"I’ve never known what acting is. Who can honestly say what it is? A lot of people try, and they criticize actors, but I don’t think they make sense. I wonder what actors are supposed to be, if not themselves."
Katharine Hepburn never saw Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, could never bear to, Katharine Houghton saw it only after she was asked to accept the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor on Tracy’s behalf in August 1968.
“That last speech of Tracy’s was a killer,” she said. “At the award ceremony they showed the film, and afterward I was supposed to go up and make an acceptance speech. I got up to the podium and burst into tears. I couldn’t say anything except ‘Thank you.’ Anna Magnani threw her arms around me and said something charming like, ‘In Italy we respect tears, not words. You do not have to speak.’”
Spencer Tracy: A Biography | James Curtis
