William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania, where he stayed until he was two. His father then returned to take him back to Cadiz. At 16, he quit high school, went to work in an Akron, Ohio, tire factory, and decided to become an actor after seeing the play "The Bird of Paradise". He toured in stock companies, worked oil fields and sold ties. On December 13, 1924, he married Josephine Dillon, his acting coach and 15 years his senior. Around that time, they moved to Hollywood, so that Clark could concentrate on his acting career. In April 1930, they divorced and a year later, he married Maria Langham (a.k.a. Maria Franklin Gable), also about 17 years older than him. In this article, we will talk about Clark Gable's Biography including Net Worth, Age, Birthday, Height, Weight, Family, Children etc.
Clark Gable Biography
While Gable acted on stage, he became a lifelong friend of Lionel Barrymore. After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Darryl F. Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. He had a small part in The Painted Desert (1931) with starred William Boyd. Joan Crawford asked for him as co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) and the public loved him manhandling Norma Shearer in A Free Soul (1931) the same year. His unshaven lovemaking with bra-less Jean Harlow in Red Dust (1932) made him MGM's most important star.
His acting career then flourished. At one point, he refused an assignment, and the studio punished him by loaning him out to (at the time) low-rent Columbia Pictures, which put him in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), which won him an Academy Award for his performance. The next year saw a starring role in The Call of the Wild (1935) with Loretta Young, with whom he had an affair (resulting in the birth of a daughter, Judy Lewis). He returned to far more substantial roles at MGM, such as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939).
After divorcing Maria Langham, in March 1939 Clark married Carole Lombard, but tragedy struck in January 1942 when the plane in which Carole and her mother were flying crashed into Table Rock Mountain, Nevada, killing them both. A grief-stricken Gable joined the US Army Air Force and was off the screen for three years, flying combat missions in Europe. When he returned the studio regarded his salary as excessive and did not renew his contract. He freelanced, but his films didn't do well at the box office. He married Sylvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, in 1949. Unfortunately this marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 1952. In July 1955 he married a former sweetheart, Kathleen Williams Spreckles (a.k.a. Kay Williams) and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Adolph ("Bunker") Spreckels III.
On November 16, 1959, Gable became a grandfather when Judy Lewis, his daughter with Loretta Young, gave birth to a daughter, Maria. In 1960, Gable's wife Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits (1961), when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month, on November 16, 1960. Gable was buried shortly afterwards in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother when they died, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
In March 1961, Kay Gable gave birth to a boy, whom she named John Clark Gable after his father.
To know his complete profile, check the following table.
| Name | : | Clark Gable |
| Birth Name/Full Name | : | William Clark Gable |
| Nickname (s) | : | Gabe, The King, The King of Hollywood, Pa |
| Other Name (s) | : | Major Clark Gable |
| Gender | : | Male |
| Date of Birth | : | February 01, 1901 |
| Birthplace | : | Cadiz, Ohio, USA |
| Citizenship | : | American |
| Height | : | 1.85 m |
| Weight | : | - kg |
| Profession (s) | : | Actor , Producer , Soundtrack |
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Clark Gable Age in 2023 and Birthday Info
In this section, we will add Clark Gable's birthday-related information. Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, USA on February 01, 1901.He died on in Los Angeles, California, USA (coronary thrombosis). Check the below table for more information.
| Date of Birth | : | February 01, 1901 |
| Birth Place | : | Cadiz, Ohio, USA |
| Country | : | United States |
| Date of Death | : | 1960-11-16 |
| Death Place | : | Los Angeles, California, USA (coronary thrombosis) |
| Aged | : | 59 years |
| Next Birthday | : | 01 February, 2024 |
| Horoscope(Zodic Sign) | : | Aquarius |
Clark Gable Height and Weight
Now we are going to add Clark Gable's Height (In Meter, Centi Meter, and Feet-Inches) and Weight (In Kilogram and Pounds). As weight changes frequently, we may not have the current weight of Clark Gable. The height of Clark Gable is 1.85 m. Check the below table to see in more units.
| Height in Meter | : | 1.85 m. |
| Height in Centimeter | : | 185 cm. |
| Height in Feet-inches | : | 6'1" |
| Weight in Kilogram | : | - kg |
| Weight in Pounds | : | - lb |
Clark Gable Family (Spouse, Children, Parents, Siblings, Relatives)
In this section, we will add Clark Gable's complete family information including his martial status, husbandorwife, children, parents, relatives, and siblings.
