Post by butterscotchgreer on Jun 30, 2007 13:28:52 GMT -5
Date of Birth
1 February 1901, Cadiz, Ohio, USA
Date of Death
16 November 1960, Los Angeles, California, USA. (heart attack)
Birth Name
William Clark Gable
Nickname
Gabe
The King
The King of Hollywood
Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Mini Biography
Clark Gable's mother died when he was seven months old. 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. In 1924 he reached Hollywood with the help of Portland, Oregon, theatre manager Josephine Dillon, who coached and later married him (she was 17 years his senior). After playing a few bit parts he returned to the stage, becoming lifelong friends with Lionel Barrymore. After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Darryl F. Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. 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. 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 Oscar. 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). When his third wife Carole Lombard died in a plane crash returning from a War Bond drive, 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 announced during filming of The Misfits (1961) that, for the first time, he was to become a father. Two months later he died of a heart attack. He was laid to rest beside Carole Lombard at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
Mini Biography
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio. Later that year 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. When Clark was 16 he dropped out of school and worked at many odd jobs before joining a traveling theater company.
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, also about 15 years older than him. After working as an extra in various movies, he was offered a small part in the Painted Desert in 1931.
From this point, his acting career flourished, and in 1934 he won an Academy Award for his performance in Frank Capra’s classic It Happened One Night. The next year saw a starring role in The Call of the Wild with Loretta Young, with whom he had an affair (resulting in the birth of a daughter). Divorced in 1939, he later that same year starred in Gone With the Wind.
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. Clark then volunteered to be drafted and served in Europe for several years. After the war he continued with his film career and married Silvia 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 and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Bunker, and in 1959 Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. Several months prior to this Clark became a grandfather, when his daughter with Loretta Young gave birth in November 1959. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits, when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month.
He was buried shortly afterwards in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother when they died. In March 1961 Kay Gable gave birth to a boy whom she named John Clark Gable after his father.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Gable Freak
Spouse
Kay Williams (11 July 1955 - 16 November 1960) (his death) 1 child
Sylvia Ashley (20 December 1949 - 21 April 1952) (divorced)
Carole Lombard (29 March 1939 - 16 January 1942) (her death)
Maria "Ria" Franklin Printiss Lucas Langham Gable (19 July 1931 - 4 March 1939) (divorced)
Josephine Dillon (13 December 1924 - 1 April 1930) (divorced)
Trade Mark
Pencil thin mustache that hugged his upper lip
Trivia
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.
A few months after his death, his wife gave birth to John Clark Gable. John is into racing and has appeared in at least one film.
Actress Judy Lewis is Clark's illegitimate daughter by actress Loretta Young.
In the 1970s his Encino, California estate was subdivided and turned into a very upscale tract development called "Clark Gable Estates."
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.
It was at Gable's 36th birthday that Judy Garland sang "Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You."
Gable's first two wives - Josephine Dillon and Ria Langham - were 14 and 17 years older than he was, respectively.
In the summer of 1942, Clark enlisted in the army in honor of his late wife, Carole Lombard. She had been killed in a plane crash while on tour selling war bonds.
When he was first cast in It Happened One Night (1934) opposite Claudette Colbert, he told director Frank Capra that he would give the role a shot, but if things weren't going well after a few days, he would leave the production.
So durable, he could play the same role in both an original (_Red Dust (1932)_ ) with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, and its re-make (Mogambo (1953)) with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.
When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate.
He disliked Greta Garbo, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.
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 guarded health. He died from a heart attack before the film was released.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued on 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp features Gable and Vivien Leigh as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind (1939). The other films honored were Beau Geste (1939), Stagecoach (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Grandfather of Clark James Gable, who's the first child of his son John Clark Gable and his ex-wife Tracy Yarro. Clark James was born on September 10, 1988 at a hefty 10 lbs.
Gable was dyslexic, a fact which didn't emerge until several years after his death.
Cousin-in-law of William B. Hawks.
Joined the Army Air Corps during the Second World War, and 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.
As a native of Cadiz, Ohio, he was inducted into the Lou Holtz Museum/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame in June 2004 (www.LouHoltzHallOfFame.com).
He was seriously considered to play Tarzan in _Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)_ , but he was deemed an unknown and Johnny Weissmuller was chosen instead.
Was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's inspiration for half of Superman's alter ego name Clark Kent ("Kent" came from Kent Taylor).
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.
His widow, Kay Williams, divorced her previous husband, Adolph Spreckels Jr., heir to the Spreckels Sugar fortune, in 1952. In the divorce papers she alleged that he beat her with one of her slippers.
