 ProductLink |
|
 William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania, where he stayed until he was two. His father then returned to take him back to Cadiz. At 16, he quit high school, went to work in an Akron, Ohio, tire factory, and decided to become an actor after seeing the play "The Bird of Paradise". He toured in stock companies, worked oil fields and sold ties. On December 13, 1924, he married Josephine Dillon, his acting coach and 15 years his senior. Around that time, they moved to Hollywood, so that Clark could concentrate on his acting career. In April 1930, they divorced and a year later, he married Maria Langham (a.k.a. Maria Franklin Gable), also about 17 years older than him.While Gable acted on stage, he became a lifelong friend of Lionel Barrymore. After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Darryl F. Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. He had a small part in The Painted Desert (1931) with starred William Boyd. Joan Crawford asked for him as co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) and the public loved him manhandling Norma Shearer in A Free Soul (1931) the same year. His unshaven lovemaking with bra-less Jean Harlow in Red Dust (1932) made him MGM's most important star.His acting career then flourished. At one point, he refused an assignment, and the studio punished him by loaning him out to (at the time) low-rent Columbia Pictures, which put him in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), which won him an Academy Award for his performance. The next year saw a starring role in Call of the Wild (1935) with Loretta Young, with whom he had an affair (resulting in the birth of a daughter, Judy Lewis). He returned to far more substantial roles at MGM, such as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939).After divorcing Maria Langham, in March 1939 Clark married Carole Lombard, but tragedy struck in January 1942 when the plane in which Carole and her mother were flying crashed into Table Rock Mountain, Nevada, killing them both. A grief-stricken Gable joined the US Army Air Force and was off the screen for three years, flying combat missions in Europe. When he returned the studio regarded his salary as excessive and did not renew his contract. He freelanced, but his films didn't do well at the box office. He married Sylvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, in 1949. Unfortunately this marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 1952. In July 1955 he married a former sweetheart, Kathleen Williams Spreckles (a.k.a. Kay Williams) and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Adolph ("Bunker") Spreckels III.On November 16, 1959, Gable became a grandfather when Judy Lewis, his daughter with Loretta Young, gave birth to a daughter, Maria. In 1960, Gable's wife Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits (1961), when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month, on November 16, 1960. Gable was buried shortly afterwards in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother when they died, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.In March 1961, Kay Gable gave birth to a boy, whom she named John Clark Gable after his father.Clark Gable was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood" or just simply as "The King." The 1930s saw him at the peak of his acting ability and his popular appeal, as he often portrayed down-to-earth, bravado characters with a carefree attitude. He was known as the epitome of masculinity with his unmatched charm and knowing smile. He was named the seventh greatest male star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, to William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller, and his wife, Adeline, in 1901. When he was six months old, his mother baptized him as a Roman Catholic and she would pass away just a month later. He quit high school at the age of 16 and was inspired to become an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise. However, he was unable to begin a legitimate career until the age of 21, at which point he had inherited some money.In 1924, Gable moved to Hollywood with his theatre coach Josephine Dillon, who was 17 years older than him. She paid for him to have his teeth repaired and his hair styled. She also trained him to lower his voice and attain better body posture, attributes that that were instrumental in contributing to his later success and eventual iconic status. She became his manager and the two eventually got married, although they divorced in 1930, a year before marrying his second wife Maria Franklin Gable.Gable worked as an extra in Hollywood before making his talking film debut in The Painted Desert (1931), a western in which he played an archetypal villain named Brett. Gable would go on to star in many films including Red Dust (1932), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Wife vs. Secretary (1936), San Francisco (1936), Call of the Wild (1935), Saratoga (1937), Too Hot to Handle (1938), Possessed (1931), China Seas (1935) and Manhattan Melodrama (1934). While starring in various films, he signed a contract with MGM that lasted for twenty-three years.In the 1930s, Gable firmly cemented his status as a cinematic legend. He starred in the now classic romantic comedy film It Happened One Night (1934), a film that earned all 5 of the major Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gable and Best Picture. He also starred alongside Vivien Leigh in the Oscar-winning epic Gone with the Wind (1939), a film that, adjusted for inflation, would be the top-grossing movie of all time as it was estimated to have grossed an adjusted $4.4 billion. Arthur Miller, writer of The Misfits (1961), had described Gable as "the man who did not know how to hate".
