Spencer Tracy’s Death – Cause and Date
The movie actor Spencer Tracy died at the age of 67. Here is all you want to know, and more!
Biography - A Short Wiki
Received nine Academy Award nominations for Best Actor across his career and won the award two years in a row for the films Captains Courageous (1938) and Boys Town (1939).
He was married to Louis Tracy from 1923 to 1967. He dated actress and frequent co-star Katharine Hepburn from 1941 until his death 26 years later.
How did Spencer Tracy die?
The actor did not take care of himself towards the end of his life. His way of living included cigarettes, pills, and obesity, leading to poor health.
- 1963 (July 21): Tracy suffered a severe attack of breathlessness and was hospitalized. The doctors learned he had fluid accumulated in his lungs because his heart was unable to pump correctly, a condition known as pulmonary edema. In addition, his blood pressure was very high.
- 1965 (January): Tracy was diagnosed with hypertensive heart disease. He also began treatment for Type II diabetes which he had previously been diagnosed with.
- 1965 (September): He almost died of kidney failure in the hospital when convalescing following a prostatectomy. The doctors called it “a kind of miracle” when he recovered.
- 1967 (June 10): Tracy dies from a heart attack in his Beverly Hills apartment at age 67. He woke up at 3:00 am to make himself a cup of tea in the kitchen. As his partner, Katharine Hepburn, shortly after enters the kitchen, she hears the tea cup clash, followed by the thud of her husband falling to the ground.
Katharine Hepburn outlined Tracy’s death in her autobiography. Another source, MGM publicist Howard Strickling, claimed Tracy died alone and was found by his housekeeper.
Funeral
On June 12, 1967, a Requiem Mass was held for Tracy at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in East Hollywood. Many celebrities were attending. Among the active pallbearers were Frank Sinatra, Stanley Kramer, John Ford, James Stewart, and George Cukor.
Katharine Hepburn did not attend the funeral out of respect for Tracy’s wife and family.
Burial
The actor’s final resting place is in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, next to his wife Louise, daughter Susie and son John.
Quotes
""Concentrate, don't embroider."
""Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture."
""Acting is not the noblest profession in the world, but there are things lower than acting. Not many, mind you - but politicians give you something to look down on from time to time."
""It is up to us to give ourselves recognition. If we wait for it to come from others, we feel resentful when it doesn't, and when it does, we may well reject it."
""I'm disappointed in acting as a craft. I want everything to go back to Orson Welles and fake noses and changing your voice. It's become so much about personality."