deafness. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s but never divorced, meaning a long-term relationship with Katharine Hepburn became a clandestine affair. As his health worsened, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer in the 1960s. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967), completed 17 days before Tracy's death. Tracy appeared in 75 films throughout his career, during which time he developed a reputation among his peers as one of the screen's greatest actors. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy among the top ten Hollywood legends.

Early life

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born on April 5, 1900 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was the second son of Caroline (née Brown) and John Edward Tracy, a truck salesman. His mother was a Presbyterian from a wealthy Midwestern family and his father was of Irish Catholic background. He had one brother, Carroll, four years his senior. The young Spencer was a difficult and hyper child  with poor school attendance. Raised as a Catholic, at nine years old he was placed in the hands of Dominican nuns in the hope of transforming his behavior. Later in life he remarked, "I never would have gone back to school if there had been any other way of learning to read the subtitles in the movies." He became fascinated with motion pictures, watching the same ones repeatedly and then re-enacting scenes to his friends and neighbors. Tracy attended several Jesuit academies in his teenage years, which he claimed took the "badness" out of him and his grades improved. At Marquette Academy he met future actor Pat O'Brien, and the pair began attending plays together, awakening Tracy's interest in the theatre.

With little care for his studies and "itching for a chance to go and see some excitement", Tracy enrolled in the Navy when he turned eighteen. He was sent to the Naval Training Station in North Chicago, where he was still a student when World War One came to an end. He achieved the rank of seaman second class, but never went to sea and was discharged in February 1919. John Tracy's desire to see one of his sons gain a college degree drove Tracy back to High School to finish his diploma. Studies at two more institutions plus the additional allowance of "war credits" won Tracy a place at Ripon College. He entered Ripon in February 1921, declaring his intention to major in Medicine.

Tracy was a popular student at Ripon, where he served as President of his hall and was involved in a number of college activities. He made his stage debut in June 1921, playing the male lead in ''The Truth''. Tracy was very well received in this role  and he quickly developed a passion for the stage. He formed an acting company with friends, which they called "The Campus Players" and took on tour. He also excelled in the college debating team. It was during a tour with this team that Tracy auditioned for the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) in New York City. He performed a scene from one of his earlier roles, and was offered a scholarship to attend the school. Tracy left Ripon, and began classes at AADA in April 1922. He was deemed fit to progress to the senior class, allowing him to join the academy stock company with fifteen others. Tracy made his New York debut in October 1922, in a play called ''The Wedding Guests'', and then his Broadway debut three months later playing a wordless robot in ''R.U.R.'' He graduated from AADA in March 1923.

Career

Stock theatre and Broadway (1923–1930)

Immediately following graduation, Tracy joined a new stock company based in White Plains, New York, where he was given periphery roles. Unhappy there he moved to a company in Cincinnati, and failed to make an impact. In November 1923 he landed a bit part in ''A Royal Fandango'', a new Ethel Barrymore comedy on Broadway. Reviews for the show were poor and it closed after 25 performances; Tracy later said of the failure, "My ego took an awful beating." When he took a position with a struggling company in New Jersey, Tracy was living on an allowance of 35 cents a day. In January 1924 he played his first leading role, but the Winnipeg company soon closed. Tracy finally achieved some success by joining forces with the notable stock manager William H. Wright in the spring of 1924. A stage partnership was formed with the young actress Selena Royle, who had already made her name on Broadway. It proved a popular draw and their productions were favorably received. One of these shows brought Tracy to the attention of a Broadway producer, who offered him the lead in a new play. ''The Sheepman'' previewed in October 1925, but reviews were poor and it closed after its trial run in Connecticut. Dejected, Tracy was forced back to Wright and the stock circuit.

In the fall of 1926, Tracy was offered his third shot at Broadway: a role in a new George M. Cohan play called ''Yellow''. Tracy swore that if it failed to be a hit he would not return to stock, he would begin work in a "regular" business instead. Cohan was one of the most important figures in American theatre, and Tracy was nervous working with him, but during rehearsals Cohan announced: "Tracy, you're the best goddamned actor I've ever seen!" ''Yellow'' opened on September 21; reviews were mixed but it ran for 135 performances, and was the beginning of an important collaboration for Tracy. He later commented, "I'd have quit the stage completely, if it hadn't been for George M. Cohan." A part was written specifically for Tracy in Cohan's next play, ''The Baby Cyclone''. It opened on Broadway in September 1927 and proved to be a hit. Tracy followed this with another Cohan play, ''Whispering Friends'', and in 1929 took over from Clark Gable in a Broadway drama ''Conflict''. A variety of other roles followed, but it was the lead in ''Dread'', written by Pulitzer Prize winner Owen Davis, that gave Tracy high hopes for success. The story of a man's descent into madness, ''Dread'' previewed in Brooklyn to an excellent reception, but the very next day—October 29—the New York stock market crashed. Unable to attain funding, ''Dread'' did not open on Broadway. Following this disappointment, Tracy considered leaving the theatre and returning to Milwaukee for a more stable life.