Bio:
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania, where he stayed until he was two. His father then returned to take him back to Cadiz. At 16, he quit high school, went to work in an Akron, Ohio, tire factory, and decided to become an actor after seeing the play "The Bird of Paradise". He toured in stock companies, worked oil fields and sold ties. On December 13, 1924, he married Josephine Dillon, his acting coach and 15 years his senior. Around that time, they moved to Hollywood, so that Clark could concentrate on his acting career. In April 1930, they divorced and a year later, he married Maria Langham (a.k.a. Maria Franklin Gable), also about 17 years older than him.While Gable acted on stage, he became a lifelong friend of Lionel Barrymore. After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Darryl F. Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. He had a small part in The Painted Desert (1931) with starred William Boyd. Joan Crawford asked for him as co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) and the public loved him manhandling Norma Shearer in A Free Soul (1931) the same year. His unshaven lovemaking with bra-less Jean Harlow in Red Dust (1932) made him MGM's most important star.His acting career then flourished. At one point, he refused an assignment, and the studio punished him by loaning him out to (at the time) low-rent Columbia Pictures, which put him in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), which won him an Academy Award for his performance. The next year saw a starring role in Call of the Wild (1935) with Loretta Young, with whom he had an affair (resulting in the birth of a daughter, Judy Lewis). He returned to far more substantial roles at MGM, such as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939).After divorcing Maria Langham, in March 1939 Clark married Carole Lombard, but tragedy struck in January 1942 when the plane in which Carole and her mother were flying crashed into Table Rock Mountain, Nevada, killing them both. A grief-stricken Gable joined the US Army Air Force and was off the screen for three years, flying combat missions in Europe. When he returned the studio regarded his salary as excessive and did not renew his contract. He freelanced, but his films didn't do well at the box office. He married Sylvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, in 1949. Unfortunately this marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 1952. In July 1955 he married a former sweetheart, Kathleen Williams Spreckles (a.k.a. Kay Williams) and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Adolph ("Bunker") Spreckels III.On November 16, 1959, Gable became a grandfather when Judy Lewis, his daughter with Loretta Young, gave birth to a daughter, Maria. In 1960, Gable's wife Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits (1961), when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month, on November 16, 1960. Gable was buried shortly afterwards in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother when they died, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.In March 1961, Kay Gable gave birth to a boy, whom she named John Clark Gable after his father.
Clark Gable was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood" or just simply as "The King." The 1930s saw him at the peak of his acting ability and his popular appeal, as he often portrayed down-to-earth, bravado characters with a carefree attitude. He was known as the epitome of masculinity with his unmatched charm and knowing smile. He was named the seventh greatest male star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, to William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller, and his wife, Adeline, in 1901. When he was six months old, his mother baptized him as a Roman Catholic and she would pass away just a month later. He quit high school at the age of 16 and was inspired to become an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise. However, he was unable to begin a legitimate career until the age of 21, at which point he had inherited some money.In 1924, Gable moved to Hollywood with his theatre coach Josephine Dillon, who was 17 years older than him. She paid for him to have his teeth repaired and his hair styled. She also trained him to lower his voice and attain better body posture, attributes that that were instrumental in contributing to his later success and eventual iconic status. She became his manager and the two eventually got married, although they divorced in 1930, a year before marrying his second wife Maria Franklin Gable.Gable worked as an extra in Hollywood before making his talking film debut in The Painted Desert (1931), a western in which he played an archetypal villain named Brett. Gable would go on to star in many films including Red Dust (1932), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Wife vs. Secretary (1936), San Francisco (1936), Call of the Wild (1935), Saratoga (1937), Too Hot to Handle (1938), Possessed (1931), China Seas (1935) and Manhattan Melodrama (1934). While starring in various films, he signed a contract with MGM that lasted for twenty-three years.In the 1930s, Gable firmly cemented his status as a cinematic legend. He starred in the now classic romantic comedy film It Happened One Night (1934), a film that earned all 5 of the major Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Gable and Best Picture. He also starred alongside Vivien Leigh in the Oscar-winning epic Gone with the Wind (1939), a film that, adjusted for inflation, would be the top-grossing movie of all time as it was estimated to have grossed an adjusted $4.4 billion. Arthur Miller, writer of The Misfits (1961), had described Gable as "the man who did not know how to hate".
