Clark Gable

Clark Gable
File:GABLE01.jpg in Gone with the Wind (1939). Photo: Howard Frank Archives
Birth name:	William Clark Gable
Date of birth:	February 1 1901(1901-02-01)
Birth location:	Cadiz, Ohio, USA
Date of death:	November 16 1960 (aged 59)
Death location:	Los Angeles, California, USA
Academy Awards:	Best Actor 1934 It Happened One Night
Spouse:	Josephine Dillon (1924-1930) Maria "Ria" Franklin Printiss Lucas Langham (1931-1939) Carole Lombard (1939-1942) Sylvia Ashley (1949-1952) Kay Williams (1955-1960)

Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an iconic American actor nicknamed "The King of Hollywood" in his heyday. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable seventh among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.

His most famous role was Rhett Butler in the 1939 epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for three films that include Mutiny on the Bounty (1935); he won for It Happened One Night (1934). Another memorable performance was his last film The Misfits (1961), co-starring Marilyn Monroe.

Biography

Early life

Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio to William Henry "Bill" Gable, an oil-well driller, and Adeline Hershelman, both of German descent. He was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. His original name was probably William Clark Gable, but birth registrations, school records and other documents contradict one another.

When he was six months old, his sickly mother had him baptized Roman Catholic. She died when he was ten months old, probably of an aggressive brain tumor.

In April 1903, Gable's father Will married Jennie Dunlap. Gable was a tall shy child with a loud voice. Jennie played the piano and gave her stepson lessons at home; later he took up brass instruments. Gable was very mechanically inclined and loved to repair cars with his father. In 1917, when Gable was in high school, his father had financial difficulties. Will decided to settle his debts and try his hand at farming and the family moved to Ravenna, just outside of Akron. Gable had trouble settling down in the very rural area. Despite his father's insistence that he work the farm, Gable soon left to work in Akron's tire factories.

At seventeen, Gable was inspired to be an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise, but he was not able to make a real start until he turned 21 and inherited money. By then, his stepmother Jennie had died and his father moved to Tulsa to go back to the oil business. He toured in stock companies and worked the oil fields.While there, he met actress Laura Hope Crews, who encouraged him to go back to the stage and into another theater company. His acting coach was a theater manager in Portland, Oregon, Josephine Dillon (17 years his senior). She spent considerable time training his naturally high-pitched voice, and he gained better resonance and tone. After the long period of rigorous training, she eventually considered him ready to attempt a film career.

Hollywood

Stage and silent films

In 1924, with Dillon's financial aid, the two went to Hollywood, where she became his manager and first wwife. He found work as an extra in such silent films as The Plastic Age (1925), which starred Clara Bow, and Forbidden Paradise, plus a series of two-reel comedies called The Pacemakers. However, Gable was not offered any major roles and so he returned to the stage, becoming lifelong friends with Lionel Barrymore During the 1927-28 theater season, Gable acted with the Laskin Brothers Stock Company in Houston, where he played many roles, gained considerable experience and became a local matinee idol. Gable then moved to New York and Dillon sought work for him on Broadway. He received good reviews in Machinal, "He's young, vigorous and brutally masculine" said the Morning Telegraph. The start of the Great Depression and the beginning of talking pictures caused a cancellation of many plays in the 1929-30 season and acting work became harder to get.

Early successes

In 1930, after his impressive appearance as the seething and desperate character Killer Mears in the play The Last Mile, Gable was offered a contract with MGM. His first role in a sound picture was as the villain in a low-budget William Boyd western called The Painted Desert (1931).

In 1930, Gable and Josephine Dillon were divorced. A few days later, he married Texas socialite Ria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham. After moving to California, they were married again in 1931, possibly due to differences in state legal requirements.

"His ears are too big and he looks like an ape," said Warner Bros. executive Darryl F. Zanuck about Clark Gable after testing him for the lead in Warner's gangster drama Little Caesar (1931). After several failed screen tests for Barrymore and Zanuck, Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg.

