Clark Gable

Actor

  • Born: February 1, 1901
  • Birthplace: Cadiz, Ohio
  • Died: November 16, 1960
  • Place of death: Hollywood, California

American actor

During the golden age of Hollywood filmmaking, Gable was among the screen’s most popular leading men. He won an Academy Award for his performance in It Happened One Night(1934) and was nominated for his role in Gone with the Wind(1939). Gable’s screen persona rebellious, amused, confidently masculine won him fans among men as well as women.

Area of achievement Film

Early Life

Clark Gable was born William Clark Gable to William Henry Gable, an adventurous oil prospector, and Adeline “Addie” Hershelman Gable. Soon after giving birth, Gable’s mother became ill, with symptoms suggestive of epilepsy, a brain tumor, or severe postpartum depression. She died when her son was nine months old. When Gable was two years old, his father remarried, and his stepmother, Jennie, became a loving and guiding force in his life. By his early teens, Gable (sometimes known as Billy) played high school baseball and was in the town band.

Handsome and tall for his age, Gable caught the eye of a married woman in town. Removing the teenage boy from temptation may have been one reason his parents moved to a small farm north of Hopedale, Ohio, but the harsh labor of farm life did not appeal to Gable. When he was barely sixteen years old, Gable persuaded his parents to let him quit school and take a job at a coal company in Hopedale. From there, he moved on to a job at a tire factory in Akron, Ohio, where he saw his first play. The stage became an instant and lasting enthusiasm for Gable.

Life’s Work

In 1922, Gable landed a job with a traveling stage company, working behind the scenes. He dreamed of becoming an actor and worked with acting teacher Josephine Dillon. Dillon transformed the rough-edged amateur into a polished, professional actor, and Gable became romantically involved with the older, sophisticated woman. They were married in December, 1924, and lived in Hollywood, California, where Gable honed his acting skills with extra work in films and small roles in touring stage productions. By 1927, Gable was playing lead roles in an established stock company in Texas. He received good reviews and attracted many fans, primarily female. One fan was Ria Langham, a wealthy, divorced socialite. Once again, Gable found himself involved with an older woman who acted as his mentor.

In 1928, Gable made his Broadway debut in the play Machinal. Langham remained at Gable’s side, coaching him in manners and wardrobe. They lived together but did not marry until 1931, after Gable had divorced Dillon. Gable made his film debut as a villain in The Painted Desert (1931). This performance was followed by supporting roles in three other films. Filmgoers, especially women, took notice of the handsome newcomer, and Gable was offered a one-year contract at MGM, the leading Hollywood film studio. Gable remained with the studio for more than twenty years, becoming one of its brightest stars.

Gable rose quickly from supporting player to leading man. During his first year at MGM, he played opposite major stars such as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford. As the Depression raged, Gable’s popularity grew. He answered the need for a uniquely American hero. With his rugged, no-nonsense voice and manner, he appealed to the common person. His influence on the public became clear after It Happened One Night (1934). After he appeared shirtless in one scene of the film, sales of men’s undershirts declined sharply, and other Gable trademarks, such as his fedora and mustache, were widely copied. As for Gable’s influence on women, one song, by a teenage Judy Garland, is revealing: In Broadway Melody of 1938, she sang “You Made Me Love You.”

As a contract employee at MGM, Gable made many films each year, not all to his liking. He resented being loaned to the so-called Poverty Row studio of Columbia Pictures to make It Happened One Night with Frank Capra, but the comedy swept the 1934 Oscars, and Gable’s performance won him his only Academy Award. (He was nominated, however, for Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 and Gone with the Wind in 1939.) The latter two films were unusual for Gable, as he disliked “costume” drama and preferred playing contemporary action heroes, like the ship’s captain in China Seas (1935) and the daring title character of Test Pilot (1938). In 1938, a contest sponsored by journalist Ed Sullivan voted Gable the King of Hollywood. He was the popular choice to play Rhett Butler alongside Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, one of the most successful films of all time and the role for which he is best remembered.

As his stardom grew, Gable’s career and personal life became intertwined. Gable and Loretta Young had an affair while making Call of the Wild (1934), and Young became pregnant with their child. To avoid a scandal, the pregnancy and birth were covered up, and the unmarried Young later “adopted” her own child. Gable and Young’s daughter, Judy Lewis, did not discover her true identity until after Gable’s death.