| Marital Status | : | Married |
| Spouse (s) | : | Kay Williams (11 July 1955 - 16 November 1960) (his death) (1 child) , Sylvia Ashley (20 December 1949 - 21 April 1952) (divorced) , Carole Lombard (29 March 1939 - 16 January 1942) (her death) , Maria Franklin Gable (19 July 1931 - 4 March 1939) (divorced) , Josephine Dillon (13 December 1924 - 1 April 1930) (divorced) |
| Children (s) | : | John Clark Gable , Judy Lewis |
| Parents (Father and Mother) | : | William Henry Gable , Adeline Gable |
| Relatives | : | - |
Clark Gable Social Accounts (Facebbok, Instagram, Twitter, Website)
In this section, we will add Clark Gable's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and personal website.
| : | Clark Gable Facebook | |
| : | Clark Gable Instagram | |
| : | Clark Gable Twitter | |
| Personal Website | : | Clark Gable Webiste |
Clark Gable Net Worth in 2023
Are you curious to know what was the net worth of Clark Gable at time when he died. The net worth of Clark Gable was $5 million. We do not guarantee the net worth of Clark Gable is the exact amount. This is based on several sources on the internet.
Clark Gable Facts and Trivia
Here is the list of top facts about Clark Gable.
- Adolf Hitler esteemed the film star above all other actors, and during the war offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and return Gable, who had enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was flying combat missions over Germany, unscathed to him.
- A few months after his death, Gable's widow, Kay (1917-1983), gave birth to John Clark Gable, a race-car driver and sometime actor.
- In the 1970s his Encino, CA, estate was subdivided and turned into a very upscale tract development called "Clark Gable Estates".
- Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.
- In 1995 was chosen by "Empire" magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#36).
- It was at his 36th birthday that Judy Garland sang "Dear Mr. Gable: You Made Me Love You".
- His first two wives--Josephine Dillon and Maria Franklin Gable (aka Ria Langham)--were 14 and 17 years older than he was, respectively.
- When he was first cast in It Happened One Night (1934) opposite Claudette Colbert, he told director Frank Capra that he would give the role a shot, but if things weren't going well after a few days, he would leave the production.
- So durable that he could play the same role in both an original (Red Dust (1932)) with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor, and its remake (Mogambo (1953)) with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.
- When he was born he was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate.
- He disliked Greta Garbo, a feeling that was mutual. She thought his acting was wooden while he considered her a snob.
- Playing a cowboy in his last film, The Misfits (1961), which was also the final film for co-star Marilyn Monroe. The aging Gable diligently performed his own stunts, taking its toll on his already failing health. He died from a heart attack before the film was released.
- Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued on 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp features Gable and Vivien Leigh as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind (1939). The other films honored were Beau Geste (1939), Stagecoach (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).
- Grandfather of Clark Gable III, who is the first child of his son, John Clark Gable, and his ex-wife Tracy Yarro. Clark James Gable was born on September 10, 1988 at a hefty 10 lb.
- He was dyslexic, a fact that didn't emerge until several years after his death.
- Cousin-in-law of William B. Hawks.
- On July 12, 1942, Gable enlisted in Army Air Corps during World War II in honor of his late wife Carole Lombard, who was killed earlier that year (along with her own mother) in a plane crash while on tour selling war bonds. He was commissioned an officer with service number 565390. Rose to the rank of captain and served primarily in Public Affairs, making training films and performing public relations visits to soldiers and airmen in Europe. He also trained as an aerial gunner and he flew five combat missions with the 8th Air Force's 351st Bombardment Group (Heavy) while making his films and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. He was discharged (separated) from the Air Force on June 12, 1944. Captain Ronald Reagan of the First Motion Picture Unit of the Army Air Corps signed Gable's separation papers.
- Inducted into the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame in 2004.
- Was seriously considered to play Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), but was deemed an unknown and Johnny Weissmuller was chosen instead.
- Was voted the 8th Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Entertainment Weekly".
- Was Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's inspiration for half of Superman's alter ego name Clark Kent ("Kent" came from Kent Taylor).
- He worked as a lumberman in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in the early 1920s. After a couple of months of doing that he quit, saying that "the work was too hard" and he would rather act instead. He then left to go to Hollywood, where he began his acting career.
- In 1952, his widow, Kay Williams, divorced her previous husband, Adolph Spreckels Jr., heir to the Spreckels Sugar Co. fortune. In the divorce papers she alleged that he beat her with one of her slippers.
- Gable's fourth wife, Lady Sylvia Ashley, was born Edith Louise Sylvia Hawkes in 1904. She was the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. Her first husband was Lord Anthony Ashley (they divorced November 28, 1934), her third was Lord Stanley of Alderney, and her fifth was Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (whom she married in 1954 and stayed married to until her death). She died June 29, 1977. Her grave stone refers to her as "Princess Sylvia Djordjadze".
- He was voted the 21st Greatest Movie Star of all time by "Premiere Magazine".
- Named the #7 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends List by the American Film Institute
- In some radio interviews at the end of his life, his voice has a haunting similarity to Walt Disney's.