Tivia:
Gave his Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934) to a child who admired it, telling him it was the winning of the statue that had mattered, not owning it. The child returned the Oscar to the Gable family after Clark's death.He was already good friends with Hattie McDaniel prior to their making Gone with the Wind (1939) together, and wanted her to play the part of "Mammy", but it was her coming fully dressed and nailing the part that got her the coveted role. When it came time for the premiere on December 15, 1939, producer David O. Selznick attempted to bring along McDaniel. MGM advised him not to because of Georgia's strict segregation laws, which would have prevented McDaniel from being at the same function, on an equal basis, with whites. Gable was so outraged he told MGM he would not attend the premiere unless she was allowed to attend, also. She eventually convinced him to attend without her.Reportedly attempted suicide on a high-powered motorbike following the tragic and untimely death of his wife Carole Lombard.On June 11, 1933, he was hospitalized for pyorrhea, an infection of the gums the day before he was to begin shooting Dancing Lady (1933). He was hospitalized for several days, after which most of his teeth were extracted. The infection would have killed him had he not been rushed to a private hospital for treatment. Afterwards, he went on a vacation to Alaska and Canada with his wife, as it would take a couple of weeks for his gums to heal enough so he could be fitted for dentures. MGM shot around him until he returned and was fitted with a dental plate, but on July 30, after one day's shooting, the infection felled him again. In the days before antibiotics, the infection was so serious that his gall bladder was removed. Out for another month, the film had to be shut down and went $150,000 over budget. MGM boss Louis B. Mayer docked him two weeks pay, which caused bad feelings between the studio and its top star, although his illness was genuine and he was not malingering. To teach him a lesson, Mayer lent him to Columbia Pictures, then a "Poverty Row" studio, to make a comedy. The movie, Frank Capra's masterpiece It Happened One Night (1934), swept the Academy Awards the next year and brought Gable his only Oscar.Adolf Hitler esteemed the film star above all other actors, and during the war offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and return Gable, who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was flying combat missions over Germany, unscathed to him.In 1939, part of his and Carole Lombard's honeymoon was spent at the Willows Inn in Palm Springs, CA. Today the Inn continues to operate and anyone can stay in the same room, which is largely unaltered since then.Prior to making The Misfits (1961), he crash-dieted from a bloated 230 lb. to 195 lb. Twice in the previous decade he had suffered seizures that might have been heart attacks; once, ten years earlier, while driving along a freeway he had chest pains so severe that he had to pull off the road and lie down on the ground until he felt well enough to continue on.Well known for his pipe smoking, sustaining at least two bowlfuls a day. To this day he still has pipes named after him.Playing a cowboy in his last film, The Misfits (1961), which was also the final film for co-star Marilyn Monroe. The aging Gable diligently performed his own stunts, taking its toll on his already failing health. He died from a heart attack before the film was released.As head of the actors' division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, he sent his wife Carole Lombard on one of the first tours, in January 1942, to her home state of Indiana, where she sold $2 million worth of bonds. On the plane trip back to Hollywood the plane crashed, killing Lombard and her mother. Gable drank heavily for six months before enlisting as a private in the Army Air Corps. He served as a combat cameraman in Britain, rose to the rank of major and eventually was furloughed to work at Hal Roach Studios--"Fort Roach", as the First Motion Picture Unit headquarters came to be known. His discharge papers were signed by Capt. Ronald Reagan.He was dyslexic, a fact that didn't emerge until several years after his death.Baptized as a Catholic, but raised as a Protestant, Gable did not practice any religion as an adult. His private funeral service, at the Church of the Recessional in Forest Lawn Park, was attended by some 200 mourners, including Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor, James Stewart, Norma Shearer, Ann Sothern, Marion Davies, Frank Capra, Robert Stack, Jack Oakie, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Van Johnson and Howard Strickling, Gable's longtime publicity man at MGM. There was no eulogy. The closed casket was adorned with yellow roses shaped like a crown, befitting the one-time King of Hollywood.In order to expedite the divorce from his second wife Ria so he could marry Carole Lombard, he