<P> Joanna Drayton 's ( Katharine Houghton ) unannounced early return from a Hawaiian vacation causes a stir when she brings her new fiancé to her childhood upper - class home in San Francisco . He is John Prentice ( Sidney Poitier ) : a widowed , black physician . Joanna 's parents -- newspaper publisher Matt Drayton ( Spencer Tracy ) and his wife , art gallery owner Christina Drayton ( Katharine Hepburn ) -- are purported liberals who have instilled in her the idea of racial equality . But although they try to hide it , Joanna 's parents and in particular her father are initially upset that she is planning to marry a black man . The Draytons ' black maid , Tillie ( Isabel Sanford ) , is even more horrified , suspecting that John is trying to `` get above himself '' by marrying a white woman . </P>
<P> Joanna Drayton 's ( Katharine Houghton ) unannounced early return from a Hawaiian vacation causes a stir when she brings her new fiancé to her childhood upper - class home in San Francisco . He is John Prentice ( Sidney Poitier ) : a widowed , black physician . Joanna 's parents -- newspaper publisher Matt Drayton ( Spencer Tracy ) and his wife , art gallery owner Christina Drayton ( Katharine Hepburn ) -- are purported liberals who have instilled in her the idea of racial equality . But although they try to hide it , Joanna 's parents and in particular her father are initially upset that she is planning to marry a black man . The Draytons ' black maid , Tillie ( Isabel Sanford ) , is even more horrified , suspecting that John is trying to `` get above himself '' by marrying a white woman . </P>
who plays tilly in guess who coming to dinner
who plays tilly in guess who coming to dinner
Isabel Sanford
Isabel Sanford