Gable's timing in arriving in Hollywood was excellent as MGM was looking to expand its stable of male stars. Gable worked mainly in supporting roles, often as the villain. MGM's publicity manager Howard Strickland developed Gable's studio image, playing up his 'lumberjack in evening clothes' persona. To bolster his rocketing popularity, MGM frequently paired him with well-established female stars. Joan Crawford asked for him as her co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931). He built his fame and public visibility in such important movies as A Free Soul (1931), in which he played a gangster who slapped Norma Shearer. The Hollywood Reporter wrote "A star in the making has been made, one that, to our reckoning, will outdraw every other star... Never have we seen audiences work themselves into such enthusiasm as when Clark Gable walks on the screen". He followed that with Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931) with Greta Garbo, and Possessed (1931), with Joan Crawford.

Stardom

Gable was considered for the role of Tarzan but lost out to Johnny Weissmuller's better physique and superior swimming prowess. Jean Harlow in Red Dust (1932) made him MGM's most important star. After the hit Hold Your Man (1933), MGM put them in two more films, China Seas (1935) and Wife vs. Secretary (1936). An enormously popular combination, on-screen and off-screen, Gable and Jean Harlow made six films together, the most notable being Red Dust (1932) and Saratoga (1937). Harlow died of kidney failure during production of Saratoga. Ninety percent completed, the remaining scenes were filmed with long shots or doubles; Gable would say that he felt as if he were "in the arms of a ghost".

In the following years, he acted in a succession of enormously popular pictures, earning him the undisputed title of "King of Hollywood" in 1938. The title 'King' was first offered by Spencer Tracy, probably in jest but soon Ed Sullivan started a poll in his newspaper column and more than 20 million fans voted Gable 'King' and Myrna Loy 'Queen' of Hollywood. Though the honorific certainly helped his career, Gable grew tired of it and later stated, "This 'King' stuff is pure bullshit...I'm just a lucky slob from Ohio. I happened to be in the right place at the right time".Throughout most of the 1930s and the early 1940s, he was arguably the world's biggest movie star.

Most famous roles

It Happened One Night and Academy Award

with Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934)

According to legend, Gable was lent to Columbia Pictures, then considered a second-rate operation, as punishment for refusing roles; however, this has been refuted by more recent biographies.

Gable was not the first choice to play the lead role of Peter Warren. Robert Montgomery was originally offered the role, but he felt that the script was poor. Filming began in a tense atmosphere, but both Gable and Frank Capra enjoyed making the movie.

Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1934 performance in the film. He returned to MGM a bigger star than ever.

Gable was an almost immediate favorite for the role of Rhett Butler with both the public and producer David O. Selznick. But as Selznick had no male stars under long-term contract, he needed to go through the process of negotiating to borrow an actor from another studio. Gary Cooper was Selznick's first choice. When Cooper turned down the role, he was quoted as saying, "Gone With The Wind is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not me". By then, Selznick was determined to get Gable, and eventually found a way to borrow him from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Gable was wary of potentially disappointing a public who had decided no one else could play the part. He later conceded, "I think I know now how a fly must react after being caught in a spider's web". It was his first film in Technicolor. Also appearing in Gone With The Wind in the role of "Aunt Pittypat" was Laura Hope Crews, the friend in Portland who had coaxed Gable back into the theater.

His famous line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," caused an uproar since it was in violation of the Production Code in effect at the time. Gable didn't want to shed tears for the scene after Scarlett (Leigh) has a miscarriage. Olivia de Havilland made him cry, later commenting, "... Oh, he would not do it. He would not! Victor (Fleming) tried everything with him. He tried to attack him on a professional level. We had done it without him weeping several times and then we had one last try. I said, "You can do it, I know you can do it and you will be wonderful ..." Well, by heaven, just before the cameras rolled, you could see the tears come up at his eyes and he played the scene unforgettably well. He put his whole heart into it."