- Is the subject of the song "Clark Gable" by The Postal Service.
- Is portrayed by James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in Blonde (2001), Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003), Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980), Edward Winter in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983) and Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985).
- Military records on celebrities released by the Pentagon in 2005 reveal that Gable, upon enlistment, was described as a "motion picture specialist" and his weekly wage was listed as $7,500. A movie cameraman, Andrew J. McIntyre, enlisted along with Gable and trained with him, the documents showed. "In order to have something definite to describe and some tangible evidence of his experiences, it is proposed that there be enlisted his cameraman to be trained as an aerial gunner also who may make pictures of Gable in various theaters of operations," one Army memo said.
- Prior to making The Misfits (1961), he crash-dieted from a bloated 230 lb. to 195 lb. Twice in the previous decade he had suffered seizures that might have been heart attacks; once, ten years earlier, while driving along a freeway he had chest pains so severe that he had to pull off the road and lie down on the ground until he felt well enough to continue on.
- His father was of German, some Swiss-German, and distant Irish, ancestry. His mother was of half German and half Irish descent.
- Gave his Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934) to a child who admired it, telling him it was the winning of the statue that had mattered, not owning it. The child returned the Oscar to the Gable family after Clark's death.
- His first screen test was made by director Mervyn LeRoy for Warner Bros. When studio head Jack L. Warner and production chief Darryl F. Zanuck saw the test they were furious at LeRoy for wasting their money on that big "ape" with those "huge floppy taxi-cab ears". Years later when Gable made it big, LeRoy used to tease Warner and say, "How would you like to have him and those huge floppy ears now?".
- Served as a pallbearer and usher at Jean Harlow's funeral in 1937.
- In 1938, a poll of entertainment readers, he was overwhelmingly selected "King of Hollywood" and was officially crowned by columnist Ed Sullivan.
- At the time of his death his gun collection was valued at $500,000. He had a special gun room in his house filled with gold-inlaid revolvers, shotguns and rifles.
- On November 6, 1960, Gable was devastated to learn of the unexpected death of his close friend Ward Bond from a heart attack. Shortly afterward, he also suffered a massive heart attack (while reading a magazine). President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend, sent him a message of support wishing him a speedy recovery. Gable died in the hospital ten days after his infarction. Although it is often claimed that he died as a result of Marilyn Monroe's behavior and performing his own stunts in The Misfits (1961), he was already in terrible health when filming began from years of excessive drinking and smoking more than three packs of cigarettes a day. He was interred at Forest Lawn, (Glendale, California) in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust, on the left hand side, next to Carole Lombard.
- Second cousin of film producer Thomas R. Bond II, President of American Mutoscope & Biograph, a motion picture and entertainment company.
- In 1939, part of his and Carole Lombard's honeymoon was spent at the Willows Inn in Palm Springs, CA. Today the Inn continues to operate and anyone can stay in the same room, which is largely unaltered since then.
- Sources say he turned down the role of Col. William Travis in The Alamo (1960) because he didn't want to be directed by John Wayne. However, this seems unlikely since Travis was 26 at the time of the battle and Gable would have been 58 when the movie was filmed.
- Although he was never crowned #1 at the box office in the Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual survey of movie exhibitors, he made the list a then-record 15 times from 1932-49, and a 16th time in 1955. Gable, "The King", was ranked in the top four of box-office stars every year from 1934-39 (the "Golden Age" of Hollywood), ranking #2 in 1934 and 1936-38, inclusive, when he was topped by Shirley Temple. After ranking #3 at the box office Office in 1940, he slumped to #10 in 1941, a position he also held in 1942 and 1943. After returning from the war, he took the #7 spot in the box-office poll in 1947 and 1948, before again slumping to #10 in 1949. He made his last appearance in the Top 10 in 1955, when he again placed #10.
- Despite his dyslexia, he became an avid reader. He would never allow himself to be photographed reading on film sets, fearing it would undermine his macho screen image.
- Discouraged by his failure to progress in films, he tried the stage and became an employable actor, first in stock and eventually on Broadway, without acquiring real fame. When he returned to Hollywood in 1930 for another try at movie acting, his rugged good looks, powerful voice and charisma made him an overnight sensation as the villainous Rance Brett in his first sound picture, The Painted Desert (1931). He exploded onto the screen in a dozen 1931 releases, in small parts at first, but he was an established star by the end of the year.
- Reportedly attempted suicide on a high-powered motorbike following the tragic and untimely death of his wife Carole Lombard.
- During his time on Broadway, Gable worked as a stage gigolo, performing stud services for such actresses as Pauline Frederick and Laura Hope Crews, who were considerably older than he. (Crews would later play "Aunt Pittypat" in Gone with the Wind (1939).) His much older first wife served as his first acting coach and paid for his false teeth. Later he married a woman 17 years his senior, Texan heiress Maria Franklin Gable, who had underwritten his successful assault on Hollywood.
