Spencer Tracy Movies

Want to know the best Spencer Tracy movies?  How about the worst Spencer Tracy movies?  Curious about Spencer Tracy’s box office grosses or which Spencer Tracy movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Spencer Tracy movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Fox Films signed Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) to his first movie contract. His first movie was Up the River, directed by John Ford and co-starred another newcomer, Humphrey Bogart.  For the next five years, Tracy appeared in nearly five films a year. Most of these films were low budget films that were forgotten as soon as they were produced. Just how bad were this movies? After making Dante’s Inferno in 1935, Tracy’s contract was terminated. Being fired was Spencer Tracy’s big break, as it allowed him to sign a contract with MGM. At MGM, Spencer Tracy became one of the greatest actors of all-time. This page has every movie he made from 1935 to 1967.

His IMDb page shows 78 acting credits from 1930-1967. This page will rank 60 Spencer Tracy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and many of his early Fox Films’ movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Spencer Tracy, Judy Holliday and Katharine Hepburn in 1949's Adam's Rib
Spencer Tracy, Judy Holliday and Katharine Hepburn in 1949’s Adam’s Rib

Spencer Tracy Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Spencer Tracy Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Spencer Tracy movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Spencer Tracy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Spencer Tracy movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Spencer Tracy movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Spencer Tracy movie received.
  • Sort Spencer Tracy movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive.  For example type in “Katharine Hepburn” in the search box…and the Hepburn/Tracy movies pop right up

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Spencer Tracy Table

  1. Thirty-one Spencer Tracy movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 51.66% of his movies listed. How the West Was Won (1963) was his biggest box office ht just barely holding off 1936’s San Francisco.
  2. An average Spencer Tracy movie grosses $149.80 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  43 of Spencer Tracy’s movies are rated as good movies…or 71.66% of his movies. Adam’s Rib (1949) is his highest rated movie while Plymouth Adventure (1952) was his lowest rated movie.
  4. Thirty Spencer Tracy movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 50.00% of his movies.
  5. Twelve Spencer Tracy movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 20.00% of his movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00.  42 Spencer Tracy movies scored higher than that average….or 70.00% of his movies.  Boys Town (1938) got the the highest UMR Score while Up the River (1930) got the lowest UMR Score.
Spencer Tracy in 1963's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Spencer Tracy in 1963’s It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Possibly Interesting Facts About Sir Spencer Tracy

1. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy ninth among the Greatest Male Actors of All-Time.

2. He received 9 Oscar(®) nominations for Best Actor.…..he won twice…for 1937’s Captain Courageous and 1938’s Boys Town.

3. Spencer Tracy joins Luise Rainer, Jason Robards, Katharine Hepburn and Tom Hanks as the only actors to win back to back acting Oscars®.

4. Spencer Tracy had to drop out of the movies, Cheyenne Autumn and The Cincinnati Kid, due to health issues, both times his part was played by Edward G. Robinson.

5. In the Oscar(®) winning Pixar movie Up, Carl the main character is a combination of Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau….the next time you see Up try and not think of Spencer Tracy whenever Carl is on screen….it can not be done.

6. Turned down Cary Grant’s role in The Philadelphia Story in order to make Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

7. Along with Katharine Hepburn, visited an ailing Humphrey Bogart almost daily as he was dying of cancer…..while Katharine Hepburn was with Spencer Tracy on the night he died.  Tracy died only 17 days after filming of 1967’s Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner had been completed.

8. Has three films on the American Film Institute`s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: Captains Courageous (1937) at #94, Boys Town (1938) at #81 and Guess Who`s Coming to Dinner (1967) at #35.

9. The John Tracy Clinic is a private, non-profit education center for infants and preschool children with hearing loss in Los Angeles, California. It was founded by Lousie Treadwell Tracy , wife of actor Spencer Tracy, in 1942. It provides free, parent-centered services worldwide. The Clinic has over 60 years of expertise in the spoken language option.

10.  Recently I discovered one awesome Spencer Tracy tribute site.  Highly recommend checking out The Greatest of All Spencer Tracy.  This site has some awesome Spencer Tracy photos, links to Spencer Tracy information and much much more.

Check out Spencer Tracy’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Proof of possibly interesting fact # 5 about Spencer Tracy.

 

For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

(Visited 2 times)

87 thoughts on “Spencer Tracy Movies”

  1. Hey Frank…..thanks for stopping by…..Tracy got a nomination for Best Actor for Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner….but he did not win. It was his 9th and final nomination. Katharine Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for the movie. As for Hanks….Forrest Gump has a big group of people that do not like the movie….I liked it and I really liked Hanks in the role. I would re-watch Gump over Philadelphia 99 times out of 100. Good stuff.

    Reply

  2. Spencer Tracy won a third Oscar for the film Guess Who is Coming to Dinner?
    Also, many thought Tom Hanks did not deserve a second Oscar.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.