Decades later, Gable said that whenever his career would start to fade, a re-release of Gone with the Wind would instantly revive everything, and he continued as a top leading man for the rest of his life. In addition, Gable was one of the few actors to play the lead in three films that won an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Gone with the Wind was given theatrical re-releases in 1947, 1954, 1961, 1967 (in a widescreen version), 1971, 1989, and 1998.

Personal life

Marriage to Carole Lombard

Gable's marriage in 1939 to his third wife, successful actress Carole Lombard, was the happiest period of his personal life. From their pairing, she gained personal stability and he thrived being around her youthful, charming, and blunt personality. She went hunting and fishing with him and with his cronies. He famously stated, "You can trust that little screwball with your life or your hopes or your weaknesses, and she wouldn't even know how to think about letting you down". They purchased a ranch at Encino and once Clark had become accustomed to her often blunt way of expressing herself, they found they had much in common, despite Gable being a conservative Republican and Lombard a liberal Democrat. Their efforts to have a child were unsuccessful.

On January 16, 1942, Lombard, who had just finished her 57th film, To Be or Not to Be, was on a tour to sell war bonds when the twin-engine DC-3 she was traveling in crashed into a mountain near Las Vegas, killing all aboard including Lombard's mother. Gable flew to the site and saw the forest fire ignited by the burning plane. Lombard was declared the first war-related female casualty the U.S. suffered in World War II and Gable received a personal condolence note from Franklin D. Roosevelt. The CAB investigation cited 'pilot error'.

Gable returned to their empty house and a month later to the studio to work with Lana Turner on Somewhere I'll Find You. Gable was devastated by the tragedy for many months and drank heavily but managed to perform professionally on the set.

Gable resided the rest of his life at the couple's Encino home, made 27 more movies, and married twice more. "But he was never the same," said Esther Williams. "His heart sank a bit."

World War II

Clark Gable with 8th AF in Britain, 1943

In 1942, following Lombard's death, Gable joined the U.S. Army Air Forces. With the rank of Captain, Gable trained with and accompanied the 351st Heavy Bomb Group as head of a 6-man motion picture unit making a gunnery training film. Gable spent most of the war in the UK at Wetherby and Polebrook. While at RAF Polebrook, England, Gable flew five combat missions, including one to Germany, as an observer-gunner in B-17 Flying Fortresses between May 4 and September 23, 1943, earning the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts.

After World War II

Gable's first movie after World War II was the 1945 production of Adventure, with his co-star Greer Garson. It was a critical and commercial failure despite the famous teaser tagline "Gable's back and Garson's got him."

Gable was acclaimed for his performance in The Hucksters (1947), a satire of post-war Madison Avenue corruption and immorality. A very public and brief romance with Paulette Goddard occurred after that. In 1949, Gable married Sylvia Ashley, a British divorcée and the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. The relationship was profoundly unsuccessful; they divorced in 1952. Soon followed Never Let Me Go (1953), opposite Gene Tierney. Tierney was a favorite of Gable and he was very disappointed when she was replaced in Mogambo (due to her mental health problems) by Grace Kelly. Mogambo (1953), directed by John Ford, was a Technicolor remake of his earlier film Red Dust, which had been an even greater success.

Gable became increasingly unhappy with what he considered mediocre roles offered him by MGM, while the studio regarded his salary as excessive. Studio head Louis B. Mayer was fired in 1951 amid slumping Hollywood production and revenue, due primarily to the rising popularity of television. Studio chiefs struggled to cut costs. Many MGM stars were fired or not renewed, including Greer Garson and Judy Garland. In 1953, Gable refused to renew his contract, and began to work independently. His first two films were Soldier of Fortune and The Tall Men, both profitable though only modest successes. In 1955, Gable married his fifth wife, Kay Spreckels (née Kathleen Williams), a thrice-married former fashion model and actress who had previously been married to sugar-refining heir Adolph B. Spreckels Jr.

