Spencer Tracy
In 1942, Tracy and Katherine Hepburn co-starred together in Woman of the Year. Twenty-five years later, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner would become their ninth and final cinematic collaboration. Off-screen, the pair were also nearly inseparable, despite Tracy being married to another woman throughout. Barely more than two weeks after the wrapping up shooting, Spencer Tracy would be dead. He received his ninth Academy Award nomination posthumously, ultimately losing out, somewhat ironically, to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night. Steiger’s co-star in that film? Sidney Poitier.
Katherine Hepburn
Hepburn was also nominated for an Oscar for her role in the film. Unlike Tracy, however, Hepburn actually took home the honor that night for leading role in a film. It was her second Best Actress Oscar, but proved to be merely a prelude to the record-setting shock to come just one year later when she tied for the honor with Barbra Streisand, thus becoming the first actor of either sex to win three top trophies and one of just a select few to win them back-to-back along with the even rarer distinction of ending up tied with a competitor. While still the only performer to win three leading role Oscars, Hepburn would go on to add a fourth in 1981 for her performance in On Golden Pond. Only Daniel Day-Lewis has since joined in the exclusive three-timer company.
Sidney Poitier
With his groundbreaking Best Actor win just three years earlier, Poitier’s addition to the cast made Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner gleam with Oscar gold like few other films ever before. Interestingly, despite appearing in two high-profile films with extensive nominations—the other being In the Heat of the Night—Poitier failed to receive a nomination for either performance.
Katherine Houghton
Houghton had only appeared in a few TV shows prior to landing the biggest role of her career. That casting may or may not have had much to do with being Katherine Hepburn’s niece.
Cecil Kellaway
Kellaway, on the other hand, was a familiar character actor whose career traced back to the 1930’s. For his performance as Mike Drayton’s spiritual advisor and golfing companion, Kellaway scored his second of two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
Beah Richards
Beah Richards had also mostly been active in TV before landing the role of the mother of John Prentice, despite being less than a decade older than Sidney Poitier. From virtual obscurity, she transformed a relatively minor role into a performance deemed worthy of nomination for Best Supporting Actress by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
Isabel Sanford
Although shining in what is arguably a showier role as the Drayton’s maid, Isabel Sanford did not receive Oscar recognition for her film debut. She would soon go on to much greater fame than all but the film’s Oscar-winning trio, however, in the wildly successful sitcom spun-off from the groundbreaking comedy hit, All in the Family. As the wife of George Jefferson, Sanford moved on up to the echelons of TV superstardom less than ten years after winning her first role in Hollywood. Sanford would also go on to become the first African-American to win an Emmy for Best Leading Actress in a Comedy.