His wife Sylvia Ashley was born Edith Louise Sylvia Hawkes in 1904. She was the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. Her first husband was Lord Anthony Ashley (they divorced November 28, 1934), her third was Lord Stanley of Alderney, and her fifth was Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (whom she married in 1954 and stayed married to until her death). She died June 29, 1977. Her grave stone refers to her as "Princess Sylvia Djordjadze."
His widow, Kay Williams, was born August 7, 1916, and died in May of 1983.
In some radio interviews at the end of his life, his voice has a haunting similarity to Walt Disney's.
Served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II making training films. Also trained as an aerial gunner, he flew 5 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.
Is the subject of the song "Clark Gable" by The Postal Service.
Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), by Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in _"Blonde" (2001) (mini)_ , by Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003) (TV), by Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV), by Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV), by Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) (TV), by Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV) and by Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV)
Military records on celebrities released by the Pentagon in 2005 reveal that Gable, upon enlistment, was described as a "motion picture specialist" and his weekly wage was listed as $7,500. A movie cameraman, Andrew J. McIntyre, enlisted along with Gable and trained with him, the documents showed. "In order to have something definite to describe and some tangible evidence of his experiences, it is proposed that there be enlisted his cameraman to be trained as an aerial gunner also who may make pictures of Gable in various theaters of operations," one Army memo said.
Prior to making The Misfits (1961), he crash-dieted from a bloated 230 lbs. to 195 lbs. 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.
Both parents were of German ancestry.
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.
Had to have almost all of his teeth extracted due to pyorrhea. The infection would have killed him had he not been rushed to a private hospital for treatment.
Underwent cosmetic surgery on his ears and teeth in 1933.
Gable's 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 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?"
He served as a pallbearer and usher at Jean Harlow's funeral in 1937.
In a poll of entertainment readers, he was overwhelmingly selected "King of Hollywood" and was officially crowned by columnist Ed Sullivan in 1938.
When MGM remade Red Dust (1932) in 1953 as Mogambo (1953), Ava Gardner played the Jean Harlow part, Grace Kelly had the Mary Astor role, and Gable played his old part. Only Gable could fill Gable's shoes, even 21 years later.
At the time of his death, his gun collection was valued at half a million dollars. He had a special gun room in his house filled with gold-inlaid revolvers, shotguns and rifles.
On 6 November 1960, Gable was devastated to learn of the unexpected death of his close friend Ward Bond from a heart attack. Shortly afterwards Gable himself suffered a massive heart attack, and died ten days later in the hospital.
Although it is often claimed that Gable 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 is the second cousin of film producer Thomas R. Bond II, President of American Mutoscope & Biograph, a motion picture and entertainment company.
He was very homophobic and did not get along with Charles Laughton while they were filming Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (he also did not get along with gay director George Cukor on Gone with the Wind (1939), and was supposedly responsible for Cukor's being fired from that project). Relations with Laughton broke down further when Laughton brought his boyfriend onto the location.
Part of Gable and Carole Lombard's honeymoon in 1939 was spent at the Willows Inn in Palm Springs, California. Today the Inn continues to operate and anyone can stay in the same room, which is largely unaltered since that time.
He turned down the role of Colonel William Travis in The Alamo (1960) because he didn't want to be directed by John Wayne.
So durable, 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.
Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), by Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in _Blonde (2001) (TV)_ , by Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003) (TV), by Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV), by Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV), by Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) (TV), by Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV).
He was seriously considered to play Tarzan in _Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)_ , but was deemed an unknown and Johnny Weissmuller was chosen instead.
Although he was never crowned #1 at the Box Office in the Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual survey of movie exhibitors, he made the list a then-record 15 times from 1932 to 1949, and a 16th time in 1955. Gable, "The King", was ranked in the top four of Box Office stars every year from 1934 to 1939 (the "Golden Age" of Hollywood), ranking #2 in 1934 and 1936 through 1938, inclusive, when he was topped by Shirley Temple. After ranking #3 at the Box Office in 1940, he slumped to #10 in 1941, a position he also held in 1942 and 1943. After returning from the war, he took the #7 spot in the Box Office poll in 1947 and 1948, before again slumping to #10 in 1949. He made his last appearance in the Top 10 in 1955, when he again placed #10.
Despite his dyslexia, Gable became an avid reader. He would never allow himself to be photographed reading on film sets, fearing it would undermine his macho screen image.
Discouraged by his failure to progress in films, Gable 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, _Painted Desert, The (1931)_ . Gable 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. Soon Gable's success threatened to eclipse every other star, including his rival Gary Cooper.
He was a member of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals from its beginning in 1943 until his death in 1960.