paid her a $500,000 settlement in 1939, nearly everything he had at the time.Gable and Loretta Young had a romance during the filming of Call of the Wild (1935). Young became pregnant. To hide that she and Gable had produced an out-of-wedlock child, fearing it would ruin both of their careers due to strict morality clauses, Loretta Young secretly gave birth to Judy Lewis, while ostensibly vacationing in Europe. When she returned to Hollywood, she claimed Judy was adopted. Gable met Judy only once when she was a teenager.He disliked Greta Garbo, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.Was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's inspiration for half of Superman's alter ego name Clark Kent ("Kent" came from Kent Taylor).Although discharged from the US Army Air Force early in 1944, he refused to make another movie until the war had ended.Served as a pallbearer and usher at Jean Harlow's funeral in 1937.On November 6, 1960, Gable was devastated to learn of the unexpected death of his close friend Ward Bond from a heart attack. Shortly afterward, he also suffered a massive heart attack (while reading a magazine). President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend, sent him a message of support wishing him a speedy recovery. Gable died in the hospital ten days after his infarction. Although it is often claimed that he died as a result of Marilyn Monroe's behavior and performing his own stunts in The Misfits (1961), he was already in terrible health when filming began from years of excessive drinking and smoking more than three packs of cigarettes a day. He was interred at Forest Lawn, (Glendale, California) in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.As a teenager his voice was very high-pitched; however, with vocal training he was able to lower it over time. His voice later proved a major asset in his climb to fame.Wanted his headstone to read "Back to silents", but his widow didn't use it.A few months after his death, Gable's widow, Kay (1917-1983), gave birth to John Clark Gable, a race-car driver and sometime actor.In the 1970s his Encino, CA, estate was subdivided and turned into a very upscale tract development called "Clark Gable Estates".Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.It was at his 36th birthday that Judy Garland sang "Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You".At the time of his death his gun collection was valued at $500,000. He had a special gun room in his house filled with gold-inlaid revolvers, shotguns and rifles.Had a fear of flying, and made all long journeys across America by train.So durable that he could play the same role in both an original (Red Dust (1932)) with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, and its remake (Mogambo (1953)) with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.On November 5, 1960, Gable suffered his first heart attack when he was changing a tire on his jeep. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend of his, sent him a message of support wishing him a speedy recovery.His father always opposed his decision to become an actor, and even after became a major star he still denounced acting as a "sissy" occupation. Gable became a Freemason in 1933 just to please his father. However, he showed no grief when his father died at age 78 from a heart attack on 4 August 1948, having outlived his three wives.He and then future wife Carole Lombard first met in late 1924 while working as extras on the set of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). They would make three films together as extras--Ben-Hur (1925), The Johnstown Flood (1926) and The Plastic Age (1925)--and star together in No Man of Her Own (1932), but not become romantically involved until 1936.Despite his dyslexia, he became an avid reader. He would never allow himself to be photographed reading on film sets, fearing it would undermine his macho screen image.In 1949 he served as a pallbearer at the funeral of director Victor Fleming, whom he considered something of a father figure.His first two wives--Josephine Dillon and Maria Franklin Gable (aka Ria Langham)--were 14 and 17 years older than he was, respectively.Discouraged by his failure to progress in films, he tried the stage and became an employable actor, first in stock and eventually on Broadway, without acquiring real fame. When he returned to Hollywood in 1930 for another try at movie acting, his rugged good looks, powerful voice and charisma made him an overnight sensation as the villainous Rance Brett in his first sound picture, The Painted Desert (1931). He exploded onto the screen in a dozen 1931 releases, in small parts at first, but he was an established star by the end of the year.He became increasingly unhappy with the mediocre roles offered him by MGM as a mature actor. He refused to renew his contract with them in 1953 and proceeded to work independently.Originally the image of him as an outdoorsman was an invention