Clark Gable

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For other uses, see Clark Gable (disambiguation).
Clark Gable

in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Birth name William Clark Gable
Born February 1, 1901
Cadiz, Ohio, USA
Died November 16, 1960
Los Angeles, California, USA
Other name(s) The King of Hollywood
Spouse(s) Josephine Dillon (1924-1930) (divorced)
Maria "Ria" Franklin Printiss Lucas Langham (1931-1939) (divorced)
Carole Lombard (1939-1942) (her death)
Sylvia Ashley (1949-1952) (divorced)
Kay Williams (1955-1960) (his death) 1 child
Notable roles Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939)
Academy Awards
Best Actor
1934 It Happened One Night

William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 7.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, on February 1, 1901 to William Henry "Bill" Gable, an oil-well driller[1][2] and former Adeline Hershelman.[3] When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. His original name was probably William Clark Gable, but birth registrations, and school records, and other documents contradict one another. "William" would have been in honor of his father. "Clark" was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. In childhood he was almost always called "Clark"; some friends called him "Clarkie," "Billy," or "Gabe."[4]

When he was six months old, Gable's sickly mother had him baptized Roman Catholic. When he was ten months old, she died, probably of an aggressive brain tumor. Following her death, Gable's father's family refused to raise him as a Catholic, provoking enmity with his mother's side of the family. The dispute was resolved when his father's family agreed to allow Gable to spend more time with his mother's Catholic relatives.

In April 1903, Gable's father Will married Jennie Dunlap, whose family came from the small neighboring Ohio town of Hopedale. His father purchased land there and built a house and the new Gable family settled in. In 1917, when Clark was in high school, his father's business had financial difficulties. Will decided to try his hand at farming and the family moved to Ravenna, just outside of Akron. There Clark had trouble settling down; he soon left school to work in Akron's tire factories.

Gable was inspired to be an actor after seeing a life-impressing play The Bird of Paradise, but he was not able to make a real start until he turned 21 and could inherit money that had been left to him. By then, his stepmother Jennie had died. He toured in stock companies and worked oil fields. Deciding not to follow his father, Clark found work with several second-class theater companies and worked his way across the Midwest to Portland, Oregon, where he found work as a tie salesman in the Meier & Frank department store. While there he met the grandson of well-known actress Laura Hope Crews, who encouraged him back onto the stage and into another theater company. His acting coach was theatre manager of Portland, Oregon, Josephine Dillon (she was 17 years his senior), who had his teeth fixed and after some rigorous training eventually considered him ready to attempt a film career.

[edit] Hollywood

In 1924, with Josephine's financial aid, the two went to Hollywood, where she became his manager and his first wife. Although he found work as an extra and bit player in such silent films as The Plastic Age (1925), which starred Clara Bow, Gable was not offered any major roles and so he returned to the stage, becoming lifelong friends with Lionel Barrymore. In 1930, after his impressive appearance as the seething and desperate character Killer Mears in the play The Last Mile, he was offered a contract with MGM. Gable's first role in a sound picture was as the villain in a low-budget William Boyd western called The Painted Desert (1931). He received a lot of fan mail as a result of his powerful voice and appearance; the studio took notice.

In 1930, Clark 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." So said Warner Bros. executive Darryl F. Zanuck about Clark Gable after testing him for the lead in Warner's gangster drama Little Caesar (1931).[5] After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg.

Gable then worked mainly in supporting roles, often as the "heavy". Joan Crawford asked for him as co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931). He built his fame and public visibility during 1931 in such important movies as A Free Soul (1931), in which he played a gangster who slapped Norma Shearer (Gable never played a supporting role again after that slap), Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931) with Greta Garbo, and Possessed (1931), in which he and Joan Crawford steamed up the screen with some of the passion they shared for decades in real life. Clark disliked Garbo and the feeling was mutual. She thought he was a wooden actor while he considered her to be a snob. To bolster his rocketing popularity, MGM frequently paired him with well-established female stars. An enormously popular combination, on-screen and off-screen, Gable and Jean Harlow were paired together in six films, the most notable being Red Dust (1932) and Saratoga (1937) (Harlow died during production of Saratoga, of kidney failure.) Ninety percent completed, the remaining scenes were filmed with long shots or doubles. Gable would say that during the remaining ten percent, he felt as if he were "in the arms of a ghost".[6] In the following years, he acted in a succession of enormously popular pictures, earning him the undisputed title of "King of Hollywood." Throughout most of the 1930s and 1940s, he was arguably the world's biggest movie star.　Gable had a reputation as an outdoorsman. At first, it was an image conceived by the MGM publicity department, but Gable found that he liked the lifestyle, and spent time in the outdoors whenever he could.

