Just ripping through these movie star bios, this one called Long Live the King by Lyn Tornabene. Gable was for a long time regarded as the “king” of actors, particularly following Gone With the Wind. He will forever be linked to that movie and his role as Rhett Butler, for which he somehow failed to win an Oscar. Gable was born in small town Appalachia–Pennsylvania, moving shortly after that to equally small-town Ohio. His father was a pretty unsuccessful oil wildcatter and seldom at home. His mother died when he a few months old, an event which is theorized to have affected him for the rest of his life. He was raised by relatives for a time and then his father remarried.
Gable showed little interest in acting in his early life, until he began seeing movies and he and friends decided to try acting on stage. He scruffed around for several years doing odd jobs with little acting success. Then he met an older stage coach who both took him under her sponsorship and became his first of five wives. He had an attraction to older women, which was ascribed to his early loss of his mother, but I don’t know how true that may be. This woman spiffed up his acting and his voice and his manners and had contacts which led to him getting his chance on stage and ultimately on Broadway.
Like many actors, Clark had a long period of minor roles before his eventual breakout. Gable was determined to be a “man’s man” and as a tall and husky person, he projected that image, which was finally recognized by the studio heads. His big breakout movie was “It Happened One Night” with Claudette Colbert, a truly enjoyable comedy. He always had insecurity about his abilities and he didn’t always have the best luck in the movies and roles that were selected for him by the studio, or even later when he had control of what he appeared in. He acted in a variety of film types, and I always thought he was surprisingly good at comedies.
He was an inveterate womanizer, even when apparently happily married. His true love was Carole Lombard, who died in a plane crash within a few years of their marriage. Gable was devastated. He went on to marry again, but never saw the son he finally had with his last wife, as the son was born after Gable’s death of a heart attack, shortly after finishing the difficult movie The Misfits, with Marilyn Monroe. Gable was apparently a good friend and a kind person to those who worked with and for him. He was always anxious about money and resentful of his treatment by the studios until his great fame allowed him to dictate financial terms. Like a number of actors at the time, he insisted on serving in World War II, and flew in combat.
Clark was a cleanliness nut, supposedly as a result of living among a lot of dirt and grime in his childhood due to his father’s occupation. He was very fashionable, extremely well-dressed in a classic way; always looking immaculate in public. He enjoyed outdoors stuff-hunting, fishing, guns, riding horses, playing golf. He was mechanically inclined, working on cars and motorcycles and puttering around his house. He took his work very seriously and prided himself on professionalism. I am sure he was a fascinating person to talk to.
Like many of these stars, extended periods of happiness appear to have eluded Mr. Gable, despite his career success and he certainly dealt with his share of tragedies.
