Spencer Tracy

(Paperback)

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Description

The complete, compelling, turbulent life of one of the greatest of all screen actors During his lifetime, Spencer Tracy was known as Hollywood's 'actor's actor'. Critics wrote that what Olivier was to theatre, Tracy was to film. Over his career he was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won two. But there has been no substantial, intimate biography of the man, until now. From his earliest days in stock theatre, Tracy was a publicist's trial, guarding his private life fiercely. Most of the people associated closely with him shunned the limelight - notably his wife, his children and the great actress Katharine Hepburn, with whom he had an affair that lasted over 26 years. Although his screen roles often depicted a happy, twinkling Irishman, Tracy struggled with alchoholism to the end, a fact which the studios managed to keep out of the papers. With the help of Tracy's daughter, Susie, and access to previously unseen papers, James Curtis has now produced the definitive biography of a tortured, complex and immensely talented man. The book contains 124 integrated photos, many published for the first time.

Reviews

The definitive account of a womaniser, drunk and brilliant actor, and his decades-long affair with Katharine Hepburn * Sunday Times *
Curtis's biography weaves a fascinating, not to say definitive portrait of an individual both naively simple and immensely complex. * Mail on Sunday *

Author Bio

James Curtis was born in Los Angeles and graduated from California State University at Fullerton. He is the author of numerous biographies, among them W.C. Fields; James Whale- A New World of Gods and Monsters and Between Flops, a biography of Preston Sturges. He lives with his wife in Brea, California.