In 1955, Gable formed a production company with Jane Russell and her husband Bob Waterfield, and they produced The King and Four Queens, Gable's one and only production. He found producing and acting to be too taxing on his health, and he was beginning to manifest a noticeable tremor particularly in long takes. His next project was Band of Angels, with relative newcomer Sidney Poitier and Yvonne De Carlo; it was a total disaster. Newsweek said, "Here is a movie so bad that it must be seen to be disbelieved". Next he paired with Doris Day in Teacher's Pet, shot in black in white to better hide his aging face and overweight body. The film was good enough to bring Gable more film offers, including Run Silent, Run Deep, with co-star and producer Burt Lancaster, which featured his first on screen death since 1937, and which garnered good reviews. Gable started to receive television offers but rejected them outright, even though some of his peers, like his old flame Loretta Young, were flourishing in the new medium. His next two films were for Paramount: But Not for Me with Carroll Baker and It Started in Naples with Sophia Loren. At 58, Gable finally acknowledged, "Now it's time I act my age".

Gable's last film was The Misfits, written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and co-starring Marilyn Monroe, Eli Wallach, and Montgomery Clift. This was also the final film completed by Monroe. Many critics regard Gable's performance to be his finest, and Gable, after seeing the rough cuts, agreed.

Children

Gable had a daughter, Judy Lewis, the result of an affair with actress Loretta Young that began on the set of The Call of the Wild in 1934. According to Lewis, Gable visited her home once, but he didn't tell her that he was her father. While neither Gable nor Young would ever publicly acknowledge their daughter's real parentage, Loretta Young finally gave her biographer permission to include it only on the condition the book not be published until after her death.

On March 20, 1961, Kay Gable gave birth to Gable's son, John Clark Gable, born four months after Clark's death.

Death

Gable died in Los Angeles, California on November 16, 1960, the result of a fourth heart attack. There was much speculation that Gable's physically demanding Misfits role, which required yanking on and being dragged by horses, contributed to his sudden death soon after filming was completed.

Others have blamed Gable's crash diet before filming began. The 6'1" (185 cm) Gable weighed about 190 pounds (86.2 kg) at the time of Gone with the Wind, but by his late 50s, he weighed 230 pounds (104.3 kg). To get in shape for The Misfits, he dropped to 195 lbs (88 kg). In addition, Gable was in poor health from years of heavy smoking a heavy drinker.

Gable is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, beside Carole Lombard.

Filmography

Gable and Joan Crawford were together in eight films, Myrna Loy was with him seven times, and Jean Harlow was with him six times. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, with Norma Shearer in three.

Gable is known to have appeared as an extra in 13 films between 1924 and 1930. He then appeared in a total of 67 theatrically released motion pictures, as himself in 17 "short subject" films, and he narrated and appeared in a World War II propaganda film entitled Combat America, produced by the United States Army Air Forces.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• "Clark Gable." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. 5 vols. St. James Press, 2000. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
• "(William) Clark Gable." Dictionary of America Biography: 1956-1960 American Council of Learned Societies, 1980. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 20008.
• Torabene, Lyn. 1976. Long Live the King. A Biography of Clarke Gable. New York: G.P. Putnam & Sons. ISBN 0-671-81733-7.

External links

Clark Gable Portal

• Clark Gable at the Internet Broadway Database
• Clark Gable at the Internet Movie Database
• Clark Gable at the TCM Movie Database
• Clark Gable at TV.com
• Snopes on the false rumor of Gable killing a pedestrian while he was driving drunk
• Clark Gable in Thunderbolt! - Watch the entire movie online
• Combat America at the Internet Archive:
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4
• Clark Gable at Find A Grave Retrieved on 2008-04-03
• Clark GABLE : Biographie, filmographie, galerie, etc (French)

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