of the studios, designed to bolster his masculine screen image during the early 1930s. However, he soon discovered that he enjoyed hunting, shooting and fishing, so the image swiftly became the reality.His father was of German, some Swiss-German, and distant Irish, ancestry. His mother was of half German and half Irish descent.He disliked his most famous film Gone with the Wind (1939), which he regarded as "a woman's picture.".He was a conservative Republican, although his third wife Carole Lombard, a liberal Democrat, encouraged him to support President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. In February 1952 Gable addressed a televised rally at Madison Square Gardens in New York in support of Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a few days before his death he voted by post for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in Blonde (2001), Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003), Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980), Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) and Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985).Once named Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) as the favorite of his movies, despite the fact that he did not like co-star Charles Laughton. He was also initially disappointed by the casting of Franchot Tone as Midshipman Byam, since the two actors had been bitter rivals for the affections of Joan Crawford. However, during filming they became close friends.He liked westerns, and once expressed his regret that he didn't make more of them.His first screen test was made by director Mervyn LeRoy for Warner Bros. When studio head Jack L. Warner and production chief Darryl F. Zanuck saw the test they were furious at LeRoy for wasting their money on that big "ape" with those "huge floppy taxi-cab ears". Years later when Gable made it big, LeRoy used to tease Warner and say, "How would you like to have him and those huge floppy ears now?".Turned down Cary Grant's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) because he thought the film was too wordy.On July 12, 1942, Gable enlisted in Army Air Corps during World War II in honor of his late wife Carole Lombard, who was killed earlier that year (along with her own mother) in a plane crash while on tour selling war bonds. He was commissioned an officer with service number 565390. Rose to the rank of captain and served primarily in Public Affairs, making training films and performing public relations visits to soldiers and airmen in Europe. He also trained as an aerial gunner and he flew five combat missions with the 8th Air Force's 351st Bombardment Group (Heavy) while making his films and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. He was discharged (separated) from the Air Force on June 12, 1944. Captain Ronald Reagan of the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps signed Gable's separation papers.During his time on Broadway, Gable worked as a stage gigolo, performing stud services for such actresses as Pauline Frederick and Laura Hope Crews, who were considerably older than he. (Crews would later play "Aunt Pittypat" in Gone with the Wind (1939).) His much older first wife served as his first acting coach and paid for his false teeth. Later he married a woman 17 years his senior, Texan heiress Maria Franklin Gable, who had underwritten his successful assault on Hollywood.He was voted the 21st Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Premiere Magazine".When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate.He worked as a lumberman in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in the early 1920s. After a couple of months of doing that he quit, saying that "the work was too hard" and he would rather act instead. He then left to go to Hollywood, where he began his acting career. |
| Name: |
Clark Gable |
Type: |
Actor,Producer,Soundtrack (IMDB) |
| Area: |
All World |
Platform: |
IMDB |
| Category: |
|
Business scope: |
Actor,Producer,Soundtrack |
| Products for sale: |
Actor,Producer,Soundtrack |
| Model rank: |
244 |
| Last update: |
2024-07-01 03:29:14 |
| Height: |
6' 1' (1.85 m) |
| Biography: |
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father se |
| Trivia: |