In January 1930, Tracy was approached about a new play called ''The Last Mile''. Looking to cast the lead role of a serial killer on death row, producer Herman Shumlin met with Tracy, and later recounted: "beneath the surface, here was a man of passion, violence, sensitivity and desperation: no ordinary man, and just the man for the part." ''The Last Mile'' opened on Broadway in February, where Tracy's intense performance was met by a standing ovation that lasted 14 curtain calls. The ''Commonweal'' described him as "one of our best and most versatile young actors". The play was a hit with critics, and ran for 289 performances.

Fox (1930–1935)

Tracy had not considered being a movie actor, saying "I had no ambition in that direction and I was perfectly happy on the stage." In 1930 Broadway was being heavily scouted for actors to work in the new film medium of "talkies", and Tracy was drawn into the process. Within a month of opening ''The Last Mile'', he made his screen debut in a Vitaphone short called ''Taxi Talks''. This was followed by a second short, ''The Hard Guy''. One of the scouts who saw Tracy in ''The Last Mile'' was director John Ford. Ford's next picture was set to be a prison movie, and he wanted Tracy for the lead role. Production company Fox Film Corporation were unsure, saying that he did not photograph well in make-up. Ford convinced them that Tracy did not need it, and he was cast in the movie. ''Up the River'' (1930) marked the film debut of both Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. After seeing the rushes, Fox immediately offered Tracy a long-term contract. Knowing that he needed the money for his family—his young son was deaf and recovering from polio—Tracy signed with Fox and moved to California. He appeared on the stage again only once more in his life.

Winfield Sheehan, the head of Fox, committed to making Tracy a bankable commodity. The studio went to efforts to promote the actor, releasing adverts for his second film ''Quick Millions'' (1931) with the headline "A New Star Shines." Three films were made in quick succession, all of which were unsuccessful at the box office. Tracy found himself typecast in comedies, usually playing a crook or a con man. The mold was broken with his seventh picture, ''Disorderly Conduct'' (1932), and it was the first of his films since ''Up the River'' to make a profit. In mid-1932, after nine pictures, Tracy remained virtually unknown to the public. He considered leaving Fox once his contract was up for renewal, but a rise in his weekly rate to $1,500 convinced him to stay. He continued to appear in unpopular films, with ''Me and My Gal'' (1932) setting an all time low attendance record for the Roxy Theatre in New York City. He was loaned to Warner Bros. for ''20,000 Years in Sing Sing'' (1932), a prison drama co-starring Bette Davis. Tracy was hopeful that it would be his break-out role, but despite good reviews this failed to materialize.

Critics began to notice Tracy with ''The Power and the Glory'' (1933). The story of a man's rise to prosperity, written by Preston Sturges, Tracy's performance received uniformly strong reviews. William Wilkerson of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' wrote: "This sterling performer has finally been given an opportunity to show an ability that has been boxed in by gangster roles ... [the film] has introduced Mr. Tracy as one of the screen's best performers". Mordaunt Hall of ''The New York Times'' stated: "No more convincing performance has been given on the screen than Spencer Tracy's impersonation of Tom Garner." ''Shanghai Madness'' (1933), meanwhile, gave Tracy a previously unseen sex appeal and served to advance his standing. Despite this attention, Tracy's next two movies went largely unnoticed. ''Man's Castle'' (1933) with Loretta Young was anticipated to be a hit, but made only a small profit. ''The Show Off'' (1934), for which he was loaned to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, proved popular, but his subsequent outings continued to be unsuccessful.

Tracy drank heavily during his years with Fox, and gained a reputation as an alcoholic. He failed to report for filming on ''Marie Galante'' in June 1934, and was found in his hotel room, virtually unconscious after a two week binge. Tracy was removed from the Fox payroll while he recovered in hospital, and then sued $125,000 for delaying the production. He completed only two more pictures with the studio. The details on how Tracy's relationship with Fox ended are unclear: later in life Tracy maintained that he was fired for his drunken behavior, but the Fox records do not support this account. He was still under contract with the studio when MGM expressed their interest in the actor. They were in need of a new male star, and contacted Tracy on April 2, 1935, offering him a seven-year deal. That afternoon, the contract between Tracy and Fox was terminated "by mutual consent". Tracy made a total of 25 pictures in the five years he was with Fox Film Corporation, most of which lost money at the box office.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1935–1955)

In the 1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the most respected movie production studio in Hollywood. When Tracy arrived there, his own reputation was not strong. Biographer James Curtis writes: "Tracy was scarcely a blip on the box office barometer in 1935, a critics' darling and little more". He was, however, well known for being a troublemaker. Producer Irving G. Thalberg was nevertheless enthusiastic about working with the actor, telling journalist Louella Parsons: "Spencer Tracy will become one of M-G-M's most valuable stars." Curtis notes that the studio managed Tracy with care, a welcome change from the ineptitude he had known at Fox, which was like "a shot of adrenaline" for the actor. His first film under the new contract was the quickly produced ''The Murder Man'' (1935). Thalberg then began a strategy of pairing Tracy with the studio's top actresses: ''Whipsaw'' (1935) co-starred Myrna Loy and was a commercial succeess. ''Riffraff'' (1936) put Tracy opposite Jean Harlow. Both films were, however, designed and promoted to showcase their leading ladies, thus continuing Tracy's reputation as a secondary star.

