Lee Tracy

Lee Tracy

Born: April 13, 1898
Died: October 18, 1968
in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American actor. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in the 1964 film The Best Man. In 1929, Tracy arrived in Hollywood, where he played the role of newspapermen in several films. He, for example, played a Walter Winchell-type gossip columnist in Blessed Event (1932). Tracy also starred as the columnist in Advice to the Lovelorn (1933), very loosely based on the novel Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West; and he played a conscience-stricken editor in the 1943 drama The Power of the Press, based on a story by former newspaperman Samuel Fuller.

Tracy played "The Buzzard," the criminal who leads Liliom (Charles Farrell) into a fatal robbery, in the film version of Liliom (1930). He also played Lupe Vélez's frenetic manager in Gregory LaCava's The Half-Naked Truth (1932) and portrayed John Barrymore's agent in Dinner at Eight (1933), directed by George Cukor.

Lee Tracy's flourishing film career was temporarily disrupted on 19 November 1933, while he was on location in Mexico filming the Wallace Beery vehicle Viva Villa! According to the actor and producer Desi Arnaz, in his published autobiography The Book (1976), Tracy stood on a balcony in Mexico City and urinated down onto a passing military parade. Elsewhere in his autobiography, Arnaz claims that from then on, if one watched other crowds of spectators, they would visibly disperse any time an American stepped out onto a balcony. However, other crew members there at the time disputed this story, giving a sharply different account of events. In his autobiography, Charles G. Clarke, the cinematographer on the picture, said that he was standing outside the hotel during the parade and the incident never happened. Tracy, he said, was standing on the balcony observing the parade when a Mexican in the street below made an obscene gesture at him. Tracy replied in kind; and the next day a local newspaper printed a story that, in effect, Tracy had insulted Mexico, Mexicans in general, and their national flag in particular. The story caused an uproar in Mexico, and MGM decided to sacrifice Tracy in order to be allowed to continue filming there. The young actor Stuart Erwin replaced Tracy. The film's original director, Howard Hawks, was also fired for his refusal to testify against Tracy. Jack Conway replaced him.

During World War II, Tracy returned to military service. Later, he had two television series in the 1950s. One was Martin Kane: Private Eye, in which he was one of four actors to play the title role. The others were William Gargan, Lloyd Nolan, and Mark Stevens. In 1958, he returned to a newspaper reporter role in the syndicated New York Confidential. After World War II, his screen career was largely relegated to television, but he portrayed the former President of the United States, Art Hockstader, a character loosely based on Harry Truman, in both the stage and film versions of The Best Man (1964), written by Gore Vidal. The movie version featured Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Tracy received his only Academy Award nomination, as Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in the film.

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Movies for Lee Tracy...

