Clark Gable. King of the Movies

The beginning of the 30's saw the arrival of a new type of screen hero, sporting a distinctly tougher and more earthy image than the 20's Rudolph Valentino. Warner Bros., had Cagney and Robinson, but MGM had Clark Gable! He epitomized the American ideal of masculinity and virility for tree decades.

Born in 1901 in Cadiz Ohio, at 17 he was inspired to become an actor, but did not begin to make any serious moves toward his ambition until he was 21. He found a few theater companies and began taking several small parts across the Midwest and Portland where he temporarily took work as a salesman in a department store. While there, he met Laura Hope Crews, a stage and film actress, who encouraged him to return to the stage and into another theater company. Many years later, Crews would play "Aunt Pittypat" in Gable's most famous film, Gone With the Wind in 1939.

His acting coach was the theater manager in Portland named Josephine Dillon, who was 14 years his senior. She paid to have his teeth repaired and his hair styled. She also guided him in building up his somewhat slender body, and taught him how to carry himself. She spent considerable time trying to train his voice, and as his speech habits improved, Gable's facial expressions became more natural and convincing. Dillon eventually considered him ready to attempt a career in Hollywood.

In 1924, the couple went to Hollywood where she became his manager and wife. He changed his stage name from W. C. Gable to Clark Gable, and instantly found work as an extra working with Clara Bow, Carole Lombard, John Barrymore, and numerous other silent movie greats. Gable also appeared as a bit player in a series of shorts, and was dong quite well, however, he was not offered any major roles and at the urging of Lionel Barrymore, he returned to the stage.

During the 1927–28 theater season, Gable was very busy playing numerous roles and gaining considerable experience, while at the same time becoming a local matinee idol.

Gable moved to New York and Dillon sought work for him on the Broadway stage. He received good reviews for his performances and much praise for being "brutally masculine, strong and believable". The start of the Depression and the beginning of talking pictures caused many cancellations of plays and acting work became harder to get.

Gable was back in Hollywood playing a variety of roles in a large number of relatively poor quality films. He specialized in down-to-earth characters, especially gamblers and gangsters, but also played lawyers, reporters, and even a minister in Polly Of The Circus in 1932.

But he was at his best in roles which provided him with suitably snappy dialogue and required him to be hard boiled but likeable. As with Cagney, he often mistreated his on-screen girlfriends, but ended up paying a high price. In A Free Soul in 1931, for example, he slapped Norma Shearer, around but was himself bumped off by the male lead Leslie Howard. He and Dillon divorced in 1931 and married Ria who was 17 years his senior, shortly after.

Gable was on a role, being teamed with Joan Crawford twice and Jean Harlow three times in the early 30s. After It Happened One Night in 1934, Gable was a super star. His career was flying high, and his personal life was happy. The only event that caused any turmoil was the birth of his daughter Judy Lewis to Loretta Young that was concealed from the public for decades.

Gone With The Wind was the biggest best seller of all time, and there was talk about making it into a movie. Gable was the first choice as Rhett Butler, but he was not interested, he was also having an affair with Carole Lombard and in the middle of a major mess with his wife, Ria. Louis B. Mayer stepped in offering to pay off Ria Gable and help Clark move on to a comfortable life with Carole Lombard, if Gable would play Rhett Butler.

If anyone doubted Gable as a credible actor before GWTW, they never would again. He made the Rhett Butler, who Margaret Mitchell described in her book come alive. He displayed a wide range of emotion, and was hugely responsible for the movie becoming as big a success as the book was.

Gable and Lombard were planning to have a family and had desperately been trying to have children for two years when Carole went out on a liberty bond drive for the war effort. She went did so very hastily due to the fact that Gable was making a movie with Lana Turner, the notorious playgirl, and rumors had been circulating that the King of Hollywood and the Queen Sex Goddess were instantly attracted to each other. Carole did all she could to be present on the set when Gable was working with a beautiful woman. She had loved Gable so much that she was learning how to hunt and fish and do all the things that were important to him, and she was not about to let another starlet snag him from her. On her flight back to Los Angeles her plane crashed into a mountain and she died instantly. Gable was never the same, and he promptly joined the US Air Force for the duration of the war.

When he returned home, he began dating the drop dead gorgeous model and actress, Virginia Grey. Grey was the daughter of director Ray Grey and was often babysat by Gloria Swanson as a child. By the 1930s she was stunning young lady with absolutely no physical flaws. Her relationship with Gable appeared to be a solid and devoted one and despite her extreme beauty Virginia was ignoring all of her other male admirers in favor of a marriage with Gable. The couple were photographed on a regular basis at all the Hollywood night clubs and events. All including Virginia herself expected Gable to propose when he hastily married Sylvia Ashley.

He continued to make movies and draw audiences. His peculiar marriage to Sylvia Ashley who had previously been married to Douglas Fairbanks, took place in 1949 and they divorced in 1952. He began an on again off again romance with Virginia Grey again, but the tension of his marriage and then divorce to Ashley was always a source of bitter arguments made their relationship unstable. The beautiful Virginia never married and those close to her believed it was due to her deep love of Gable and her hope that he would some day come back to her. Virginia's heart belonged to Clark Gable and there was no way that any other man could measure up after being with him.

He even did a remake of Red Dust in 1951 with Eva Gardner and Grace Kelly in one of her first major parts. (the original parts were Jean Harlow and Mary Astor)

In 1955 Gable married Kay Williams and in 1960 she became pregnant. Gable was 59 years old and about to become a father for the first time. (officially) He was filming The Misfits also starring Marilyn Monroe. Gable suddenly died of a heart attack, and four months later his only son, John Clark Gable was born.