''Fury'' (1936) was the first film to prove that Tracy could make a success on his own merit. Directed by Fritz Lang, Tracy played a man who swears revenge after narrowly escaping death by a lynch mob. The film and performance received excellent reviews. It was popular with the public, going on to make $1,300,000 worldwide. Curtis writes: "audiences who, just a year earlier, had no clear handle on him, were suddenly turning out to see him. It was a transition that was nothing short of miraculous ... [and showed] a willingness on the part of the public to embrace a leading man who was not textbook handsome nor bigger than life." It was followed one month later by the big-budget disaster movie ''San Francisco'' (1936). Tracy starred alongside Clark Gable, allowing audiences to see him with Hollywood's top male star. His role in the film was a priest, and Tracy reportedly felt a heavy responsibility in representing the church. The performance was highly praised and Tracy received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, despite having only 17 minutes of screen time. ''San Francisco'' went on to be the highest grossing picture of 1936. Donald Deschner, in his book on Tracy, credits ''Fury'' and ''San Francisco'' as the "two films that changed his career and gave him the status of a major star." Tracy had also entered a period of self-imposed sobriety by this point, and MGM were pleased by his professionalism.

Oscar wins

Tracy's reputation continued to grow as his next film, the screwball comedy ''Libeled Lady'' (1936), cast him with William Powell, Loy and Harlow. As Curtis says, "Powell, Harlow and Loy were among the biggest draws in the industry, and equal billing in such a powerhouse company could only serve to advance Tracy's standing". It was his third hit picture in the space of six months. Tracy appeared in four movies in 1937. ''They Gave Him a Gun'' went largely unnoticed, but ''Captains Courageous'' was one of the major film events of the year. Tracy played a Portuguese fisherman in the adventure movie. He was uncomfortable feigning a foreign accent, and resented having his hair curled, but the role was a hit with audiences. For his work in ''Captains Courageous'', Tracy won the Academy Award for Best Actor. It was followed by ''Big City'' with Luise Rainer and ''Mannequin'' with Joan Crawford, the latter of which took good billings at the box office. With two years of hit movies and industry recognition, Tracy became a significant star in America. A poll of 20 million people to find the "King and Queen of Hollywood", announced in December 1937, ranked Tracy sixth among males.

Tracy was reunited with Gable and Loy for 1938's ''Test Pilot''. It was another commercial success, and was well received by critics. Based on the positive response he had received in ''San Francisco'', MGM again cast Tracy as a priest in ''Boys Town'' (1938). Portraying Edward J. Flanagan was a role he took seriously, saying "I'm so anxious to do a good job as Father Flanagan that it worries me, keeps me awake at night." Tracy received strong reviews for the performance, and the movie took $4,000,000 in worldwide billings. For the second year running, Tracy received an Academy Award for Best Actor. He was humble about the recognition, saying in his acceptance speech: "I honestly do not feel that I can accept this award ... I can accept it only as it was meant to be for a great man—Father Flanagan". He chose to give the statuette to Flanagan. Tracy was listed as the fifth biggest money-making star of 1938. He was absent from screens for almost a year before returning to Twentieth Century-Fox and appearing as Henry M. Stanley in ''Stanley and Livingstone'', his only film of 1939. Curtis claims this non-visibility did little to affect Tracy's standing with the public or exhibitors. In October of that year, a survey conducted by ''Fortune'' magazine to find the nation's favorite movie actor listed Tracy in first place.

Established star

MGM capitalized on Tracy's popularity, casting him in four movies for 1940. ''I Take This Woman'' with Hedy Lamarr was a critical and commercial failure, but the historical drama ''Northwest Passage''—Tracy's first film in Technicolor—proved popular. He then portrayed Thomas Edison in ''Edison, the Man''. Howard Barnes of the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was not charmed by the story, but wrote that Tracy, "by sheer persuasion of his acting", made the film worthy. ''Boom Town'' was the third and final Gable-Tracy picture, also featuring Claudette Colbert, making it one of the most anticipated films of the year. It opened to the biggest crowd since ''Gone With the Wind''. Tracy signed a new contract with MGM in April 1941, which paid $5,000 a week and limited him to three pictures a year (Tracy had previously expressed a need to reduce his workload). It also stated, for the first time, that his billing was to be "that of a star". ''Boom Town'' was the last movie Tracy made in which his name did not feature in pole position.

In 1941 he returned to the role of Father Flanagan in ''Men of Boys Town''. It was followed later that year by an adaptation of ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', Tracy's only venture into the horror genre. His co-stars in the movie were Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Tracy was unhappy with the picture, disliking the heavy make-up he needed to portray Hyde. The response from critics was mixed, and Theodore Strauss of ''The New York Times'' wrote that "Mr. Tracy's portrait of Hyde is not so much evil incarnate as it is the ham rampant." It was popular with audiences, however, taking worldwide billings in excess of $2,000,000.

