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Clark_GableBorn February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, (William) Clark Gable lost his mother when he was seven months old. He was cared for by his maternal aunt and uncle until he was two when his oil-well driller father took him back. At 16 he left high-school to work in a tire factory in Akron, Ohio. He decided to become an actor after seeing the play, The Bird of Paradise. He toured in plays while working in oil fields and selling tires. In 1924 he married first wife Josephine Dillon, his acting coach, fifteen years his senior. The couple moved to Hollywood where he appeared in minor roles in a number of silent films, most of them uncredited. In 1930 they divorced and a year later he married Maria Langham, seventeen years his senior.

Gable was finally given a studio contract by MGM in 1930. In 1931 Joan Crawford picked him as her co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance. It was his first starring role and the first of several films opposite Crawford. He also made big impressions in two gangster roles that year in A Free Soul opposite Norma Shearer and Night Nurse opposite Barbara Stanwyck. It was his 1932 role opposite Jean Harlow in Red Dust, though, that solidified his stardom. His biggest hits of 1933 were The White Sister opposite Helen Hayes and Dancing Lady opposite Crawford.

In 1934 Gable refused an assignment at MGM and was loaned out in protest to Columbia for It Happened One Night opposite an equally reluctant Claudette Colbert. The film was a major critical and box-office success, becoming the first film to sweep the top five Oscars, a feat not duplicated until 41 years later when One Flew Over the Cuckooโ€™s Nest accomplished the same thing. 16 years after that, The Silence of the Lambs became the third and so far, only other film to achieve that distinction.

The following year Gable made Call of the Wild opposite Loretta Young with whom he had an affair that resulted in the birth of Judy Lewis, Youngโ€™s daughter who she had in secret and later โ€œadoptedโ€. Lewis didnโ€™t find out until many years later that Young was her real mother and even later that Gable was her father.

Gableโ€™s biggest hits of the period from 1935-1938 were Mutiny on the Bounty, another Oscar winner for which he was also nominated; China Seas; San Francisco and Test Pilot. A newspaper poll conducted by Ed Sullivan named Gable the King of Hollywood in 1938. Myrna Loy, his Test Pilot co-star was named Queen. For Loy the title was short-lived, but for Gable it stuck. In 1939 he starred Gone With the Wind, in the most successful film of the Hollywoodโ€™s studio era. It was also the year he divorced Maria Langham and married actress Carole Lombard, the love of his life, who would die in a plane crash in 1942 returning from selling war bonds. Grief-stricken, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was away from the screen during the remainder of World War II.

Gableโ€™s post-war films were mostly routine, but he remained a star. In 1949 he married Lady Sylvia Ashley, Douglas Fairbanks Sr.โ€™s widow, divorcing her in 1952. In 1953 he reprised his role in Red Dust in John Fordโ€™s remake, Mogambo opposite Ava Gardner. In 1955 he married actress Kay Williams.

Gableโ€™s late career produced such hits as Run Silent, Run Deep opposite Burt Lancaster; Teacherโ€™s Pet opposite Doris Day; It Sarted in Naples opposite Sophia Loren and his last, The Misfits opposite Marilyn Monroe, released on what would have been his 60th birthday.

Clark Gable suffered a heart attack shortly after completing The Misfits and died on November 16, 1960 at 59. He is buried next to Lombard. His son, John Clark Gable, was born in March, 1961.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934), directed by Frank Capra

Gable was not happy about being loaned out by MGM to โ€œPoverty Rowโ€ studio Columbia to play the hot shot reporter on the trail of runaway heiress Claudette Colbert. According to Capra, Colbert accepted the role only because she liked the money she was offered. Despite their misgivings, the film was a critically acclaimed box-office bonanza that walked off with the top five Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay. That kind of awards strength would only happen twice more with 1975โ€™s One Flew Over the Cuckooโ€™s Nest and 1991โ€™s The Silence of the Lambs.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935), directed by Frank Lloyd

Gable won his second Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Fletcher Christian in the first film version of the Nordhoff-Hall novel about the famed 18th Century mutiny against the British Navy. He, Charles Laughton as the infamous Captain Bligh and Franchot Tone as Midshipman Byam through whose eyes the story is told, were all nominated for Best Actor, the first and only time three actors from the same film were nominated in the lead category. Tone might have nominated in support instead, had that category existed at the time. The popular film handily won the Best Picture Oscar, Gableโ€™s second in a row.

GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), directed by Victor Fleming

Gable was the publicโ€™s first choice to play Rhett Butler in the highly anticipated film version of Margaret Mitchellโ€™s novel. MGM happily loaned his services to David O. Selznick in exchange for distribution rights. Not happy with the emphasis George Cukor was putting on Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland, Gable famously had the esteemed director fired and replaced by his friend Victor Fleming. While Gableโ€™s performance was flawless, four women, Leigh, de Havilland, Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen are surely his equal. Oscars nods for Gable and de Havilland, wins for Leigh and McDaniel, as well as Best Picture Director and four more.

MOGAMBO (1953), directed by John Ford

Gable first attained superstar status with his role of the rubber plantation owner in 1932โ€™s Red Dust opposite Jean Harlow as a fun-loving prostitute trying her best to behave and Mary Astor as the cheating wife of one of his employees. Twenty-one years later Gable reprised his role in Fordโ€™s remake with Ava Gardner in the Harlow role and Grace Kelly in the Astor role. The action this time is on a safari led by hunter Gable with Gardnerโ€™s goodtime girl no longer a prostitute and Kellyโ€™s potentially cheating wife now married to a safari client rather than one of Gableโ€™s employees.

THE MISFITS (1961), directed by John Huston

This haunting film is historically important as the last completed film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Gable is particularly memorable as an over-the-hill cowboy who along with his friends Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach hunt wild horses for dogfood, a connection pending divorcรฉe doesnโ€™t discover until late in the game. Beloved character actresses Thelma Ritter and Estelle Winwood provide the filmโ€™s only levity. Gable, who insisted on doing his own stunts, had a heart attack upon completion of the film from which he failed to recover, dying a few weeks later. The film opened on what would have been his 60th birthday.

CLARK GABLE AND OSCAR

  • It Happened One Night (1934) โ€“ Oscar โ€“ Best Actor
  • Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) โ€“ nominated โ€“ Best Actor
  • Gone With the Wind (1939) โ€“ nominated โ€“ Best Actor

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