Gave his Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934) to a child who admired it, telling him it was the winning of the statue that had mattered, not owning it. The child returned the Oscar to the Gable family after Clark's death.He was already good friends with Hattie McDaniel prior to their making Gone with the Wind (1939) together, and wanted her to play the part of "Mammy", but it was her coming fully dressed and nailing the part that got her the coveted role. When it came time for the premiere on December 15, 1939, producer David O. Selznick attempted to bring along McDaniel. MGM advised him not to because of Georgia's strict segregation laws, which would have prevented McDaniel from being at the same function, on an equal basis, with whites. Gable was so outraged he told MGM he would not attend the premiere unless she was allowed to attend, also. She eventually convinced him to attend without her.Reportedly attempted suicide on a high-powered motorbike following the tragic and untimely death of his wife Carole Lombard.On June 11, 1933, he was hospitalized for pyorrhea, an infection of the gums the day before he was to begin shooting Dancing Lady (1933). He was hospitalized for several days, after which most of his teeth were extracted. The infection would have killed him had he not been rushed to a private hospital for treatment. Afterwards, he went on a vacation to Alaska and Canada with his wife, as it would take a couple of weeks for his gums to heal enough so he could be fitted for dentures. MGM shot around him until he returned and was fitted with a dental plate, but on July 30, after one day's shooting, the infection felled him again. In the days before antibiotics, the infection was so serious that his gall bladder was removed. Out for another month, the film had to be shut down and went $150,000 over budget. MGM boss Louis B. Mayer docked him two weeks pay, which caused bad feelings between the studio and its top star, although his illness was genuine and he was not malingering. To teach him a lesson, Mayer lent him to Columbia Pictures, then a "Poverty Row" studio, to make a comedy. The movie, Frank Capra's masterpiece It Happened One Night (1934), swept the Academy Awards the next year and brought Gable his only Oscar.Adolf Hitler esteemed the film star above all other actors, and during the war offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and return Gable, who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was flying combat missions over Germany, unscathed to him.In 1939, part of his and Carole Lombard's honeymoon was spent at the Willows Inn in Palm Springs, CA. Today the Inn continues to operate and anyone can stay in the same room, which is largely unaltered since then.Prior to making The Misfits (1961), he crash-dieted from a bloated 230 lb. to 195 lb. Twice in the previous decade he had suffered seizures that might have been heart attacks; once, ten years earlier, while driving along a freeway he had chest pains so severe that he had to pull off the road and lie down on the ground until he felt well enough to continue on.Well known for his pipe smoking, sustaining at least two bowlfuls a day. To this day he still has pipes named after him.Playing a cowboy in his last film, The Misfits (1961), which was also the final film for co-star Marilyn Monroe. The aging Gable diligently performed his own stunts, taking its toll on his already failing health. He died from a heart attack before the film was released.As head of the actors' division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, he sent his wife Carole Lombard on one of the first tours, in January 1942, to her home state of Indiana, where she sold $2 million worth of bonds. On the plane trip back to Hollywood the plane crashed, killing Lombard and her mother. Gable drank heavily for six months before enlisting as a private in the Army Air Corps. He served as a combat cameraman in Britain, rose to the rank of major and eventually was furloughed to work at Hal Roach Studios--"Fort Roach", as the First Motion Picture Unit headquarters came to be known. His discharge papers were signed by Capt. Ronald Reagan.He was dyslexic, a fact that didn't emerge until several years after his death.Baptized as a Catholic, but raised as a Protestant, Gable did not practice any religion as an adult. His private funeral service, at the Church of the Recessional in Forest Lawn Park, was attended by some 200 mourners, including Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor, James Stewart, Norma Shearer, Ann Sothern, Marion Davies, Frank Capra, Robert Stack, Jack Oakie, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Van Johnson and Howard Strickling, Gable's longtime publicity man at MGM. There was no eulogy. The closed casket was adorned with yellow roses shaped like a crown, befitting the one-time King of Hollywood.In order to expedite the divorce from his second wife Ria so he could marry Carole Lombard, he paid her a $500,000 settlement in 1939, nearly everything he had at the time.Gable and Loretta Young had a romance during the filming of Call of the Wild (1935). Young became pregnant. To hide that she and Gable had produced an out-of-wedlock child, fearing it would ruin both of their careers due to strict morality clauses, Loretta Young secretly gave birth to Judy Lewis, while ostensibly vacationing in Europe. When she returned to Hollywood, she claimed Judy was adopted. Gable met Judy only once when she was a teenager.He disliked Greta Garbo, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.Was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's inspiration for half of Superman's alter ego name Clark Kent ("Kent" came