Tracy was set to star in a film version of ''The Yearling'' for 1942, but on-set difficulties and bad weather forced the production to close. As such, he became available for the new Katharine Hepburn movie, ''Woman of the Year'' (1942). Hepburn greatly admired Tracy, calling him "the best movie actor there was", and had wanted him for her comeback vehicle ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940). She reported her delight that he was available for ''Woman of the Year'', saying "I was just damned grateful he was willing to work with me." The romantic comedy performed well at the box office and collected strong reviews. William Boehnel wrote in the ''New York World-Telegram'' "To begin with, it has Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in the leading roles. This in itself would be enough to make any film memorable. But when you get Tracy and Hepburn turning in brilliant performances to boot, you've got something to cheer about."

''Woman of the Year'' was followed by an adaptation of John Steinbeck's ''Tortilla Flat'' (1942), which met with a tepid response. MGM did not hesitate to repeat the Tracy-Hepburn teaming, and cast them in the dark mystery ''Keeper of the Flame'' (1942). Despite a weak critical reception it was a popular success, outgrossing its predecessor and confirming the strength of the partnership. Tracy's next three appearances were all war-based. ''A Guy Named Joe'' (1943) with Irene Dunne surpassed ''San Francisco'' to become his highest-grossing film to date. ''The Seventh Cross'' (1944), about the escape from a Nazi concentration camp, met with critical acclaim. It was followed by the aviation film ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944). On the strength of these three releases, the annual Quigley poll revealed Tracy as MGM's biggest money-making star of 1944. His only film the following year was ''Without Love'' (1945), a third film with Hepburn that performed well at box offices despite muted enthusiasm from critics.

Stage and screen

In 1945, Tracy returned to the stage for the first time in 15 years. He had been through a dark patch personally—culminating with a stay in hospital—and Hepburn felt that a play would help restore his focus. Tracy told a journalist in April, "I'm coming back to Broadway to see if I can still act." The play was ''The Rugged Path'' by Robert E. Sherwood. It first previewed in Providence on September 28, to a sold out crowd and tepid response. It was a difficult production; director Garson Kanin later wrote: "In the ten days prior to the New York opening all the important relationships had deteriorated. Spencer was tense and unbending, could not, or would not, take direction". Tracy considered leaving the show before it even opened on Broadway, and lasted there just six weeks before announcing his intention to close the show. It closed on January 19, 1946, after 81 performances. Tracy later explained to a friend: "I couldn't say those goddamn lines over and over and over again every night ... At least every day is a new day for me in films ... But this thing—every day, every day, over and over again."

Tracy was absent from screens in 1946, the first year since his motion picture debut that there was no Spencer Tracy release. His next film was ''The Sea of Grass'' (1947) a drama set in the American Old West with Hepburn. Similarly to ''Keeper of the Flame'' and ''Without Love'', a lukewarm response from critics did not stop it from being a financial success both at home and abroad. He followed it later that year with ''Cass Timberlane'', in which he played a judge. It was a commercial success, but Curtis notes that co-star Lana Turner overshadowed Tracy in most of the reviews. A fifth film with Hepburn came in 1948, Frank Capra's political drama ''State of the Union''. Tracy played a presidential candidate in the movie, which was warmly received. He then appeared in ''Edward, My Son'' (1949) with Deborah Kerr. Tracy disliked the role, and commented to director George Cukor "It's rather disconcerting to me to find how easily I play a heel." Upon release, ''The New Yorker'' wrote of the "hopeless miscasting of Mr. Tracy" and it went on to be his biggest money-loser at MGM. Tracy finished off the 1940s with ''Malaya'' (1949), an adventure film with James Stewart, and ''Adam's Rib'' (1949), a comedy with Hepburn. The latter was written specifically for the duo by their friends Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, and had them playing married lawyers who oppose each other in court. It received strong reviews, and became the highest grossing Tracy-Hepburn picture to date. Bosley Crowther wrote "Mr. Tracy and Miss Hepburn are the stellar performers in this show and their perfect compatibility in comic capers is delightful to see."

Final MGM years

The 1950s began strongly for Tracy, as he received an Academy Award nomination—the first in 12 years—for ''Father of the Bride'' (1950). The role was Stanley Banks, the despairing titular character who attempts to handle preparations for his daughter's (played by Elizabeth Taylor) upcoming wedding. ''Variety'' noted "It's the second strong comedy in a row for Spencer Tracy, doing the title role, and he socks it." ''Newsweek'' stated in their review: "Tracy hilariously sparks ''Father of the Bride'' with one of his surest comedy performances." Bosley Crowther called the film "wonderful" and declared: "As a father, torn by jealousy, devotion, pride and righteous wrath, Mr. Tracy is tops." The film was the biggest commercial success of his career to date, earning $6,000,000 worldwide. MGM were immediately keen for a sequel, which Tracy was unsure of but accepted. ''Father's Little Dividend'' (1951) was released ten months later, and made good business. On the strength of the two movies, Tracy again polled as one of the nation's top stars.