Attempted suicide using a high powered motorbike following his wife Carol Lombard's death.
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. His much older first wife served as his first acting coach and paid for his false teeth. Later he married a woman seventeen years his senior, Texan heiress Rhea Langham, who had underwritten his successful assault on Hollywood.
Gable 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.
He was a conservative Republican, although his wife Carole Lombard was a liberal Democrat and encouraged him to support President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. In 1951 Gable attended a rally for Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a few days before his death he voted for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.
Gable was hospitalized for an infection of the gums on Sunday, June 11, 1933, the day before he was to begin shooting on Dancing Lady (1933). He was hospitalized for several days, after which most of his teeth were extracted. 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 Gable 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 Gable's gall bladder was removed. Out another month, the film had to be shut down and went $150,000 over budget. MGM boss Louis B. Mayer docked Gable two weeks pay, which caused bad feelings between the studio and their top star. In order to teach him a lesson, Mayer lent him to Columbia, 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.
Was injured in a car crash on March 35, 1945, at the traffic circle at Sunset Blvd. and Bristol Ave. in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. According to a press release from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Gable was driving east on Sunset Blvd. and had entered the south half of the traffic circle when he was struck by another car, whose driver apparently had become confused by the "round- about" and was driving in a westerly direction on the same arc of the circle. Gable drove his car over a curb to avoid hitting the driver, and it struck a tree, throwing him against the steering wheel. He was treated at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a bruised chest and a cut on his right leg that required stitches. The driver of the other car drove away from the site without checking on Gable or reporting the accident. The hit-and-run accident gave rise to the urban legend that Gable had struck and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, an incident that allegedly was covered up by MGM. Though reported in several biographies, there is no basis in fact for the allegations.
In the 1950s Gable joined Walt Disney, John Wayne, James Stewart and other politically conservative entertainers to "assist" the House Un-American Activities Committee in its efforts to find alleged Communist infiltration in the film industry.
On 16 November 1960, Gable sat up in his hospital bed while reading a magazine and suffered his fourth and final heart attack. He was dead within seconds and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Proposed his headstone should read: "Back to silents." It was not used by his widow though.
Proposed marriage to Nancy Davis in 1948.
As head of the actors' division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, Gable 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 became an alcoholic 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 Fort Roach, as the First Motion Picture Unit headquarters came to be known. Gable's discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan.
1 February 1901, Cadiz, Ohio, USA
Date of Death
16 November 1960, Los Angeles, California, USA. (heart attack)
Birth Name
William Clark Gable
Nickname
Gabe
The King
The King of Hollywood
Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Mini Biography
Clark Gable's mother died when he was seven months old. 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. In 1924 he reached Hollywood with the help of Portland, Oregon, theatre manager Josephine Dillon, who coached and later married him (she was 17 years his senior). After playing a few bit parts he returned to the stage, becoming lifelong friends with Lionel Barrymore. After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Darryl F. Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. 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. 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 Oscar. 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). When his third wife Carole Lombard died in a plane crash returning from a War Bond drive, 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 announced during filming of The Misfits (1961) that, for the first time, he was to become a father. Two months later he died of a heart attack. He was laid to rest beside Carole Lombard at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
Mini Biography
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio. Later that year 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. When Clark was 16 he dropped out of school and worked at many odd jobs before joining a traveling theater company.
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, also about 15 years older than him. After working as an extra in various movies, he was offered a small part in the Painted Desert in 1931.
From this point, his acting career flourished, and in 1934 he won an Academy Award for his performance in Frank Capra’s classic It Happened One Night. The next year saw a starring role in The Call of the Wild with Loretta Young, with whom he had an affair (resulting in the birth of a daughter). Divorced in 1939, he later that same year starred in Gone With the Wind.
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. Clark then volunteered to be drafted and served in Europe for several years. After the war he continued with his film career and married Silvia 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 and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Bunker, and in 1959 Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. Several months prior to this Clark became a grandfather, when his daughter with Loretta Young gave birth in November 1959. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits, when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month.
He was buried shortly afterwards in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother when they died. In March 1961 Kay Gable gave birth to a boy whom she named John Clark Gable after his father.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Gable Freak
Spouse
Kay Williams (11 July 1955 - 16 November 1960) (his death) 1 child
Sylvia Ashley (20 December 1949 - 21 April 1952) (divorced)
Carole Lombard (29 March 1939 - 16 January 1942) (her death)
Maria "Ria" Franklin Printiss Lucas Langham Gable (19 July 1931 - 4 March 1939) (divorced)
Josephine Dillon (13 December 1924 - 1 April 1930) (divorced)
Trade Mark
Pencil thin mustache that hugged his upper lip
Trivia
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.