[edit] Most Famous Roles

When MGM head Louis B. Mayer decided that Gable was getting difficult and ungrateful, he loaned Gable out to the lower-rank studio, for one film, to teach Gable a lesson. According to legend, Gable was loaned to Columbia Pictures, then considered a third-rate operation, as punishment for refusing roles at their own studios; however, this has been refuted by more recent biographies. MGM did not have a project ready for Gable and was paying him $2000 per week, under his contract, to do nothing. Louis B. Mayer loaned him to Columbia for $2500 per week, making a $500 per week profit.[7]

Gable was not the first choice to play the lead role, Peter Warne. Robert Montgomery was originally offered the role, but he felt that the script was poor.[8] Filming began in a tense atmosphere; Gable agreed that the script was below standard, but soon found that the script was no worse than those of many of their earlier films.[9] Both Gable and Frank Capra enjoyed making the movie. An urban legend has it that Gable had a profound effect on men's fashion, thanks to a scene in this movie. As he is undressing for bed, he takes off his shirt to reveal that he is bare-chested. Sales of men's undershirts across the country allegedly suffered a noticeable decline for a period following this movie. The result was that Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1934 performance in the film It Happened One Night. He returned to MGM a bigger star than ever.

The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng's mention that this was one of his favorite films. It has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Three things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs: the personality of a minor character, Oscar Shapely, an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" mentioned once to frighten Shapely, and most of all, a scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots while talking quickly with his mouth full, as Bugs does. Claudette Colbert's Oscar for the same film was offered for auction by Christie's on June 9, 1997. No bids were made for it, and it was passed in. Gable's Oscar drew a top bid last year of $607, 500 from Steven Spielberg, who promptly donated the statuette to the Motion Picture Academy.

Gable had also earned an Academy Award nomination for his role in 1935's Mutiny on the Bounty. Marlon Brando portrayed Fletcher Christian, Gable's role in the original. However the MGM studio's disastrous 1962 remake, which failed to recoup even half of its enormous budget.[10]

Despite his reluctance to play the role, Gable is best known for his performance in Gone with the Wind (1939), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

In the film, for the role of Rhett Butler, Gable was an almost immediate favorite for 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 thus Selznick's first choice.[11] When Cooper turned down the role, he was passionately against it. He is quoted 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".[12][13] But by then Selznick was determined to get Clark Gable, and eventually found a way to borrow him from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. And Gable was cast.

At the time, Gable was wary of potentially disappointing a public who had decided no one else could play the part. It was his first film in Technicolor. During the filming of Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh complained about Gable's bad breath, which was apparently caused by his false teeth. They otherwise got along well. Decades later, Gable would say 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.

[edit] Marriage to Carole Lombard and World War II

Gable's marriage in 1939 to his third wife, successful actress Carole Lombard, was the happiest period of his personal life. 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.

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. Upon hearing the news, Gable flew to the scene and had to be forcibly restrained from climbing the snowcapped mountain himself in an effort to rescue her.[citation needed] After Lombard's body was recovered, he sobbed, "Oh, God! I don't want to go back to an empty house..."[citation needed]

Lombard's death, declared the first war-related female casualty the U.S. suffered during World War II, was the worst loss her husband ever endured. Gable lived out 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."[14]

Clark Gable with 8th AF in Britain, 1943
Clark Gable with 8th AF in Britain, 1943

In 1942, following Lombard's death, Gable joined the U.S. Army Air Forces. Adolf Hitler held a hefty bounty over Gable's head, since Gable was an ace as a gunner. As Captain Clark Gable he trained with and accompanied the 351st Heavy Bomb Group as head of a 6-man motion picture unit making a gunnery training film. 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. Adolf Hitler esteemed Gable above all other actors, and during the Second World War offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and return Gable unscathed to him.[15] He left the Army Air Forces with the rank of Major.