Title: Profiles in Courage
Character: Senator Robert A. Taft
Released: November 8, 1964
Type: TV
Profiles in Courage is an American historical anthology series that was telecast weekly on NBC from November 8, 1964 to May 9, 1965. The series was based on the recently President John F. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Profiles in Courage.
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The Big Parade of Comedy
Title: The Big Parade of Comedy
Character: (archive footage)
Released: September 2, 1964
Type: Movie
Film clips highlight the funniest scenes and brightest comic stars in MGM's history.
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The Best Man
Title: The Best Man
Character: President Art Hockstader
Released: April 5, 1964
Type: Movie
The other party is in disarray. Five men vie for the party nomination for president. No one has a majority as the first ballot closes and the front-runners begin to decide how badly they want the job.
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Title: Going My Way
Released: October 3, 1962
Type: TV
Going My Way is an American comedy-drama series
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Title: Ben Casey
Released: October 2, 1961
Type: TV
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, ✳, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph Ransohoff was a medical consultant for the show and may have influenced the personality of the title character.
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Title: 87th Precinct
Released: September 25, 1961
Type: TV
87th Precinct is an American crime drama starring Robert Lansing, Gena Rowlands, and Ron Harper, which aired on NBC on Monday evenings during the 1961–1962 television season.
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Title: New York Confidential
Character: Lee Cochran
Released: January 1, 1959
Type: TV
New York Confidential is a British-American crime drama series that aired from 1958 to 1959. The series aired in syndicated in the United States and was broadcast on London's local ITV station, Associated-Rediffusion, in the UK. It was co-produced by ITC Entertainment, Metropolis Productions, Inc., and Television Programs of America.
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Title: Martin Kane, Private Eye
Released: September 1, 1949
Type: TV
Martin Kane, Private Eye was an early radio series and television crime series sponsored by United States Tobacco Company.
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Title: Lights Out
Released: July 19, 1949
Type: TV
Lights Out was an extremely popular American old-time radio program, an early example of a network series devoted mostly to horror and the supernatural, predating Suspense and Inner Sanctum. Versions of Lights Out aired on different networks, at various times, from January 1934 to the summer of 1947 and the series eventually made the transition to television. In 1946, NBC Television brought Lights Out to TV in a series of four specials, broadcast live and produced by Fred Coe, who also contributed three of the scripts. NBC asked Cooper to write the script for the premiere, "First Person Singular", which is told entirely from the point of view of an unseen murderer who kills his obnoxious wife and winds up being executed. Variety gave this first episode a rave review ("undoubtedly one of the best dramatic shows yet seen on a television screen"), but Lights Out did not become a regular NBC-TV series until 1949.
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High Tide
Title: High Tide
Character: Hugh Fresney
Released: September 13, 1947
Type: Movie
A car accident traps two men inside a car near the water. With the tide coming in, they discuss the circumstances that led up to the accident.
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I'll Tell the World
Title: I'll Tell the World
Character: Gabriel Patton
Released: June 8, 1945
Type: Movie
A PR man saves a struggling radio station from ruin.
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Betrayal from the East
Title: Betrayal from the East
Character: Eddie Carter
Released: April 24, 1945
Type: Movie
A carnival showman tries to keep Japanese spies from sabotaging the Panama Canal.
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Power of the Press
Title: Power of the Press
Character: Griff Thompson
Released: January 29, 1943
Type: Movie
During WWII, the publisher of the isolationist New York Gazette is murdered just as he was about to change the paper's policy and support the US war effort. His friend, a small town patriotic editor, is brought in to find the culprits.
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The Payoff
Title: The Payoff
Character: Brad McKay
Released: November 24, 1942
Type: Movie
The city's District Attorney is murdered, and a newspaper reporter investigates. He starts finding out that everything wasn't quite as cut and dried as it appeared to be.
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Millionaires in Prison
Title: Millionaires in Prison
Character: Nick Burton
Released: July 12, 1940
Type: Movie
A crop of millionaire inmates struggle to get accustomed to prison life, while inmate Nick Burton watches out for everyone's interests on the inside.
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The Spellbinder
Title: The Spellbinder
Character: Jed Marlowe
Released: July 28, 1939
Type: Movie
Jed Marlowe is a brilliant, scheming, unscrupulous criminal lawyer whose specialty is defending criminal he knows is guilty but gets them off through loop-holes or bribery. Then his daughter, misled by her father’s courtroom performance, but unaware of his back-room tactics, marries the killer her father has just unjustly save from the electric chair. What’s a poor father to do?
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Fixer Dugan
Title: Fixer Dugan
Character: Charlie "Fixer" Dugan
Released: April 21, 1939
Type: Movie
Charlie Dugan is a quick-thinking boss of a traveling circus playing small towns in Missouri and Kansas.
