Tracy’s five years with Fox featured one acting triumph after another that went largely unnoticed at the box office, and despite 25 films, nearly all of which starred him as the leading man, he remained largely unknown to moviegoers.
None of them were big hits, despite the fact that his performance in The Power and the Glory (1933) was praised at the time.
Spencer Tracy Children: John Ten Broeck Tracy, Louise Treadwell Tracy
John Ten Broeck Tracy, their son, was born in June 1924. Louise discovered that John was deaf when he was ten months old. For three months, she resisted telling Tracy.
Tracy was devastated by the news and has lived with guilt for the rest of his life because of his son’s deafness. He believed John’s hearing loss was a punishment for his own transgressions.
As a result, Tracy struggled to connect with his son and grew estranged from his family.
Tracy’s friend Joseph L. Mankiewicz later theorized: “[Tracy] stayed with Louise. He walked away from the scene of his wrongdoing.”
Louise “Susie” Treadwell Tracy, the couple’s second child, was born in July 1932. The children were brought up in the Episcopal faith of their mother.