His film career began in 1930 with Up the River (directed by John Ford and co-starring Humphrey Bogart), and ended in 1967 with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (alongside Sidney Poitier and his longtime screen partner, Katharine Hepburn).He earned nine Academy Award for Best Actor nominations (tied for the most in that category with Laurence Olivier) throughout his career, and was the first male actor to win two consecutively, for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938) (directed by Victor Fleming and Norman Taurog, respectively).He set this record just one year after Luise Rainer became the first female, and actress in general, to win "bookend Oscars".He received the Cannes Best Actor award for Bad Day at Black Rock and a posthumous BAFTA for "Dinner".Their first pairing was in the film Woman of the Year (1942) (directed by George Stevens), which earned Hepburn her third Oscar nom.