- He became increasingly unhappy with the mediocre roles offered him by MGM as a mature actor. He refused to renew his contract with them in 1953 and proceeded to work independently.
- He was a conservative Republican, although his third wife Carole Lombard, a liberal Democrat, encouraged him to support President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal reforms. In February 1952 Gable addressed a televised rally at Madison Square Gardens in New York in support of Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower, and a few days before his death he voted by post for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election.
- On June 11, 1933, he was hospitalized for pyorrhea, an infection of the gums the day before he was to begin shooting Dancing Lady (1933). He was hospitalized for several days, after which most of his teeth were extracted. The infection would have killed him had he not been rushed to a private hospital for treatment. Afterwards, he went on a vacation to Alaska and Canada with his wife, as it would take a couple of weeks for his gums to heal enough so he could be fitted for dentures. MGM shot around him until he returned and was fitted with a dental plate, but on July 30, after one day's shooting, the infection felled him again. In the days before antibiotics, the infection was so serious that his gall bladder was removed. Out for another month, the film had to be shut down and went $150,000 over budget. MGM boss Louis B. Mayer docked him two weeks pay, which caused bad feelings between the studio and its top star, although his illness was genuine and he was not malingering. To teach him a lesson, Mayer lent him to Columbia Pictures, then a "Poverty Row" studio, to make a comedy. The movie, Frank Capra's masterpiece It Happened One Night (1934), swept the Academy Awards the next year and brought Gable his only Oscar.
- On 3/15/46 he was injured in a car crash at the traffic circle at Sunset Blvd. and Bristol Ave. in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood. According to a press release from MGM, he was driving east on Sunset Blvd. and had entered the south half of the traffic circle when he was struck by another car, whose driver apparently had become confused by the "roundabout" and was driving in a westerly direction on the same arc of the circle. Gable drove his car over a curb to avoid hitting the the other car, and it struck a tree, throwing him against the steering wheel. He was treated at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a bruised chest and a cut on his right leg that required stitches. The driver of the other car drove away from the site without checking on Gable or reporting the accident. The hit-and-run accident gave rise to the urban legend that Gable had struck and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk, an incident that allegedly was covered up by MGM. Though reported in several biographies, there is no basis in fact for the allegations.
- An early member of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, in the 1950s Gable joined Walt Disney, John Wayne, James Stewart and other politically conservative entertainers to "assist" the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in its efforts to find alleged Communist infiltration in the film industry.
- Wanted his headstone to read "Back to silents", but his widow didn't use it.
- As head of the actors' division of the Hollywood Victory Committee, he sent his wife Carole Lombard on one of the first tours, in January 1942, to her home state of Indiana, where she sold $2 million worth of bonds. On the plane trip back to Hollywood the plane crashed, killing Lombard and her mother. Gable drank heavily for six months before enlisting as a private in the Army Air Corps. He served as a combat cameraman in Britain, rose to the rank of major and eventually was furloughed to work at Hal Roach Studios--"Fort Roach", as the First Motion Picture Unit headquarters came to be known. His discharge papers were signed by Capt. Ronald Reagan.
- In 1999, the American Film Institute named him among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at #7.
- Turned down Cary Grant's role in The Philadelphia Story (1940) because he thought the film was too wordy.
- Baptized as a Catholic, but raised as a Protestant, Gable did not practice any religion as an adult. His private funeral service, at the Church of the Recessional in Forest Lawn Park, was attended by some 200 mourners, including Spencer Tracy, Robert Taylor, James Stewart, Norma Shearer, Ann Sothern, Marion Davies, Frank Capra, Robert Stack, Jack Oakie, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Van Johnson and Howard Strickling, Gable's longtime publicity man at MGM. There was no eulogy. The closed casket was adorned with yellow roses shaped like a crown, befitting the one-time King of Hollywood.
- On November 5, 1960, Gable suffered his first heart attack when he was changing a tire on his jeep. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a close friend of his, sent him a message of support wishing him a speedy recovery.
- Contrary to popular belief, he did not perform his own stunts in The Misfits (1961). He was only used for the close-ups, while a stunt double stood in for him in the long shots. His heart attack was caused by his lifestyle--30 years of heavy smoking and drinking, plus his increasing weight in later years. It is also believed his crash diet before filming began may have been a contributing factor.
- Director Howard Hawks had long intended to make Hatari! (1962) with Gable and John Wayne. However, by the time filming began Gable was already dead.
- In the mid-1950s he started to receive television offers but rejected them outright, even though some of his peers, like his old flame Loretta Young, were flourishing in the new medium.
- The day when Clark Gable was born was Friday.
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Conclusion
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