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Crashing Hollywood
Title: Crashing Hollywood
Character: Michael Winslow
Released: January 7, 1938
Type: Movie
A true-to-life gangster movie stirs up an all out mob assault on Hollywood.
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Behind The Headlines
Title: Behind The Headlines
Character: Eddie Haines
Released: May 14, 1937
Type: Movie
A radio reporter sets out to rescue his ex-girlfriend when she is kidnapped by gangsters.
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Criminal Lawyer
Title: Criminal Lawyer
Character: Brandon
Released: January 29, 1937
Type: Movie
Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. Finding that she is penniless, Brandon hires her as his secretary, and falls in love with her. Brandon is appointed district attorney and has ambitions of becoming the state governor. Having dinner at Betty's home, she maneuvers him, while he is drunk, into marrying her. Later, Madge is a witness when Larkin shoots down a fellow gangster. By threatening Brandon's life, he forces her to commit perjury at his trial, and say he fired in self-defense. Brandon, the prosecuting attorney (who has had his marriage to Betty annulled) knows she is lying but doesn't know why.
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Cinema Circus
Title: Cinema Circus
Character: Himself - Ringmaster
Released: January 27, 1937
Type: Movie
Actor Lee Tracy presides as ringmaster over a show that combines the best elements of cinema with the circus, what he calls a Cinema Circus. Tracy introduces a number of professional circus acts, plus a cavalcade of movie stars who have side shows under the open air big tent. There is as much action in the audience as Tracy identifies a number of movie stars watching the proceedings incognito, having their own fun in the stands, and sometimes interacting with the circus acts.
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Wanted: Jane Turner
Title: Wanted: Jane Turner
Character: Tom Mallory
Released: December 4, 1936
Type: Movie
Investigators set out to capture a gang of thieves transporting stolen cash through the U.S. mail.
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Sutter's Gold
Title: Sutter's Gold
Character: Pete Perkin
Released: March 1, 1936
Type: Movie
Story of the gold strike on an immigrant's property that started the 1849 California Gold Rush.
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Pirate Party on Catalina Isle
Title: Pirate Party on Catalina Isle
Character: Pirate (uncredited)
Released: November 20, 1935
Type: Movie
Various Hollywood performers put on a pirate-themed variety show on Catalina Island, with a number of amiable stars in the audience.
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Two-Fisted
Title: Two-Fisted
Character: Hap Hurley
Released: October 3, 1935
Type: Movie
A fast-talking boxing manager and the somewhat hapless fighter he manages happen to run into a young man who was a good prizefighter in his day but is now out of the sport and has a drinking problem. They decide to train him for a big match, and in the process find themselves involved in romance, shady characters and a possible kidnapping.
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Carnival
Title: Carnival
Character: Chick Thompson
Released: February 15, 1935
Type: Movie
"Chick" Thompson is a puppet-master in a traveling carnival whose wife dies in childbirth and leaves him with an infant son he names "Poochy." His father-in-law and the baby's grandfather sues him for custody of the baby and Chick takes his son and hides out for a couple of years. He joins his former assistants, Daisy and "Fingers", in a circus act only to find that the persistent grandfather is still on his trail.
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The Lemon Drop Kid
Title: The Lemon Drop Kid
Character: Wally Brooks aka The Lemon Drop Kid
Released: September 27, 1934
Type: Movie
The Lemon Drop Kid is a fast-talking racetrack bum who swindles $100 from an old, ailing man. He takes it on the lam with his sidekick, The Professor.
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You Belong to Me
Title: You Belong to Me
Character: Bud Hannigan
Released: September 8, 1934
Type: Movie
When vaudeville performer Florette Faxon is left penniless with her six-year-old son Jimmy, she relies on the friendship of fellow performer Bud Hannigan to help her get a job. Bud is reluctant to become her partner, as he has proven to himself to be unreliable in relationships, but he tells her to call him whenever she needs help. While working in a beer garden, Florette meets Hap Stanley, an avaricious performer who marries her to get the rights to perform her show routine. Hap dislikes Jimmy and eventually convinces Florette to send him away to school. Both Jimmy and Florette are broken-up over being apart, but Jimmy pretends it is what he wants so Florette can be happy with Hap.
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I'll Tell the World
Title: I'll Tell the World
Character: Stanley Brown
Released: April 20, 1934
Type: Movie
Lee Tracy once again plays a Winchellesque newspaper reporter in Universal's I'll Tell the World. More interested in his sex life than his career, news hawk Brown nonetheless agrees to cover the activities of a European archduke on behalf of his wire service.
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Dinner at Eight
Title: Dinner at Eight
Character: Max Kane
Released: December 22, 1933
Type: Movie
An ambitious New York socialite plans an extravagant dinner party as her businessman husband, Oliver, contends with financial woes, causing a lot of tension between the couple. Meanwhile, their high-society friends and associates, including the gruff Dan Packard and his sultry spouse, Kitty, contend with their own entanglements, leading to revelations at the much-anticipated dinner.
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Advice to the Lovelorn
Title: Advice to the Lovelorn
Character: Toby Prentiss
Released: December 1, 1933
Type: Movie
