Born Apr. 5, 1900, in Milwaukee, Wis.; died June 10, 1967, in Beverly Hills, Calif. American film actor.

Tracy graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Art and made his theatrical debut in 1922. He first appeared in motion pictures in 1930 in Up the River. He created profoundly individual and human characters in his portrayal of the flight mechanic Gunner in Test Pilot (1938), Father Flanagan in Boys’ Town (1938), and Edison in Edison the Man (1940). Tracy’s greatest creative achievements came in films that raised important social issues and in which he generally played characters struggling for justice in difficult and dramatic circumstances. Such roles as Colonel Drummond in Inherit the Wind (1960) and Judge Hayward in Judgement at Nuremberg (1961), both directed by S. Kramer, established Tracy as one of the finest actors in the American cinema.

Tracy also starred in Fury (1936), Captains Courageous (1937), Stanley and Livingstone (1939), The Seventh Cross (1944), The Old Man and the Sea (1958), and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).