over his son's deafness. Tracy and his wife Louise became estranged in the 1930s, but the couple never divorced; his 25-year long relationship with Katharine Hepburn was an open secret. Towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer. It was for Kramer that he made his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), completed just 17 days before he died. Early life Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was born in Milwaukee on April 5, 1900, the second son of Caroline (; 1874–1942) and truck salesman John Edward Tracy (1873–1928). His mother was from a wealthy, Presbyterian, Midwestern family, while his father was of Irish Catholic descent. He had a brother Carroll, who was four years older. Tracy was a difficult and hyperactive child with poor school attendance. Raised Catholic, he was placed in the care of Dominican Order nuns at the age of nine in an attempt to transform his behavior. Later in life, he remarked that he "never would have gone back to school if there had been any other way of learning to read the subtitles in the movies". He became fascinated with movies, watching the same ones repeatedly and later re-enacting scenes to his friends and neighbors. He attended several Jesuit academies in his teenage years, which he claimed took the "badness" out of him and helped him improve his grades. At Marquette Academy, he began attending plays with lifelong friend and fellow actor Pat O'Brien, awakening his interest in the theatre. With little care for their studies and "itching for a chance to go and see some excitement", Tracy and O'Brien enlisted in the Navy together when Tracy turned 18. They were sent to the Naval Training Station in northern Illinois, where they were still students when World War I came to an end. Tracy achieved the rank of seaman second class, but never went to sea and was discharged in February 1919. His father's desire to see one of his sons gain a college degree drove Tracy back to high school to finish his diploma. Studies at two more institutions, plus the additional allowance of "war credits", won Tracy a place at Ripon College. He entered in February 1921, declaring his intention to major in medicine. Tracy was a popular student at Ripon, where he served as president of his hall and was involved in a number of college activities.