Acting : The Price of Greatness- The Pain of Actors by Kirby Britten

After watching the double Emmy winning documentary, 'The Spencer Tracy Legacy' -A Tribute By Katharine Hepburn (1986). Though I was keenly aware of the genius Mr. Tracy brought to his work and on screen throughout a most celebrated career, and his career is one to know for anyone who dares to become an actor. In watching the special I was informed of the personal demons that pulled on Tracy's life and dealt serious blows to his private world that he so much guarded. The chronic alcohol addiction, a decade of fighting insomnia and his only son born total deaf, damaged the man...but not his art. Here, was a remarkable artist standing at the top of his game. He had become the greatest film actor alive and he couldn't stand to enter his own life. At the end of the film, the great Ms. Hepburn and Tracy's private companion for 25 years is seen sitting in casual comforts in her home. She reads a letter that she explains she wrote to Spencer years after he died on June 10, 1967. With her voice cracking in between parts and the water buildup in her eyes, she read. "What was it Spence, what was it my darling? Living was hard for you, but we laughed together. What was it Spence...why couldn't you sleep? You took the pills, they were strong enough. You became all those men on screen, you could do anything with the greatest of ease on camera; except your remarkable self, my love. Why were you always running Spence? What was your pain? What did you say? I can't hear you, my darling." When she finished that four-page letter...I was in tears. -Kirby Britten