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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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1964
as Senator Robert A. Taft
1964
as Space in 'Bombshell' (archive footage)
1964
as President Art Hockstader
1962
1961
1961
1959
as Lee Cochran
1949
1949
1947
as Hugh Fresney
1945
as Gabriel Patton
1945
as Eddie Carter
1943
as Griff Thompson
1942
as Brad McKay
1940
as Nick Burton
1939
as Jed Marlowe
1939
as Charlie "Fixer" Dugan
1938
as Michael Winslow
1937
as Eddie Haines
1937
as Brandon
1937
as Himself - Ringmaster
1936
as Tom Mallory
1936
as Pete Perkin
1935
as Pirate (uncredited)
1935
as Hap Hurley
1935
as Chick Thompson
1934
as Wally Brooks aka The Lemon Drop Kid
1934
as Bud Hannigan
1934
as Stanley Brown
1933
as Max Kane
1933
as Toby Prentiss
1933
as E.J. 'Space' Hanlon
1933
as Joe Gimlet
1933
as Joseph Phineas 'Joe' Stevens
1933
as Pvt. William 'Bill' Jones
1933
as Buckley Joyce Thomas
1932
as Jimmy Bates
1932
as Button Gwinett Brown
1932
as Alvin Roberts
1932
as Mayor Bobby Kingston
1932
as Lee Taylor
1932
as Stanley Fiske
1932
as Scott 'Scotty' Cornell
1930
1930
as The Buzzard
1930
as Bill O'Brien
1929
as Eddie Burns
1929
as Radio Announcer (uncredited)