from Kent Taylor).Although discharged from the US Army Air Force early in 1944, he refused to make another movie until the war had ended.Served as a pallbearer and usher at Jean Harlow's funeral in 1937.On November 6, 1960, Gable was devastated to learn of the unexpected death of his close friend Ward Bond from a heart attack. Shortly afterward, he also suffered a massive heart attack (while reading a magazine). President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend, sent him a message of support wishing him a speedy recovery. Gable died in the hospital ten days after his infarction. Although it is often claimed that he died as a result of Marilyn Monroe's behavior and performing his own stunts in The Misfits (1961), he was already in terrible health when filming began from years of excessive drinking and smoking more than three packs of cigarettes a day. He was interred at Forest Lawn, (Glendale, California) in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.As a teenager his voice was very high-pitched; however, with vocal training he was able to lower it over time. His voice later proved a major asset in his climb to fame.Wanted his headstone to read "Back to silents", but his widow didn't use it.A few months after his death, Gable's widow, Kay (1917-1983), gave birth to John Clark Gable, a race-car driver and sometime actor.In the 1970s his Encino, CA, estate was subdivided and turned into a very upscale tract development called "Clark Gable Estates".Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.It was at his 36th birthday that Judy Garland sang "Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You".At the time of his death his gun collection was valued at $500,000. He had a special gun room in his house filled with gold-inlaid revolvers, shotguns and rifles.Had a fear of flying, and made all long journeys across America by train.So durable that he could play the same role in both an original (Red Dust (1932)) with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, and its remake (Mogambo (1953)) with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.On November 5, 1960, Gable suffered his first heart attack when he was changing a tire on his jeep. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend of his, sent him a message of support wishing him a speedy recovery.His father always opposed his decision to become an actor, and even after became a major star he still denounced acting as a "sissy" occupation. Gable became a Freemason in 1933 just to please his father. However, he showed no grief when his father died at age 78 from a heart attack on 4 August 1948, having outlived his three wives.He and then future wife Carole Lombard first met in late 1924 while working as extras on the set of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). They would make three films together as extras--Ben-Hur (1925), The Johnstown Flood (1926) and The Plastic Age (1925)--and star together in No Man of Her Own (1932), but not become romantically involved until 1936.Despite his dyslexia, he became an avid reader. He would never allow himself to be photographed reading on film sets, fearing it would undermine his macho screen image.In 1949 he served as a pallbearer at the funeral of director Victor Fleming, whom he considered something of a father figure.His first two wives--Josephine Dillon and Maria Franklin Gable (aka Ria Langham)--were 14 and 17 years older than he was, respectively.Discouraged by his failure to progress in films, he tried the stage and became an employable actor, first in stock and eventually on Broadway, without acquiring real fame. When he returned to Hollywood in 1930 for another try at movie acting, his rugged good looks, powerful voice and charisma made him an overnight sensation as the villainous Rance Brett in his first sound picture, The Painted Desert (1931). He exploded onto the screen in a dozen 1931 releases, in small parts at first, but he was an established star by the end of the year.He became increasingly unhappy with the mediocre roles offered him by MGM as a mature actor. He refused to renew his contract with them in 1953 and proceeded to work independently.Originally the image of him as an outdoorsman was an invention of the studios, designed to bolster his masculine screen image during the early 1930s. However, he soon discovered that he enjoyed hunting, shooting and fishing, so the image swiftly became the reality.His father was of German, some Swiss-German, and distant Irish, ancestry. His mother was of half German and half Irish descent.He disliked his most famous film Gone with the Wind (1939), which he regarded as "a woman's picture.".He was a conservative Republican, although his third wife Carole Lombard, a liberal Democrat, encouraged him to support President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. In February 1952 Gable addressed a televised rally at Madison Square Gardens in New York in support of Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a few days before his death he voted by post for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in Blonde (2001), Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003), Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980), Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) and Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985).Once named Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) as the favorite of his movies, despite the fact that he did not like co-star Charles Laughton. He was also initially disappointed by the casting of Franchot Tone as Midshipman Byam, since the two actors had been bitter rivals for the affections of Joan Crawford. However, during filming they became close friends.He liked westerns, and once expressed his regret that he didn't make more of them.His first screen test was made by director Mervyn LeRoy for Warner Bros. When studio head Jack L. Warner and production chief Darryl F. Zanuck saw the test they were furious at LeRoy for wasting their money on that big "ape" with those "huge floppy taxi-cab ears". Years later when Gable made it big, LeRoy used to tease Warner and say, "How would you like to have him and those huge floppy ears now?".Turned down Cary Grant's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) because he thought the film was too wordy.On July 12, 1942, Gable enlisted in Army Air Corps during World War II in honor of his late wife Carole Lombard, who was killed earlier that year (along with her own mother) in a plane crash while on tour selling war bonds. He was commissioned an officer with service number 565390. Rose to the rank of captain and served primarily in Public Affairs, making training films and performing public relations visits to soldiers and airmen in Europe. He also trained as an aerial gunner and he flew five combat missions with the 8th Air Force's 351st Bombardment Group (Heavy) while making his films and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. He was discharged (separated) from the Air Force on June 12, 1944. Captain Ronald Reagan of the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps signed Gable's separation papers.During his time on Broadway, Gable worked as a stage gigolo, performing stud services for such actresses as Pauline Frederick and Laura Hope Crews, who were considerably older than he. (Crews would later play "Aunt Pittypat" in Gone with the Wind (1939).) His much older first wife served as his first acting coach and paid for his false teeth. Later he married a woman 17 years his senior, Texan heiress Maria Franklin Gable, who had underwritten his successful assault on Hollywood.He was voted the 21st Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Premiere Magazine".When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate.He worked as a lumberman in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in the early 1920s. After a couple of months of doing that he quit, saying that "the work was too hard" and he would rather act instead. He then left to go to Hollywood, where he began his acting career. |
| Trademarks: |
Tapered mustache that hugged his upper lip
Often played a virile, lovable rogue whose gruff facade only thinly masked a natural charm and goodness.
Distinctive, powerful voice
Oversized ears |
| Quotes: |
The only reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great - and they know I know it.
<br />
<hr>
[on his acting ability] I worked like a son of a bitch to learn a few tricks and I fight like a steer to avoid getting stuck with parts I can't play.
<br />
<hr>
This "King" stuff is pure bullshit. I eat and sleep and go to the bathroom just like everybody else. There's no special light that shines inside me and makes me a star. I'm just a lucky slob from Ohio. I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and I had a lot of smart guys helping me--that's all.
<br />
<hr>
Working with Marilyn Monroe on The Misfits (1961) nearly gave me a heart attack. I have never been happier when a film ended.
<br />
<hr>
[about The Misfits (1961)] This is the best picture I have made, and it's the only time I've been able to act. |
| Salaries: |
The Misfits (1961) - $750,000 + $58,000 for each week of overtime
<br />
<hr>
Soldier of Fortune (1955) - $100,000
<br />
<hr>
Any Number Can Play (1949) - $241,250
<br />
<hr>
Strange Cargo (1940) - $7,500 /week
<br |
| Job title: |
Actor,Producer,Soundtrack |
| Others works: |
(3/20/39) Radio: Appeared (as "Peter Warne") in a "Lux Radio Theatre" broadcast of "It Happened One Night".
(1930) Stage: Appeared (as "The Lover"; final Broadway role) in "Love, Honor and Betray" on Broa |
| Spouse: |
Kay Williams (July 11, 1955 - November 16, 1960) (his death, 1 child)Sylvia Ashley (December 20, 1949 - April 21, 1952) (divorced)Carole Lombard (March 29, 1939 - January 16, 1942) (her death)Maria Fran |
| Children: |
John Clark GableJudy Lewis |
| Parents: |
William Henry Gable
Adeline Gable |
|