A few months after his death, his wife gave birth to John Clark Gable. John is into racing and has appeared in at least one film.
Actress Judy Lewis is Clark's illegitimate daughter by actress Loretta Young.
In the 1970s his Encino, California estate was subdivided and turned into a very upscale tract development called "Clark Gable Estates."
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.
It was at Gable's 36th birthday that Judy Garland sang "Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You."
Gable's first two wives - Josephine Dillon and Ria Langham - were 14 and 17 years older than he was, respectively.
In the summer of 1942, Clark enlisted in the army in honor of his late wife, Carole Lombard. She had been killed in a plane crash while on tour selling war bonds.
When he was first cast in It Happened One Night (1934) opposite Claudette Colbert, he told director Frank Capra that he would give the role a shot, but if things weren't going well after a few days, he would leave the production.
So durable, he could play the same role in both an original (_Red Dust (1932)_ ) with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, and its re-make (Mogambo (1953)) with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.
When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate.
He disliked Greta Garbo, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.
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 guarded health. He died from a heart attack before the film was released.
Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued on 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp features Gable and Vivien Leigh as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind (1939). The other films honored were Beau Geste (1939), Stagecoach (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Grandfather of Clark James Gable, who's the first child of his son John Clark Gable and his ex-wife Tracy Yarro. Clark James was born on September 10, 1988 at a hefty 10 lbs.
Gable was dyslexic, a fact which didn't emerge until several years after his death.
Cousin-in-law of William B. Hawks.
Joined the Army Air Corps during the Second World War, and 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.
As a native of Cadiz, Ohio, he was inducted into the Lou Holtz Museum/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame in June 2004 (www.LouHoltzHallOfFame.com).
He was seriously considered to play Tarzan in _Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)_ , but he was deemed an unknown and Johnny Weissmuller was chosen instead.
Was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's inspiration for half of Superman's alter ego name Clark Kent ("Kent" came from Kent Taylor).
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.
His widow, Kay Williams, divorced her previous husband, Adolph Spreckels Jr., heir to the Spreckels Sugar fortune, in 1952. In the divorce papers she alleged that he beat her with one of her slippers.
His wife Sylvia Ashley was born Edith Louise Sylvia Hawkes in 1904. She was the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. Her first husband was Lord Anthony Ashley (they divorced November 28, 1934), her third was Lord Stanley of Alderney, and her fifth was Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (whom she married in 1954 and stayed married to until her death). She died June 29, 1977. Her grave stone refers to her as "Princess Sylvia Djordjadze."
His widow, Kay Williams, was born August 7, 1916, and died in May of 1983.
In some radio interviews at the end of his life, his voice has a haunting similarity to Walt Disney's.
Served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II making training films. Also trained as an aerial gunner, he flew 5 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.
Is the subject of the song "Clark Gable" by The Postal Service.
Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), by Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in _"Blonde" (2001) (mini)_ , by Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003) (TV), by Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV), by Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV), by Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) (TV), by Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV) and by Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV)
Military records on celebrities released by the Pentagon in 2005 reveal that Gable, upon enlistment, was described as a "motion picture specialist" and his weekly wage was listed as $7,500. A movie cameraman, Andrew J. McIntyre, enlisted along with Gable and trained with him, the documents showed. "In order to have something definite to describe and some tangible evidence of his experiences, it is proposed that there be enlisted his cameraman to be trained as an aerial gunner also who may make pictures of Gable in various theaters of operations," one Army memo said.
Prior to making The Misfits (1961), he crash-dieted from a bloated 230 lbs. to 195 lbs. 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.
Both parents were of German ancestry.
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.
Had to have almost all of his teeth extracted due to pyorrhea. The infection would have killed him had he not been rushed to a private hospital for treatment.
Underwent cosmetic surgery on his ears and teeth in 1933.
Gable's 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 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?"
He served as a pallbearer and usher at Jean Harlow's funeral in 1937.
In a poll of entertainment readers, he was overwhelmingly selected "King of Hollywood" and was officially crowned by columnist Ed Sullivan in 1938.
When MGM remade Red Dust (1932) in 1953 as Mogambo (1953), Ava Gardner played the Jean Harlow part, Grace Kelly had the Mary Astor role, and Gable played his old part. Only Gable could fill Gable's shoes, even 21 years later.
At the time of his death, his gun collection was valued at half a million dollars. He had a special gun room in his house filled with gold-inlaid revolvers, shotguns and rifles.
