Spencer Tracy book: Triumphs, transgressions

October 3, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

By Susan King

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES

According to James Curtis, author of the new 1,056-page “Spencer Tracy: A Biography,” it could have been actress Loretta Young who became the love of Tracy’s life, not Katharine Hepburn, his partner for 26 years and with whom he made nine films.

Tracy and Young, both Catholics, began their romance while working together on the 1933 Depression-era drama “A Man’s Castle.” Though Tracy was married to Louise Treadwell, the illicit pair would go to Mass and confessions together.

“I think they were drawn together because of the shared bond of faith,” said Curtis, who spent six years on the book, drawing from Tracy’s own papers and obtaining the cooperation of the actor’s daughter, Susie Tracy.

But it was also their faith that caused the relationship to end after about a year. Tracy wouldn’t divorce Treadwell, and Young wouldn’t have married a divorced man.

Hepburn didn’t have such hang-ups. Tracy met her on the set of George Stevens’ 1942 classic romantic comedy “Woman of the Year.”

“Hepburn really kind of inserted herself into Tracy’s life,” said Curtis. “She fell madly in love with him, though she was never sure that he felt the same way about her. They had some rough times, but she was absolutely devoted to him.

The Milwaukee-born Tracy, considered an actor’s actor, won two Academy Awards. He moved effortlessly between comedies such as 1950’s “Father of the Bride” and dramas such as 1961’s “Judgment at Nuremberg.”

But Tracy was beset with demons, including a drinking problem, guilt over his marital affairs and that his son, John Tracy, was born deaf.

Susie Tracy is thrilled that Curtis’ book offers new insights into her mother, who stayed married to Tracy for more than 40 years and founded the John Tracy Clinic for the deaf.

Tracy said that her dad was very much like the charming, devoted father of Elizabeth Taylor in “Father of the Bride” and 1951’s “Father’s Little Dividend.”

It was director- producer Stanley Kramer who gave Tracy a splashy final act, casting him in 1960’s “Inherit the Wind,” “Judgment at Nuremberg,” 1963’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (after which he had a massive heart attack) and 1967’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (the frail 67-year-old Tracy died just two weeks after its completion).