Tracy portrayed a lawyer in 1951's ''The People Against O'Hara'', and then re-teamed with Hepburn for the sports comedy ''Pat and Mike'' (1952). It was a second feature written expressly for the pair by Kanin and Gordon, and proved one of the duo's most popular and critically acclaimed films. Tracy followed it with ''Plymouth Adventure'' (1952), a historical drama set abroad the ''Mayflower'', co-starring Gene Tierney. It met with a poor response and posted a loss of $1,800,000. In 1953 he appeared in ''The Actress'', where he again played a concerned father. Producer Lawrence Weingarten later summarized the fate of the movie: "That film ... got more [acclaim] from the critics than any film I ever made in all the years, and we didn't make enough to pay for the ushers in the theatre." The performance won Tracy a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award nomination.

MGM lent Tracy to Twentieth Century-Fox for ''Broken Lance'', his only appearance of 1954. The Western was well received. In 1955 he turned down William Wyler's ''The Desperate Hours'' because he refused to take second-billing to Humphrey Bogart, and instead appeared in ''Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955). The John Sturges directed film had Tracy playing a one-armed protagonist who faces the hostility of a small town. Tracy received a fifth Oscar nomination for his work, and was awarded the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He had personally been unhappy with the picture, and threatened to leave it during production. This became a regular occurrence for the aging Tracy, who was increasingly disillusioned with his abilities. He began production on ''Tribute to a Bad Man'' in the summer of 1955, but pulled out when the location shooting in Colorado gave him altitude sickness. The trouble caused by the picture fractured Tracy's relationship with MGM. In June 1955 he was the last remaining star of the studio's heyday, but with his contract up for renewal—Tracy opted to go independent for the first time in his movie career.

Independent player (1956–1967)

Tracy's first post-MGM appearance was in ''The Mountain'' (1956). The location filming in the French Alps proved a difficult experience, and he threatened to leave the project. His performance earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Actor. Tracy and Hepburn then paired together for the eighth time in the office-based comedy ''Desk Set'' (1957). He again had to be convinced to stay with the film which met with a weak response. In 1958, Tracy appeared in a project that had been in development for five years. ''The Old Man and the Sea'' was an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novella of the same name. Hemingway's agent, Leland Hayward, had previously written to the author: "Of all Hollywood people, the one that comes the closest to me in quality, in personality and voice, in personal dignity and ability, is Spencer Tracy." Tracy was delighted to be offered the role. He was told to lose some of his 210 pounds before filming began, but failed to do so. Hemingway thus reported that Tracy was a "terrible liability to the picture", and had to be reassured that the star was being carefully photographed to disguise his weight. Appearing alone on screen for the majority of the film, Tracy considered ''The Old Man and the Sea'' the toughest part he ever played. In reviewing the performance, Jack Moffitt of the ''Hollywood Reporter'' said it was "so intimate and revealing of universal human experience that, to me, it almost transcended acting and became reality." Tracy received Oscar and BAFTA Award nominations for the work.

After abandoning two projects, including a proposed remake of ''The Blue Angel'' with Marilyn Monroe, Tracy's next feature was ''The Last Hurrah'' (1958). It reunited him with his debut director, John Ford, after 28 years. Tracy took a year to commit to the project, in which he played an Irish-American mayor seeking re-election. The movie was favorably reviewed, but not commercially successful. At the end of 1958, the National Board of Review named Tracy the year's Best Actor. He nevertheless began to ponder retirement, with Curtis writing that he was "chronically tired, unhappy, ill, and uninterested in work."

Stanley Kramer partnership

Tracy did not appear on screens again until October 1960. ''Inherit the Wind'' was based on the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925, which debated the right to teach evolution in schools. Director Stanley Kramer sought Tracy for the role of lawyer Clarence Darrow from the outset. Starring opposite him was Fredric March, a pairing ''Variety'' called "a stroke of casting genius ... Both men are spellbinders in the most laudatory sense of the word." The film garnered Tracy some of the strongest reviews of his career, but was not a commercial hit. He was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for the performance. In ''The Devil at 4 O'Clock'' (1961), Tracy played a priest for the fourth time in his career. His co-star was Frank Sinatra, who ceded top-billing to guarantee Tracy for the picture. Tracy briefly pulled out of the production, citing the Hawaii location work with a simulated volcano as "too hazardous", but Sinatra convinced him to stay. Critics were unenthusiastic about the film, which nevertheless grossed $4,555,000—Tracy's biggest commercial success since ''Father of the Bride''.

''Inherit the Wind'' began an enduring collaboration between Tracy and Stanley Kramer, and the final three films he appeared in were all Kramer directed. Their second feature together was ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', released at the end of 1961. It depicted the "Judges' Trial", in which the judges of Nazi Germany were tried for their role in the Holocaust. Abby Mann wrote the role of Judge Haywood with Tracy in mind, and Tracy called it the best script he had ever read. At the end of the film, Tracy had to deliver a 13 minute long speech. He recorded it in one take, and received a round of applause from the cast and crew. Mann wrote to Tracy upon seeing the film, and said: "Every writer ought to have the experience of having Spencer Tracy do his lines. There is nothing in the world quite like it." The film met with positive reviews, a large audience, and Tracy received an eighth Oscar nomination for his performance.

