Review by Booklist Review
Although he's been dead for 20 years, Spencer Tracy continues to be recognized as one of Hollywood's foremost talents, the proverbial actor's actor. There have been several biographies devoted to Tracy, but this account tells his story from a slightly different angle, viewing his alcoholism and depression as the primary shapers of his life. Naturally, there is much about Tracy's relationship with Katharine Hepburn, who is praised by people such as Gene Kelly, Robert Wagner, and director Stanley Kramer for extending Tracy's life through her solicitous care. Many of the quotes and anecdotes will be familiar to Tracy's fans, but the text also contains new, interesting material, particularly the sensitive exploration of the actor's health problems. Still, questions about the enigmatic Tracy remain. As Davidson says while puzzling over what would set Tracy off on an alcoholic binge, ``Probably only Katharine Hepburn knows . . . and she will not talk about it.'' To include photos and an index. IC. 791.43'028 (B) Tracy, Spencer / Actors-U.S.-Biography [OCLC] 87-36428
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Davidson (The Gary Coleman Story, etc.) dwells overlong on attempts to explain the late actor's periodic alcoholic binges and their tragic effects. And there are some slips: commenting on the father-son bond between Tracy and George M. Cohan, he says that the latter was only 12 years older; the difference was 22 years. Cohan sponsored the actor's early stage career on Broadway, Tracy's goal after leaving Milwaukee where he was born in 1900. It was an apprenticeship that led him to Hollywood in 1930, playing roles in 75 films and winning two Oscars out of seven nominations. The best parts of the book are reminiscences by Katharine Hepburn, director Stanley Kramer, actors and others who loved, or disliked, the incomparable performer known for such classics as Judgment at Nuremberg, Boys' Town, etc. The consensus voiced by Sir Laurence Olivier is that Tracy was the greatest actor of his time. As for his lapses, James Cagney's words serve as an epitaph: ``Sure he was a fallible human . . . . What counts is what he did on the screen. People are always imitating me and other actors. Well nobody imitates Tracy. Nobody can imitate Tracy.'' Photos. Author tour. (April) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
``Too ugly to be a leading man, not ugly enough to be a villain,'' ventured a casting agent on Tracy's chances in the movies. Too talented to be ignored, he might have added. Unfortunately, Tracy was dogged by a not unusual demon of the gifted: booze. His dark side was long concealed by studio publicists. Davidson tries to reconcile the often drunken, contentious Tracy with his compassionate persona. But he doesn't indulge in excessive psychoanalysis or dwell on Tracy's extramarital activity, except for respectfully evoking his legendary romance with Kate Hepburn. An interesting biography of a paradoxical man; for general collections. Jeff T. Dick, Decatur P.L., Ill. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Pure gold, Hollywood biography the way it should be told--and may other celebrity biographers take it for a model. Davidson--once he has sketched in Tracy's youth in Milwaukee, early marriage, and young manhood on the road--tells great swatches of the actor's stow from the mouths of eyewitnesses, a tape-recording technique that builds and deepens cracklingly without the muffling effect of rewriting interviews into the third person. Davidson must have an elephant's memory. His own interviews with Tracy go back many decades, as do his tapes of Tracy's coworkers (Sid Caesar, Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Kelly, Pat O'Brien, Richard Widmark, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Wagner, Elia Kazan, etc.) that Davidson has gathered in the course of writing nine previous celebrity bios. Tracy's alcoholism has long been known, but Davidson works up a year-by-year account of Tracy's battle with his demon. He also clearly agrees with recovering alcoholic Dana Andrews' view that a drinking actor should not have his dumb fights and broken furniture and police bookings hidden from the press by studio publicity managers. The alcoholic should be allowed to hit bottom, where he might perhaps wake up to the consequences of his illness and seek help. Despite booze, Tracy was a quick study with a phenomenal memory and learned his craft easily. He liked to attribute his uncanny stage presence to working with George M. Cohan, but fellow Milwaukeean Pat O'Brien tells that Tracy's underplaying was already in place before he left Milwaukee. His marriage foundered on his philandering and famed disappearances (he would rent a hotel room, stock the bathroom with whiskey and live in the bathtub for a week). At first, his Catholicism and family commitment (his son was born deaf) prevented a marriage to Katharine Hepburn; later, he said that Kate wouldn't marry him. He remained almost crippingly insecure about his talent to his dying day. Digs in, especially about craft in the later pages. And don't be surprised by a few tears blurring the page. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
