CLARK GABLE BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Clark Gable was born February 1st, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio with the birth name, William Clark Gable.  His father was an Ohio driller and farmer and at only 10 months old, his mother passed away.  Gable quit high school to work in Ohio factories and Oregon lumber camps.  At the age of sixteen, Gable was talked into traveling to Akron to work at a tire factory.  It was there that he saw his first stage play, "The Bird of Paradise" and was hooked from there on.
 
He took a $300 inheritance he had gotten on his 21st birthday to launch a theater career.  At the beginning things were not going so well, working for stock companies that kept going bankrupt along with crooked theater managers until he was taken under the wing by an actress named, Josephine Dillon who coached Gable in Speech and movement and also married him in 1924.  He changed his stage name from W.C. Gable to Clark Gable and found work as an extra in such silent films as Erich von Stroheim's, "The Merry Widow" (1925) and "The Plastic Age" (1925).
 
Sadly, his marriage ended in 1927.  He moved to Texas to perform in a stock play called, "Machinal" (1928) and in 1930 moved to Hollywood.  A stage production of, "The Last Mile" (1930) caught the eye of film producers.  MGM signed him and he was offered a salary of $350 per week, and within one year he was being cast in roles on films playing the Romantic lead.  Beginning with his first large role on, "It Happened One Night" (1934) starring with Claudette Colbert, in which he won an Oscar and took him to star status earning a salary of $211,000 per year. 
 
He made his talking debut in, "The Painted Desert" (1931) starring with William Boyd, Helen Twelvetrees and William Farnum.  He remained with MGM for 22 years only being loaned out on occasion to other film companies, but keeping his loyalty to MGM.  His most well known role was in, "Gone With The Wind" (1939) starring Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Leslie Howard, Rand Brooks, George Reeves, Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel, playing the character Rhett Butler, which got him known to the rest of the world as, "The King of Hollywood" and earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award For Best Actor.   
 
At the age of 29, Gable married again to, Rita Langham, a 47 year old, but their marriage too ended in divorce.  However, finally he married his third wife, Carole Lombard, a actress of the 1930's, but tragically, she perished in a plane accident in 1942 and Gable was devastated.

Gable chose to join the Army Air Corps and served in World War II in 1942.  This helped him get back on track with what life was all about and even increased his popularity.  He even reached the rank of major.  He spent most of the war in the united Kingdom and flew five combat missions total. 
 
Upon completion of serving in the military, Gable returned to working in films, but many of his post war films were of much disappointment.  He also married again in 1949 to Sylvia Ashley, but this marriage did not last long and he ended up in another divorce and MGM dropped him as well after 23 years with them and a total of 54 pictures.
 
Gable decided to venture out on his own into freelance acting in 1955.  His first two films were "Soldier of Fortune" starring with Susan Hayward and Michael Rennie and "The Tall Men" starring Robert Ryan, Jane Russell and Cameron Mitchell, both (1955) and both were profitable though only modest successes. Again, he regained his success being the highest paid non studio actor in Hollywood.   
 
Entering into another marriage to Kay Spreckels, which turned out to be a happy one.  During this time he formed a production company with Jane Russell and her husband Bob Waterfield, and they produced, "The King and Four Queens" starring with Eleanor Parker, Barbara Nichols and Jo Van Fleet, Gable's one and only production.  He found producing and acting to be too taxing on his health and returned to acting on "The Teachers Pet" (1958) co-starring Doris Day and "The Misfits" (1958) starring with Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe which was very straining film to work on where he did majority of his own horse stunts.
 
This film proved to be too much for Clark Gable and he suffered a heart attack, only 2 days after completion of the film on November 16th, 1960.  He also missed the birth of his first son, John Clark Gable born on March 20th, 1960 only 4 months after his death.       

Clark Gable made about 70 films during his acting career some of which were, "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) co-starring Charles Laughton, which he also received an Academy Award for.  Other more popular films he starred in were, "San Francisco" (1936) starring alongside Spencer Tracy, Jeanette MacDonald and Jack Holt, "Saratoga" (1937) also starring Jean Harlow, Hattie McDaniel, Lionel Barrymore, Frank Morgan and Walter Pidgeon, "The Hucksters" (1947) starring alongside Deborah Kerr, Sidney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Edward Arnold and Keenan Wynn and "Mogambo" (1953) co-starring Ava Gardner.  Gable was idolized by millions of people as the symbol of ideal masculinity. 
 
Gable always said that whenever his career would start to fade, a re-release of, "Gone With the Wind" would soon revive his popularity.  Gable was also one of the few actors to play the lead in three films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Clark Gable is interred in The Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California beside Carole Lombard. 
 
Actor Robert Ryan, in character as Nathan Stark in the 1955 film: "The Tall Men" paid Gable what is probably his best tribute: "He's what every boy thinks he's going to be when he grows up, and wishes he had been when he's an old man."
 

Filmography

1961   The Misfits 
1960   It Started in Naples 
1959   But Not for Me 
1958   Run Silent, Run Deep 
1958   Teacher's Pet 
1956   King and Four Queens 
1955   Soldier of Fortune 
1955   The Tall Men 
1954   Betrayed 
1953   Mogambo 
1953   Never Let Me Go 
1952   Lone Star 
1951   Across the Wide Missouri 
1950   Key to the City 
1950   To Please a Lady 
1949   Any Number Can Play 
1948   Command Decision 
1948   Homecoming 
1947   The Hucksters 
1946   Adventure 
1946   Boom Town 
1942   Somewhere I'll Find You
1941   Honky Tonk 
1941   They Met in Bombay 
1940   Comrade X 
1940   Strange Cargo 
1939   Gone With the Wind 
1939   Idiot's Delight 
1938   Test Pilot  1938
1938   Too Hot to Handle  
1937   Saratoga 
1936   Love on the Run 
1936   San Francisco 
1936   Wife Vs. Secretary 
1935   China Seas 
1935   Mutiny on the Bounty 
1934   Chained 
1934   Forsaking All Others 
1934   It Happened One Night 
1934   Manhattan Melodrama 
1933   Dancing Lady 
1933   Hold Your Man 
1933   No Man of Her Own 
1932   The Painted Desert 
1932   Red Dust 
1932   Strange Interlude 
1931   Dance, Fools, Dance 
1931   A Free Soul 
1931   Laughing Sinners 
1931   Night Nurse
1931   Possessed 
1931   Susan Lenox