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Clark Gable Biography |
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 - November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, and the biggest box-office star of the early sound film era. He was born in Cadiz, Ohio. When he was seven months old his mother died. At the age of 16 he left high school and started to work in a factory. After seeing a play which impressed him, he made the decision to become an actor. He started to tour with several second class theater companies, and worked also as a salesman and in the industry.
In 1924 he went to Hollywood with the financial aid of theater manager Josephine Dillon, who was more than 10 years older than he was and became both his manager and his first wife. He acted in small roles and returned to the theater, until in 1930 he finally signed a contract with MGM. In the following years he acted in several pictures which soon made him become a megastar, earning the title of "King of Hollywood".
Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1934 performance in the film It Happened One Night. He is, however, best-known for his performance as "Rhett Butler" in the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. A few years before, he had also earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as "Fletcher Christian" in 1935's Mutiny on the Bounty. In addition, Gable was one of the few actors to appear in three films that have won an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Gable's marriage in 1939 to his third wife, actress Carole Lombard, was reportedly the happiest episode in his personal life, but it ended with her death in a plane crash in 1942. He was deeply grieved and joined the Army's Air Corps. His first movie after returning from service in WWII was the 1945 production of Adventure. It was not really successful, and MGM did not renew his contract in view of his high salary. During the next ten years, he made films which did not match the quality of his earlier roles.
His second wife had been Texas socialite Marie Franklin, and his fourth was British Sylvia Lady Stanley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. His fifth wife was Kathleen Williams, a thrice-married former fashion model and stock actress from the town of North East, Pennsylvania. She was the mother of Gable's posthumous son and only legitimate child, born in 1961.
Gable's last film was The Misfits, which also featured Marilyn Monroe in her last screen performance. Gable died in 1960 of a massive heart attack in Los Angeles, at the age of 59. He was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California, beside his beloved wife Carole Lombard.
Filmography
The Misfits (1961)
It Started in Naples (1960)
But Not for Me (1959)
Teacher's Pet (1958)
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
Band of Angels (1957)
The King and Four Queens (1956)
The Tall Men (1955)
Soldier of Fortune (1955)
Betrayed (1954)
Mogambo (1953)
Never Let Me Go (1953)
Lone Star (1952)
Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
To Please a Lady (1950)
Key to the City (1950)
Any Number Can Play (1949)
Command Decision (1948)
Homecoming (1948)
The Hucksters (1947)
Adventure (1945)
Somewhere I'll Find You (1942)
Honky Tonk (1941)
They Met in Bombay (1941)
Comrade X (1940)
Boom Town (1940)
Strange Cargo (1940)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Idiot's Delight (1939)
Too Hot to Handle (1938)
Test Pilot (1938)
Saratoga (1937)
Parnell (1937)
Love on the Run (1936)
Cain and Mabel (1936)
San Francisco (1936)
Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Starlit Days at the Lido (1935)
The Call of the Wild (1935)
China Seas (1935)
After Office Hours (1935)
Forsaking All Others (1934)
Chained (1934)
Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Men in White (1934)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Dancing Lady (1933)
Night Flight (1933)
Hold Your Man (1933)
The White Sister (1933)
Strange Interlude (1932)
No Man of Her Own (1932)
Red Dust (1932)
Polly of the Circus (1932)
Hell Divers (1931)
Possessed (1931)
Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1931)
Sporting Blood (1931)
Night Nurse (1931)
A Free Soul (1931)
Laughing Sinners (1931)
The Secret Six (1931)
Finger Points (1931)
Dance, Fools, Dance (1931)
The Easiest Way (1931)
The Painted Desert (1931)
The Pacemakers (1925)
North Star (1925)
The Plastic Age (1925)
White Man (1924) |
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