On 6 November 1960, Gable was devastated to learn of the unexpected death of his close friend Ward Bond from a heart attack. Shortly afterwards Gable himself suffered a massive heart attack, and died ten days later in the hospital.
Although it is often claimed that Gable 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 is the second cousin of film producer Thomas R. Bond II, President of American Mutoscope & Biograph, a motion picture and entertainment company.
He was very homophobic and did not get along with Charles Laughton while they were filming Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) (he also did not get along with gay director George Cukor on Gone with the Wind (1939), and was supposedly responsible for Cukor's being fired from that project). Relations with Laughton broke down further when Laughton brought his boyfriend onto the location.
Part of Gable and Carole Lombard's honeymoon in 1939 was spent at the Willows Inn in Palm Springs, California. Today the Inn continues to operate and anyone can stay in the same room, which is largely unaltered since that time.
He turned down the role of Colonel William Travis in The Alamo (1960) because he didn't want to be directed by John Wayne.
So durable, 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.
Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), by Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in _Blonde (2001) (TV)_ , by Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003) (TV), by Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980) (TV), by Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV), by Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) (TV), by Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV).
He was seriously considered to play Tarzan in _Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)_ , but was deemed an unknown and Johnny Weissmuller was chosen instead.
Although he was never crowned #1 at the Box Office in the Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual survey of movie exhibitors, he made the list a then-record 15 times from 1932 to 1949, and a 16th time in 1955. Gable, "The King", was ranked in the top four of Box Office stars every year from 1934 to 1939 (the "Golden Age" of Hollywood), ranking #2 in 1934 and 1936 through 1938, inclusive, when he was topped by Shirley Temple. After ranking #3 at the Box Office in 1940, he slumped to #10 in 1941, a position he also held in 1942 and 1943. After returning from the war, he took the #7 spot in the Box Office poll in 1947 and 1948, before again slumping to #10 in 1949. He made his last appearance in the Top 10 in 1955, when he again placed #10.
Despite his dyslexia, Gable became an avid reader. He would never allow himself to be photographed reading on film sets, fearing it would undermine his macho screen image.
Discouraged by his failure to progress in films, Gable 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, _Painted Desert, The (1931)_ . Gable 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. Soon Gable's success threatened to eclipse every other star, including his rival Gary Cooper.
He was a member of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals from its beginning in 1943 until his death in 1960.
Attempted suicide using a high powered motorbike following his wife Carol Lombard's death.
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. His much older first wife served as his first acting coach and paid for his false teeth. Later he married a woman seventeen years his senior, Texan heiress Rhea Langham, who had underwritten his successful assault on Hollywood.
Gable 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.
He was a conservative Republican, although his wife Carole Lombard was a liberal Democrat and encouraged him to support President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. In 1951 Gable attended a rally for Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a few days before his death he voted for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.
Gable was hospitalized for an infection of the gums on Sunday, June 11, 1933, the day before he was to begin shooting on Dancing Lady (1933). He was hospitalized for several days, after which most of his teeth were extracted. 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 Gable 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 Gable's gall bladder was removed. Out another month, the film had to be shut down and went $150,000 over budget. MGM boss Louis B. Mayer docked Gable two weeks pay, which caused bad feelings between the studio and their top star. In order to teach him a lesson, Mayer lent him to Columbia, 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.
Was injured in a car crash on March 35, 1945, at the traffic circle at Sunset Blvd. and Bristol Ave. in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. According to a press release from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Gable was driving east on Sunset Blvd. and had entered the south half of the traffic circle when he was struck by another car, whose driver apparently had become confused by the "round- about" and was driving in a westerly direction on the same arc of the circle. Gable drove his car over a curb to avoid hitting the driver, and it struck a tree, throwing him against the steering wheel. He was treated at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a bruised chest and a cut on his right leg that required stitches. The driver of the other car drove away from the site without checking on Gable or reporting the accident. The hit-and-run accident gave rise to the urban legend that Gable had struck and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, an incident that allegedly was covered up by MGM. Though reported in several biographies, there is no basis in fact for the allegations.
In the 1950s Gable joined Walt Disney, John Wayne, James Stewart and other politically conservative entertainers to "assist" the House Un-American Activities Committee in its efforts to find alleged Communist infiltration in the film industry.
On 16 November 1960, Gable sat up in his hospital bed while reading a magazine and suffered his fourth and final heart attack. He was dead within seconds and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Proposed his headstone should read: "Back to silents." It was not used by his widow though.
Proposed marriage to Nancy Davis in 1948.
As head of the actors' division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, Gable 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 became an alcoholic 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 Fort Roach, as the First Motion Picture Unit headquarters came to be known. Gable's discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan.