Tracy turned down roles in ''Long Days Journey Into Night'' (1962) and ''The Leopard'' (1963), and had to pull out of Ford's all-star ''How the West Was Won'' (1962) when it clashed with ''Judgment at Nuremberg''. He was, however, able to record the film's narration track. Tracy was in very poor health by this period and working became a challenge. He took a role in Kramer's comedy ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), a small part that he was able to complete in nine days. Tracy's name topped the list of performers, and the film was one of the most popular of the year. As his health worsened, however, he had to cancel commitments to ''Cheyenne Autumn'' (1964) and ''The Cincinnati Kid'' (1965). Offers continued to come, but Tracy did not work again until Kramer's ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967), which allowed him to work with Hepburn for the ninth time.

''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'', also starring Sidney Poitier, explored the issue of interracial marriage, with Tracy playing a liberal-minded newspaper publisher whose values are challenged when his daughter wishes to marry a black man. He was happy to be working again, but told the press the movie would be his last. In order for filming to commence, Tracy had to be insured for the high premium of $71,000, and Hepburn and Kramer both put their salaries in escrow until his scenes had been completed. With his poor health, Tracy could only work for two or three hours each day. He completed his last scene on May 24, 1967. His death, by heart attack, came 17 days later on June 10. ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' was released in December, and although reviews were mixed Curtis states that "Tracy's performance was singled out for praise in nearly every instance." Brendan Gill of ''The New Yorker'' wrote that Tracy gave "a faultless and, under the circumstances, heartbreaking performance." The movie became the highest grossing picture that Tracy ever appeared in. At the 40th Academy Awards, Tracy received a posthumous nomination for Best Actor; his ninth. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, while the British Academy awarded Tracy their Best Actor prize.

Personal life

Marriage, family and Hepburn

Tracy met actress Louise Treadwell while they were both members of The Wood Players in White Plains, New York (the first stock company Tracy joined after graduating). They were engaged in May 1923 and married on September 10 of that year between the matinee and evening performances of his show. Their son, John Ten Broeck Tracy, was born in June 1924. When John was 10 months old, Louise discovered that the boy was deaf. She resisted telling Tracy for three months, and he was devastated by the news. Tracy became convinced that John's deafness was a punishment for his own sins—namely adultery—and felt a lifelong guilt over this. He had trouble connecting with his son as a result, and distanced himself from his family. Friend Joseph L. Mankiewicz later theorized: "[Tracy] didn't leave Louise. He left the scene of his guilt." A second child, Louise "Susie" Treadwell Tracy, was born in July 1932. The children were raised in their mother's Episcopalian faith.

Tracy left the family home in 1933. He and Louise openly discussed the separation with the media, maintaining that they were still friends and had not taken divorce action. From September 1933 to June 1934, Tracy had a public affair with Loretta Young, his co-star in ''Man's Castle''. He reconciled with Louise in 1935. There was never again an official separation between Tracy and his wife, but the marriage continued to be troubled. Tracy increasingly lived in hotels and by the 1940s, Curtis notes that the two were effectively living separate lives. Tracy frequently engaged in extramarital affairs, including with co-stars Joan Crawford in 1937, and Ingrid Bergman in 1941.

While making ''Woman of the Year'' in September 1941, Tracy began a relationship with Katharine Hepburn. The actress became devoted to him, and their relationship lasted until his death 26 years later. Tracy never returned to live in the family home, although visited regularly. The MGM moguls were careful to protect their contract stars from controversy, and Tracy wished to conceal the relationship from his wife, so it was hidden from the public. They did not live together until the final years of Tracy's life. In Hollywood, the intimate nature of the Tracy-Hepburn partnership was an open secret. Angela Lansbury, who worked with the pair on ''State of the Union'', later said: "We all knew, but nobody ever said anything. In those days it wasn't discussed." Tracy was not someone to express his emotions, but friend Betsy Drake believed he "was ''utterly'' dependent upon [Hepburn]." The infidelity continued, including an affair with Gene Tierney during the making of ''Plymouth Adventure'' in 1952. Neither Tracy or his wife ever pursued a divorce, despite their estrangement. He told Joan Fontaine, "I can get a divorce whenever I want to, but my wife and Kate like things just as they are." Louise, meanwhile, reportedly commented: "I will be Mrs. Spencer Tracy until the day I die." Hepburn did not interfere and never fought for marriage.

Character

Tracy was an avowed Catholic, but his cousin, Jane Feely, stated that he did not devoutly follow the religion. She added: "and he was often not a practical [Catholic] either. I would call him a spiritual Catholic." Garson Kanin, a friend of Tracy's for 25 years, described him as "a true believer", and indicated that the actor respected his religion. At periods in his life, Tracy attended Mass regularly. Tracy did not believe actors should publicize their political views, but in 1940 lent his name to the "Hollywood for Roosevelt" committee and personally identified as a Democrat.