Romances with costars were common for Gable, but only one turned into a serious relationship. Gable first met Carole Lombard on the set of their only film together, No Man of Her Own (1932), but romantic sparks did not fly until they met again four years later. Lombard’s sense of play captivated Gable, as did her blond beauty and lack of pretension. Once Gable’s divorce from Langham was finalized, Gable and Lombard wed in March, 1939. She was the love of his life: a vivacious woman who enjoyed Gable’s favorite outdoor pursuits of camping, hunting, and fishing. The couple lived on a ranch in Encino, California, where they raised chickens and jokingly called each other “Ma” and “Pa.” Gable was devastated when, in January, 1942, Lombard’s plane crashed during a tour the actress was making to promote war bonds. One of her final messages to Gable was a telegram urging him to join the U.S. Army. After Lombard’s death, Gable took her advice to heart, joining the Army Air Force with the intent of becoming an aerial gunner, a dangerous job. He told friends that he did not expect to return. During his military service, Gable flew on several bombing raids over Germany in addition to making training films for the military.

Gable’s return to filmmaking after the war was heralded with a major advertising campaign by MGM. “Gable’s back and Garson’s got him” was the tag line for Adventure (1945), starring Gable and Greer Garson, but the film failed at the box office. A decade of lackluster films followed. MGM seemed to be trying to repeat the formula of its prewar Gable films, an approach that seldom worked. Mogambo, a 1953 remake of 1932’s Red Dust with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly as rivals for Gable’s affection, was an exception. Gable’s weathered good looks suited the part of a rugged game hunter in East Africa. The film was a hit, and critics called Gable’s performance his best in years. Its success did not keep Gable from leaving MGM as the studio system began to crumble. He continued to work as a free agent.

It was a turbulent time in Gable’s personal life. Still grieving the loss of Lombard, he was drinking heavily. In fact, Gable claimed he must have been drunk when he married his fourth wife, Lady Sylvia Ashley, in 1949. A much-married British social climber, she redecorated his Encino ranch with crystal chandeliers and preferred elegant dinner parties to camping trips. They divorced in 1951. Gable’s fifth marriage, to Kay Spreckels in 1955, was a better pairing. Gable was ecstatic when, in 1960, he learned that Kay was pregnant.

Gable’s final film, The Misfits (1961, premiered posthumously), was plagued with problems. Costar Marilyn Monroe, distraught over her crumbling marriage, was often late for shooting and sometimes appeared on set while high on drugs. Scenes were shot on location in the blistering Nevada desert, and Gable insisted on doing many of his own stunts. The film was not a success in its time, perhaps because it was too downbeat, but Gable’s sensitive, textured performance as an aging cowboy has come to be appreciated. Shortly after completing the film, Gable suffered a heart attack. He died on November 16, 1960, and was buried, fittingly, beside Lombard. His only son, John Clark Gable, was born four months after his death.

Significance

Gable was perhaps the greatest film star of the Hollywood studio era. In a time of great economic and political uncertainty, Gable’s solid, confident screen presence offered both escape and hope. Topping six feet in height, with broad shoulders and a devilish grin, Gable embodied the ideal of American manhood so much so that, during World War II, Adolf Hitler reportedly offered a bonus to any German Nazi soldier who shot down Gable’s plane.

On screen, he had love scenes with the century’s greatest screen goddesses, from Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow to Kelly and Monroe, but his own real-life romance with Lombard, cut tragically short, became one of Hollywood’s legendary love stories. While Gable’s postwar career never regained its Gone with the Wind heights, he remained a beloved figure, respected by fellow actors as a consummate professional. His death was viewed as the end of Hollywood’s golden age.

Bibliography

Essoe, Gabe. The Complete Films of Clark Gable. Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1970. Out of print, but worth finding for its detailed cast and crew information and plot summaries of Gable’s more than sixty films. Illustrated.

Harris, Warren G. Clark Gable. New York: Harmony Books/Random House, 2002. A detailed, thorough, and balanced look at Gable’s career and personal life. Includes a bibliography, filmography, and illustrations.

Wayne, Jane Ellen. Clark Gable: Portrait of a Misfit. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993. A negative view of Gable’s life, with an emphasis on his drinking, womanizing, and what the author views as reckless or suicidal behavior following the death of Lombard. Includes illustrations.

1901-1940: 1930’s: Hollywood Enters Its Golden Age; 1934-1938: Production Code Gives Birth to Screwball Comedy; December 15, 1939: Gone with the Wind Premieres.