[edit] After World War II

Gable's first movie after returning from service in WWII was the 1945 production of Adventure. It was a critical and commercial failure. That was followed by a popular success, Mogambo (1953) (a Technicolor remake of Red Dust) and a lesser success Never Let Me Go (1953) opposite Gene Tierney. Tierney was a favorite of Gable and was very disappointed when Gene was replaced (due to Tierney's mental health problems) by Grace Kelly in Mogambo. Gable became increasingly unhappy with what he considered mediocre roles offered him by MGM. The studio regarded his salary as excessive. In 1953 he refused to renew his contract, and began to work independently. But his films didn't do well at the box office.

In 1949, Clark married Sylvia Ashley, a British divorcée and the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. The relationship was profoundly unsuccessful; they divorced in 1952.

Gable's fifth wife, whom he married in 1955 after an on-again, off-again affair spanning thirteen years, was Kay Spreckels (full name Kathleen Williams Capps de Alzaga Spreckels), a thrice-married former fashion model and stock actress.

[edit] Children

Gable had a daughter, Judy Lewis (b. 1935), the result of an affair with actress Loretta Young, begun on the set of The Call of the Wild (1935). In an elaborate scheme, Young took an extended vacation and went to Europe to give birth. After her return, she claimed to have adopted Judy (a gambit that got stranger when the child grew to look much like her mother, with ears sticking out like Gable's).

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, this fact was so widely known that in Lewis's autobiography Uncommon Knowledge, she wrote that she was shocked to learn of it from other children at school. Loretta Young would never officially acknowledge the fact, which she said would be the same as admitting to a "venial sin". However, she finally gave her biographer permission to include it only on the condition the book not be published until after Young's death.

On March 20, 1961, Kay Spreckels gave birth to Gable's son, John Clark Gable, born four months after Clark's death. She also had two children from her third marriage, Joan and Adolph Spreckels III (nicknamed "Bunker").

[edit] Death

Gable's last film was The Misfits (written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston), which co-starred Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift. The Misfits was not only Gable's final film, but also the final film completed by Monroe. Many critics regard Gable's performance in this film to be his finest. Gable died in Los Angeles, California in November 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 afterward filming was completed. In a widely reported quote, Gable's wife Kathleen blamed it on stress caused by "the endless waiting... waiting (for Monroe)". Monroe, on the other hand, claimed that she and Kathleen had become close during the filming and would refer to Clark as "Our Man".[16] Monroe's claim is supported by her being specifically invited by Kathleen to Gable's funeral, where contemporary newsreels showed the two of them sitting together in the church. Others have blamed Gable's crash diet before filming began; for years, Gable's head would sometimes shake from the diet pills he would take to strip off pounds before making a film.[citation needed] Gable was in poor health when filming began from years of heavy smoking and drinking, and in the previous decade had suffered two seizures which may have been heart attacks.[citation needed]

The 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) Gable had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He had a muscular build, and weighed about 190 pounds (86 kg) at the time of Gone with the Wind. He wore a 44-long suit. Later in life, his hair grayed, his face weathered, and he put on considerable weight (in his late 50s, he weighed 230 pounds). He chain smoked and liked whiskey. To get in shape for The Misfits, he went on a severe diet and dropped to 195 lbs.