Tracy struggled with alcoholism throughout his adult life, an ailment that ran in his father's side of the family. Rather than being a steady drinker, he was prone to periods of binging on alcohol. He had a weakness towards drink, with his wife commenting that "the least little bit" would go "straight to his brain." Loretta Young remarked that Tracy was "awful" when he was drunk, and he was twice arrested for his behavior while intoxicated. Because of this bad reaction to alcohol, Tracy regularly embarked on prolonged periods of sobriety, and developed an all-or-nothing routine. A doctor's report in 1942 summarized his drinking habits:

Such a pattern was typical of Tracy: Hepburn commented that he could stop drinking for "months, even years at a time". His wife observed that the drinking largely stemmed from personal insecurities. Tracy was prone to bouts of depression and anxiety: he was described by Mrs. Tracy as having "the most volatile disposition I've ever seen—up in the clouds one minute and down in the depths the next. And when he's low, he's very, very low." He was plagued by insomnia throughout his life. As a result, he became dependent on barbituates, to sleep, followed by dexedrine to function. Hepburn, who adopted a nursing role towards Tracy, was unable to understand her partner's unhappiness. She wrote in her autobiography: "What was it? ... Never at peace ... Tourtured by some sort of guilt. Some terrible misery."

Years of illness and death

As he entered his sixties, years of drinking, smoking, taking pills and being overweight left Tracy in poor health. On July 21, 1963, he was hospitalized after a severe attack of breathlessness. Doctors found that he was suffering from pulmonary edema, the accumulation of fluid in the lungs. They also declared his blood pressure as dangerously high. From this point on Tracy remained very weak, and Hepburn moved into his home to provide constant care. In January 1965, he was diagnosed with hypertensive heart disease, and began treatment for a previously ignored diagnosis of diabetes. Tracy almost died in September 1965: a stay in hospital following a prostatectomy resulted in his kidneys failing, and he spent the night in a coma. His recovery was described by his doctor as "a kind of miracle".

Tracy spent the majority of the next two years at home with Hepburn, living what she described as a quiet life: reading, painting and listening to music. On June 10, 1967, Tracy awakened at 3:00 am to make himself a cup of tea. Hepburn described in her autobiography how she followed him to the kitchen: "Just as I was about to give [the door] a push, there was a sound of a cup smashing to the floor—then clump—a loud clump." She entered the room to find Tracy dead from a heart attack. Hepburn recalled, "He looked so happy to be done with living, which for all his accomplishments had been a frightful burden for him." The media were told by MGM publicist Howard Strickling that Tracy had been alone when he died, and was found by his housekeeper. A Requiem Mass was held for Tracy on June 12 at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in East Hollywood. Active pallbearers included George Cukor, Stanley Kramer, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart and John Ford. Tracy was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Reputation and acting style

Tracy received a great level of praise from his peers. Members of the film industry who called Tracy his generation's greatest actor include Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, John Ford, Garson Kanin and Katharine Hepburn. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer head Dore Schary remarked after Tracy's death: "There can be no question that he was the best and most protean actor of our screen." He was particularly respected for his naturalism on screen, and his skills at listening and reacting. Barry Nelson said that Tracy "brought the art of reacting to a new height", while Stanley Kramer declared that Tracy "thought and listened better than anyone in the history of motion pictures". Millard Kaufman noted that "[Tracy] listened with every fiber of his entire body". Hume Cronyn, who worked with Tracy on ''The Seventh Cross'', admired his co-star's natural screen presence: "His method appeared to be as simple as it is difficult to achieve. He appeared to do nothing. He listened, he felt, he said the words without forcing anything." Joan Crawford likewise expressed her admiration for Tracy's seemingly effortless performances. "One never had the feeling he was 'acting' in a scene," said his four-time co-star Joan Bennett, "but the truth of the situation was actually happening, spontaneously, at the moment he spoke his lines." Cagney noted that Tracy was rarely the target of impressionists, because "You can't mimic reserve and control very well" and "there's nothing to imitate except his genius and that can't be mimicked."

Despite this perception of being able to perform effortlessly, acquaintances of Tracy said that he would carefully prepare for each role. Joseph L. Mankiewicz lived with Tracy during the production of ''Test Pilot'', and recounted that the actor would lock himself in his bedroom each night, and be "working extremely hard." Many co-workers commented on his strong work-ethic and professionalism. He did not like to rehearse, however, and would lose his effectiveness after two or three takes. Kanin described him as "an instinctive player, who trusted the moment of creation." Tracy's close friend Chester Erskine pinpointed his technique as one of "selection"; that he strove to give as little as was needed to be effective—reaching "a minimum to make the maximum." Tracy disliked being asked about his technique, or what advice he would give to others, and often belittled the profession. "Why do actors think they're so God damn important?", he said to Kanin, "They're not. Acting is not an important job in the scheme of things. Plumbing is." He was humble about his abilities, saying to a journalist: "it's just that I try no tricks. No profile. No 'great lover' act ... I just project myself as I am—plain, trying to be honest." He enjoyed the quip once made by Alfred Lunt: "The art of acting is—learn your lines!" Katharine Hepburn, in an interview six years after Tracy's death, suggested that Tracy wished he had held a different profession.

Assessment and legacy

In the 21st century, Tracy is best known to general audiences for his association with Katharine Hepburn. He continues to receive praise from film scholars: critic Leonard Maltin has called Tracy "one of the 20th century’s finest actors", while film historian Jeanine Basinger has described his career as a "golden record of movie achievement". Charles Matthews, writing for ''The Washington Post'', has argued that "Tracy deserves to be remembered for himself, as a master of acting technique".

