Clark Gable was an American actor. He was born in 1901 at Cadiz, Ohio and died in 1960. The son of an oil field worker. Gable left school at 14 and held a number of jobs, including tire factory worker and lumberjack, but his first love was acting. Friend Lionel Barrymore arranged a screen test for Gable at MGM, which he failed. However, after Gable made an impressive film debut in The Painted Desert, the studio changed its mind and signed him to a contract. A series of successful films followed; in fact, he made eight movies in 1931 alone, but it was in 1934, when on loan to Columbia, that he scored a great triumph in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, for which he received the Oscar as best actor.

Gable separated from his second wife, socialite Rhea Langham, in 1935 and married actress Carole Lombard in 1939, while he was in the midst of playing Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. In 1942, Lombard was killed in a plane crash, and shortly thereafter Gable joined the US Army Air Force and flew several bombing missions over Germany during the Second World War. After the war, Gable returned to Hollywood and made more films. Finally, in the 1950s, age caught up with Gable and his popularity began to wane.

Biography & Filmography

• Real Name: William Clark Gable

• Date of birth: February 1, 1901

• Place of birth: Cadiz, Ohio

• Date of death: November 16, 1960

• Place of death: Los Angeles, California

• Cause of death: Heart attack

Spouses:
• Kay Spreckels (11 July 1955 - 16 November 1960) (his death)
• Sylvia Ashley (20 December 1949 - 21 April 1952) (divorced)
• Carole Lombard (29 March 1939 - 16 January 1942) (her death)
• Ria Langham (19 June 1931 - 4 March 1939) (divorced)
• Josephine Dillon (13 December 1924 - 1 April 1930) (divorced)

Children:
• John Clark Gable born after his father's death on March 20, 1961.
• Judy Lewis is Gable's illegitimate daughter by actress Loretta Young.
• She was born November 6, 1935.

Nicknames:
• Gabe, The King

• Salary for Gone With the Wind: $120,000

• Height: 6'1"

Quotes:

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."

"The only reason they come to see me is that I know that life is great -- and they know I know it."

David O. Selznick: "Oh, Gable has enemies all right, but they all like him!"

A former girlfriend: "Of course, Clark never really married anyone. A number of women married him; he just went along for the gag."