Gable, Clark

DATE OF BIRTH: February 1, 1901

PLACE OF BIRTH: Cadiz, OH

DATE OF DEATH: November 16, 1960

PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, CA

DISCIPLINE: Performing Arts and Sports

FIELD: Movie actor

ASSESSMENT: Gable starred in one of the most popular films of all time, Gone with the Wind(1939). Men admired him for his masculinity and women admired him for his looks and charm. He won two Academy Awards for Best Actor.

LANGUAGE/S: English

EDUCATION: High school (dropped out at age 16)

ACHIEVEMENTS: Acted in seventy-five movies, nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actor, won one Academy Award for Best Actor

MAJOR WORK: It Happened One Night (1934), San Francisco (1936), Gone With the

Wind (1939), The Misfits (1961)

PARENTS: William Gable, Adeline Gable

SPOUSE: Josephine Dillon (1924-1930), Maria Langham (1931-1939), Carole Lombard

(1939-1942), Silvia Ashley (1949-1952), Kathleen Williams Spreckles (1955)

SIBLINGS: None

CHILDREN: John Clark Gable (1961), Judy Lewis (1935) (mother was Loretta Young)

LIFE AND TIMES:

When he turned 16, Gable quit school and moved to Akron, Ohio. In Akron, Gable worked in a tire factory. It was here in Akron that Gable first decided he wanted to become an actor. He was motivated by the Richard Walton Tully play “The Bird of Paradise.” He moved to Portland, Oregon where he met Josephine Dillon while working in an acting group which was headed by Dillon, a former Broadway actress and the manager of a Portland theatre. She immediately took a liking to Gable and became his coach.

The two moved to Los Angeles and, although Dillon was fifteen years his senior, she and Gable were married in 1924. It was around this time Gable had his first acting roles in silent movies. For the next few years, Gable acted in silent movies, Broadway plays, and other stage productions. In April 1930, Gable and Dillon divorced. The following year he married Maria Langham, about 15 years his senior.

1931 was also the year in which Gable attempted to get a job with MGM. He was rejected because the producers thought his ears too big. Gable sought other work, and in that year acted in 12 movies. Gable’s role in The Painted Desert (1931) made MGM producers reconsider, and they soon offered him a contract. Gable’s performances in two other 1931 films, Dance, Fools, Dance and A Free Soul, won him admiration for his aggressive, masculine character.

In 1932, Gable starred with Jean Harlow in one of his most famous movies, Red Dust. This was the second of six movies Harlow and Gable would act in together. Their final film together, Saratoga(1937), was marked with tragedy when Harlow* died from kidney failure during the filming of the movie. Harlow’s death made the film a success, and record numbers of fans lined up at theaters to watch it.

In 1934, Gable won an Oscar for his role in Columbia Pictures’ It Happened One Night. Gable had originally been sent to play in the movie by MGM as punishment for his refusal to play in several MGM movies because he claimed to be overworked and underpaid. At the time, Columbia was considered a second rate production company. MGM’s producers’ plans backfired. The film was a huge hit, winning five Academy Awards including best actor for Gable, as well as awards for best picture, actress, director, and screenplay.

Many of Gable’s best movies were those he had originally resisted, or for which he had been loaned to other production companies, including San Francisco (1936), one of the best films of his career, in which he co-starred with Spencer Tracy*. Gable and Tracy also starred in Test Pilot (1938) and Boom Town (1940).

Gable’s most famous role was Gone with the Wind (1939) in which he co-starred with Vivien Leigh*. Gable had originally refused the role because he didn’t think any movie could live up to its source: the best selling novel of all time. However, public demand convinced him to take on the role. The film was a huge success and it won the Academy Award for best picture. It also earned Clark his third nomination for best actor.

After two failed marriages, Gable met actress Carole Lombard while with her working on No Man of Her Own(1933). Their romance didn’t start until 1936 when they were reunited at the White Mayfair Ball. They were married in March 1939. Lombard and her mother died in a 1942 plane crash while returning home from a war-bond rally.

Gable was devastated and left the movie business to join the Army Air Corps. He flew as a tail gunner on five combat missions during the war and attained the rank of major. Herman Goering* offered a reward for his capture, turning him into an even bigger hero. On his return from Europe, Gable reentered the movie industry. He also married Silvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks Snr *. They divorced in 1952.

The most notable of his films at this time are The Hucksters (1947), Mogambo (1953), Band of Angels(1957), and Run Silent, Run Deep (1958). The Misfits (1961) was Gable’s best movie in years. He even insisted on doing his own stunt work. It was both his and co-star Marilyn Monroe’s final film.

In 1955, Gable married Kathleen Williams Spreckles, recently divorced from millionaire sugar tycoon Adolph Spreckles II. In 1960, Spreckles discovered that she was pregnant. Before the child was born, on November 16, 1960, just three days after the completion of the filming of The Misfits, Gable died after a heart attack. His body was buried in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother. The next day several newspapers wrote: “The King is Dead.” In March of 1961, Kathleen Gable gave birth to a baby boy named John Clark Gable in honor of his father.

EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None

ONELINER: Clark Gable, 20th Century movie idol

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://imdb.com/name/nm0000046/bio

http://imdb.com/name/nm0000022/bio

http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=36424&tocid=0&query=clark%20gable&ct=

http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=48800&tocid=0&query=vivien%20leigh&ct=

http://www.geocities.com/cammiefan/cgb.html

http://classicfilm.about.com/library/weekly/aa030401a.htm

http://themave.com/Tracy/index.htm

http://www.geocities.com/cactus_st/article/article105.html

http://www.geocities.com/cactus_st/article/article141.html