Book description
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.
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.