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

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Feature films

[edit] Short subjects

  • The Pacemakers (1925)
  • The Merry Kiddo (1925)
  • What Price Gloria? (1925)
  • The Christmas Party (1931)
  • Jackie Cooper's Birthday Party (1931)
  • Screen Snapshots (1932)
  • Hollywood on Parade No. 9 (1933)
  • Hollywood Hobbies (1935)
  • Starlit Days at the Lido (1935)
  • Hollywood Party (1937)
  • The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937)
  • Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
  • Screen Snapshots: Stars on Horseback (1939)
  • Hollywood Hobbies (1939)
  • Northward, Ho! (1940)
  • You Can't Fool a Camera (1941)
  • Combat America (1943) (documentary)
  • Show Business at War (1943)
  • Wings Up (1943)
  • Screen Snapshots: Hollywood in Uniform (1943)
  • Screen Actors (1950)
Preceded by
Charles Laughton
for The Private Life of Henry VIII		 Academy Award for Best Actor
1934
for It Happened One Night		 Succeeded by
Victor McLaglen
for The Informer

[edit] Quotations

  • "The only reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great - and they know I know it."
  • 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."
  • "All this 'King' stuff is pure bullshit. I eat and sleep and go to the bathroom just like anyone else. I'm just a lucky slob from Ohio who happened to be in the right place at the right time."
  • "Working with Marilyn Monroe on The Misfits (1961) nearly gave me a heart attack. I have never been happier when a film ended."
  • "This is the best picture I have made, and it's the only time I've been able to act." - On The Misfits (1961)
  • "Hell, if I'd jumped on all the dames I'm supposed to have jumped on, I'd have had no time to go fishing."
  • "The things a man has to have are hope and confidence in himself against odds, and sometimes he needs somebody, his pal or his mother or his wife or God, to give him that confidence. He's got to have some inner standards worth fighting for or there won't be any way to bring him into conflict. And he must be ready to choose death before dishonor without making too much song and dance about it. That's all there is to it."
  • "It is an extra dividend when you like the girl you've fallen in love with."
  • "I hate a liar. Maybe because I'm such a good one myself, heh? Anyway, to find someone has told an out-and-out lie puts him on the other side of the fence from me for all time."
  • "The only reason they come to see me is that I know life is great - and they know I know it."
  • "I'm no actor and I never have been. What people see on the screen is me."
  • On rumors he was dull in bed: "I can't emote worth a damn."
  • "Everything Marilyn does is different from any other woman, strange and exciting, from the way she talks to the way she uses that magnificent torso."
  • "The guy's good. There's nobody in the business who can touch him, and you're a fool to try. And the bastard knows it, so don't fool for that humble stuff!" - On Spencer Tracy
  • "Every picture I make, every experience of my private life, every lesson I learn are the keys to my future. And I have faith in it."
  • "I am intrigued by glamorous women....A vain woman is continually taking out a compact to repair her makeup. A glamorous woman knows she doesn't need to."

[edit] References

  1. ^ (2002) Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography. McFarland & Company, 7, 30. ISBN 0-7864-1124-4. 
  2. ^ Clark GableDan Van Neste (1999). Reconstructed Birthhome: "Fit For A King".
  3. ^ Clark Gable- vintage articlesFaith Scott, Source: Times-News Meadville Bureau
  4. ^ Harris, Warren G. (2002). Clark Gable: A Biography. Harmony, 1. ISBN 0-609-60495-3. 
  5. ^ TCM Film Guide on The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era: Leading Men, p. 10.
  6. ^ Harris, p. 179.
  7. ^ Harris, Warren G. (2002). Clark Gable, A Biography. Aurum Press, pp 112-114. ISBN 1 85410 904 9. 
  8. ^ Kotsabilas-Davis, James; Myrna Loy (1987). Being and Becoming. Primus, Donald I Fine Inc, p 94. ISBN 1556111010. 
  9. ^ Harris, Warren G. (2002). Clark Gable, A Biography. Aurum Press, pp 112-114. ISBN 1 85410 904 9. 
  10. ^ Marlon Brando Biography | Encyclopedia of World Biography
  11. ^ Selznick, David O. (2000). Memo from David O. Selznick. New York: Modern Library, 172-173. ISBN 0-375-75531-4. 
  12. ^ GoneMovie -> Biography Gary Cooper
  13. ^ Paul Donnelley (June 1, 2003). Fade To Black: A Book Of Movie Obituaries, 2nd Edition. Omnibus Press.
  14. ^ Esther Williams, The million dollar mermaid (New York: Thorndike Press, 2000)
  15. ^ Harris, p. 268.
  16. ^ Spicer, Clark Gable, McFarland, pp. 300-301

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