Tracy's legacy is evident at the University of California, Los Angeles, where an award for excellence in film acting is bestowed in his name. Past recipients of the UCLA Spencer Tracy Award include James Stewart, Michael Douglas, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Kirk Douglas and Morgan Freeman. A documentary about Tracy was made in 1986, entitled ''The Spencer Tracy Legacy''. First broadcast by PBS, and hosted by Katharine Hepburn, it includes footage of Tracy's career and interviews with his former co-stars. In 2009, Tracy provided inspiration for the character Carl in Pixar's Oscar-winning film ''Up''. Director Pete Docter explained that there is "something sweet about these grumpy old guys".

Several of Tracy's films, particularly his comedies, are regarded as classics of American cinema. He starred in four of the titles on the American Film Institute's list of "100 Years ... 100 Laughs": ''Adam's Rib'', ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'', ''Father of the Bride'' and ''Woman of the Year''. ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' was included on their list of the 100 greatest American movies, while ''Captains Courageous'' featured on the list of America's most inspiring movies.

Awards and nominations

Tracy was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor, which is a category record he holds with Laurence Olivier. He was the first of nine actors to win the award twice, which remains an unbeaten record, and is one of two actors to receive it consecutively, the other being Tom Hanks. Tracy was also nominated for five British Academy Film Awards, of which he won two, and four Golden Globe Awards, winning once. In addition, he received the Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor and was once named Best Actor by the National Board of Review.

Tracy was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following performances:

1937: Nomination for ''San Francisco''

1938: Win for ''Captains Courageous''

1939: Win for ''Boys Town''

1951: Nomination for ''Father of the Bride''

1956: Nomination for ''Bad Day at Black Rock''

1959: Nomination for ''The Old Man and the Sea''

1961: Nomination for ''Inherit the Wind''

1962: Nomination for ''Judgment at Nuremberg''

1968: Nomination for ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (posthumous nomination)

Filmography

Selected filmography:

''Man's Castle'' (1933)

''Fury'' (1936)

''San Francisco'' (1936)

''Libeled Lady'' (1936)

''Captains Courageous'' (1937)

''Boys Town'' (1938)

''Woman of the Year'' (1942)

''A Guy Named Joe'' (1943)

''The Seventh Cross'' (1944)

''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944)

''State of the Union'' (1948)

''Adam's Rib'' (1949)

''Father of the Bride'' (1950)

''Pat and Mike'' (1952)

''Broken Lance'' (1954)

''Bad Day at Black Rock'' (1955)

''The Mountain'' (1956)

''Desk Set'' (1957)

''The Old Man and the Sea'' (1958)

''The Last Hurrah'' (1958)

''Inherit the Wind'' (1960)

''Judgment at Nuremberg'' (1961)

''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963)

''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'' (1967)

References

Sources

External links

Profile @ Turner Classic Movies

Chang, David A. "Spencer Tracy's Boyhood: Truth, Fiction, and Hollywood Dreams," ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 84, no. 1 (Autumn 2000)

Spencer Tracy in the Wisconsin Birth Records, 1900 US Census, 1905 Wisconsin Census, 1910 US Census, Ohio Marriage Records, 1930 US Census, and Social Security Death Index.

Category:1900 births Category:1967 deaths Category:American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni Category:American film actors Category:California Democrats Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:20th-century actors Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Drama Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of English descent Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Actors from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Category:Ripon College (Wisconsin) alumni Category:United States Navy sailors Category:American military personnel from Wisconsin

an:Spencer Tracy be:Спенсер Трэйсі bg:Спенсър Трейси bs:Spencer Tracy ca:Spencer Tracy cs:Spencer Tracy cy:Spencer Tracy da:Spencer Tracy de:Spencer Tracy et:Spencer Tracy el:Σπένσερ Τρέισι es:Spencer Tracy eo:Spencer Tracy eu:Spencer Tracy fa:اسپنسر تریسی fr:Spencer Tracy fy:Spencer Tracy gl:Spencer Tracy hy:Սփենսեր Թրեյսի hr:Spencer Tracy io:Spencer Tracy id:Spencer Tracy it:Spencer Tracy he:ספנסר טרייסי kn:ಸ್ಪೆನ್ಸರ್ ಟ್ರೇಸಿ la:Spencer Tracy lv:Spensers Treisijs hu:Spencer Tracy mk:Спенсер Трејси nl:Spencer Tracy ja:スペンサー・トレイシー no:Spencer Tracy oc:Spencer Tracy pl:Spencer Tracy pt:Spencer Tracy ro:Spencer Tracy ru:Трейси, Спенсер simple:Spencer Tracy sr:Спенсер Трејси sh:Spencer Tracy fi:Spencer Tracy sv:Spencer Tracy tl:Spencer Tracy ta:ஸ்பென்சர் ட்ரேசி th:สเปนเซอร์ เทรซี tr:Spencer Tracy uk:Спенсер Трейсі vi:Spencer Tracy yo:Spencer Tracy zh:史賓塞·屈賽