The greatest actor James Cagney ever knew was also the most difficult
Great actors of a similar ilk often end up in the running for the same parts, but James Cagney never let the fact he was always in competition obscure the fact he viewed one of his peers as the finest performer in the business.
Not that Cagney didn’t deserve to be placed in the exact same bracket. Few performers embodied Hollywood’s golden age quite like Cagney and Tracy. Both men possessed a natural screen presence that made even the most demanding roles appear effortless, ensuring their names became synonymous with excellence in American cinema.
The star’s instantly recognisable cadence and penchant for playing tough guys marked him out as a popular and in-demand talent who flexed their muscles in Angels with Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties, White Heat, and many more.
Orson Welles once called him “maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera,” so it was clear that Cagney would make the top of many people’s all-time list, too. Ironically, given his fondness for playing burly bruisers, the crowning achievement of his career came when he won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ in a musical, with 1942’s Yankee Doodle Dandy a far cry from his usual on-screen persona.
Wherever he went, though, Spencer Tracy was never too far behind. In fact, not only were they born just nine months apart, but they even travelled in the same social circles. Alongside fellow Irish-American actors Pat O’Brien, Allen Jenkins, and Frank McHugh, the quintet were somewhat disparagingly dubbed as Hollywood’s ‘Irish Mafia’ by the gossip columnists of the time, even if they preferred the name ‘Boys Club’ themselves.
“Spence? He’s the most difficult son of a bitch I’ve ever known. And the best.”
James Cagney
Classic crime drama Angels with Dirty Faces earned Cagney his first Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’, but he ended up losing out to Tracy, who scooped the prize for his turn in the biopic Boys Town. In another dash of the irony that had a habit of repeatedly popping up during his time in the spotlight, Cagney was under consideration to play Father Flanagan in the latter, but the producers decided against it because he’d been largely typecast as a no-nonsense ruffian.
They remained close friends for decades regardless of how often they found themselves being considered for the same roles, and the respect between them even saw Cagney brand his buddy as the cream of the performative crop. In Garson Kanin’s Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir, he did admit that the subject was a pain in the arse, but that did not dissuade him from celebrating his talent.
Competition between leading actors often breeds resentment, but that was rarely the case with Cagney and Tracy. Their mutual admiration endured throughout their careers, rooted in a shared understanding of the dedication and talent required to thrive at the highest level of the industry.
“Spence? He’s the most difficult son of a bitch I’ve ever known,” he said. “And the best. Certainly the best actor.” In some cases, accusations might have been levelled that one friend calling another the greatest they’d ever seen could be construed as transparent back-slapping, but that’s hardly the case when both Cagney and Tracy are regarded as among the biggest stars and most naturally gifted actors of their time.
When praise comes from someone as accomplished as James Cagney, it carries particular weight. Despite building one of the most celebrated careers in Hollywood history himself, he had no hesitation in placing Spencer Tracy at the very top of the profession, a testament to the respect Tracy commanded among even the greatest actors of his generation.