Los Angeles newspaper reporter Toby Prentiss is continually in trouble with his editor. He is demoted to running the paper's "Miss Lonelyhearts" advice column because he missed the scoop on a major earthquake whilst out on the town. Determined to be fired from the column he starts to give crazy advice to the readers, but this only makes him even more popular.
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Bombshell
Title: Bombshell
Character: E.J. 'Space' Hanlon
Released: October 13, 1933
Type: Movie
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
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Turn Back the Clock
Title: Turn Back the Clock
Character: Joe Gimlet
Released: August 25, 1933
Type: Movie
While recuperating in a hospital after he's hit by an automobile, a struggling shopowner dreams what his life might have been like if he'd made different choices twenty years earlier.
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The Nuisance
Title: The Nuisance
Character: Joseph Phineas 'Joe' Stevens
Released: June 3, 1933
Type: Movie
Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized.
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Private Jones
Title: Private Jones
Character: Pvt. William 'Bill' Jones
Released: March 25, 1933
Type: Movie
After America enters World War I, young William "Bill" Jones tries to avoid military service by telling the draft board that he is the sole supporter of his family and is employed by businessman Roger Winthrop, his sister Helen's boss.
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Clear All Wires!
Title: Clear All Wires!
Character: Buckley Joyce Thomas
Released: February 24, 1933
Type: Movie
Buckley is an unethical reporter who manipulates the news for his own benefit as much as he reports it. When he is in Paris to get a medal for being rescued from his alleged kidnappers, he finds that his boss, Stevens, at the Chicago Globe is going with his old gal Dolly. When Stevens learns that Dolly is staying with Buckley in Moscow, he fires Buckley. To get his job back, Buckley and Lefty stage a great news story about the shooting of the last Romanoff, but the plan backfires and they are now in line to be shot by the Commissar.
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The Half-Naked Truth
Title: The Half-Naked Truth
Character: Bates
Released: December 16, 1932
Type: Movie
A barker at a down-at-the-heels carnival becomes a powerhouse New York publicity man as he transforms a sideshow dancer into a Broadway sensation.
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Washington Merry-Go-Round
Title: Washington Merry-Go-Round
Character: Button Gwinett Brown
Released: October 15, 1932
Type: Movie
Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton...
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Blessed Event
Title: Blessed Event
Character: Alvin Roberts
Released: September 10, 1932
Type: Movie
A New York gossip columnist feuds with a singer and enjoys the power of the press.
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The Night Mayor
Title: The Night Mayor
Character: Mayor Bobby Kingston
Released: August 18, 1932
Type: Movie
Opportunistic film seeking to capitalize on a scandal in New York mayor Jimmy Walker's office before his name was out of the newspapers. Tracy plays a mayor who has a penchant for the night life, sports, the theater, and an actress, Knapp. When scandal rocks his administration, Tracy has his girl friend marry Dillaway, a writer friend, so that the press will leave him alone.
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Doctor X
Title: Doctor X
Character: Lee Taylor
Released: August 3, 1932
Type: Movie
A wisecracking New York reporter intrudes on a research scientist's quest to unmask The Moon Killer.
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Love Is a Racket
Title: Love Is a Racket
Character: Stanley Fiske
Released: June 18, 1932
Type: Movie
A gossip columnist helps a Broadway ingenue who's beholden to a penthouse gangster.
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The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
Title: The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
Character: Scott 'Scotty' Cornell
Released: May 28, 1932
Type: Movie
A fast-talking reporter befriends a young woman and her male companion who are wanted for a policeman's shooting.
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She Got What She Wanted
Title: She Got What She Wanted
Released: November 9, 1930
Type: Movie
Mahyna, a dissatisfied Russian peasant girl, marries Boris and comes to New York in search of "the soul of love," only to become a drudge in their cheap flat. Meanwhile, Boris, a bookshop keeper, dreams of a prosperous future from the book he is writing. Their boarder, Dave, a partner in a gambling establishment, makes a play for Mahyna; she is tempted to leave with him when Eddie, a former admirer, arrives on the scene, and the two get into constant arguments over her.
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Liliom
Title: Liliom
Character: The Buzzard
Released: September 27, 1930
Type: Movie
A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. Because of the robbery, he dies, and after spending time in hell, is sent back to earth for one day to try to make amends.
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Born Reckless
Title: Born Reckless
Character: Bill O'Brien
Released: May 11, 1930
Type: Movie
In order to use the publicity to get re-elected, a judge sentences a notorious gangster to fight in the war.
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Big Time
Title: Big Time
Character: Eddie Burns
Released: September 7, 1929
Type: Movie
The relationship between a male dancer and his actress girlfriend is threatened by a scheming chorister.
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Salute
Title: Salute
Character: Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Released: September 1, 1929
Type: Movie
A comedy-romance about rival brothers attending a military academy.