Clark Gable Biography Quotes 6 Report mistakes

Early Life
Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901, in Cadiz, Ohio, to William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller, and Adeline (Addie) Gable. His mother died during his infancy, and he was raised primarily by his father and later a stepmother, Jennie Dunlap, who encouraged his interest in performance and helped refine his manners and speech. Gable grew up in small Ohio towns, worked a variety of jobs, and, as a teenager, gravitated toward local theater. The lure of the stage drew him west, and by the early 1920s he was working with stock companies across the Pacific Northwest, learning craft, discipline, and the rigors of repertory performance.

Training and Stage Apprenticeship
While in Portland, Oregon, Gable met Josephine Dillon, an acting teacher and manager who recognized his potential. She became his mentor and, in 1924, his first wife. Dillon oversaw a painstaking transformation: elocution, posture, diction, and grooming, even arranging dental work to make him camera-ready. The pair moved to Los Angeles, where Gable took small film parts and continued stage work. Seeking stronger opportunities, he went to New York, earning solid notices in Broadway and touring productions. The combination of his stage presence and evolving screen test results eventually drew major studio interest.

Breakthrough at MGM
Returning to Hollywood at the turn of the 1930s, Gable signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, then the most powerful studio in the industry. Under the watch of studio chief Louis B. Mayer and production head Irving Thalberg, MGM quickly saw that Gable's rugged charisma played best opposite high-wattage leading ladies. In A Free Soul (1931), opposite Norma Shearer, he radiated dangerous magnetism as a gangster, and the audience reaction was electric. Soon he headlined with Joan Crawford, establishing an on-screen pairing that defined the era's sophisticated melodramas, and with Jean Harlow, whose earthy glamour and quick wit matched his own in films such as Red Dust. His presence was tough without being coarse, romantic without sentimentality, and it made him one of the studio's essential male stars.

Oscar and Stardom
In 1934, Gable was loaned to Columbia Pictures for Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, co-starring Claudette Colbert. Intended as a minor assignment, it became a landmark romantic comedy and a showcase for his sly comedic timing and unforced charm. Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the film swept the major Oscars, cementing his stature. He followed with Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), earning another Oscar nomination, and a run of hits with Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, and others that gave rise to his enduring sobriquet, the King of Hollywood. His combination of raffish masculinity, impeccable tailoring, and a famous mustache became a template for the American leading man.

Gone with the Wind
David O. Selznick's Gone with the Wind (1939) crystallized Gable's screen image for generations. As Rhett Butler, opposite Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara and under the guiding hand of director Victor Fleming (with contributions from other directors during the turbulent shoot), Gable delivered a performance at once worldly, amused, and emotionally engaged. The film dominated the box office and the Academy Awards. Although he did not win Best Actor that year, his delivery of the line "Frankly, my dear, I do not give a damn" became one of the most quoted moments in film history, an emblem of screen insouciance and moral complexity gliding beneath Hollywood gloss.

Personal Life and Relationships
Gable's private life unfolded as publicly as his career. After divorcing Josephine Dillon, he married socialite Ria Langham; the union ended just before his most consequential marriage, to comedian and actress Carole Lombard in 1939. He and Lombard, who had vivacious wit and a grounded sensibility, created a lively home life on a ranch in Encino. Their marriage was widely regarded as loving and equal, with Lombard's humor balancing Gable's taciturn streak. Tragedy struck in January 1942 when Lombard died in a plane crash while returning from a war bond tour. The loss devastated Gable and profoundly altered his priorities.

Though he was often paired on-screen with Joan Crawford and Myrna Loy, and later with Lana Turner and Deborah Kerr, off-screen relationships were more complicated. Years later, it became widely known that he had fathered a daughter, Judy Lewis, with Loretta Young, a fact the principals kept private at the time. After the war he wed Lady Sylvia Ashley, a brief and stormy marriage, and in 1955 he married Kay Williams, with whom he found a measure of steadiness late in life.

World War II Service
Lombard's death galvanized Gable to enlist. He joined the U.S. Army Air Forces, went through officer training, and served with the Eighth Air Force in England. With the 351st Bomb Group he flew combat missions in B-17s as an observer-gunner while also making the documentary Combat America to bolster morale and recruitment. He earned the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross and rose to the rank of major before being discharged. The wartime years deepened his sense of duty and sobriety, and the experience informed several of his postwar roles dealing with combat and its aftermath.

Postwar Career and Studio Transition
Gable returned to MGM with fanfare. Adventure (1945), opposite Greer Garson, trumpeted his comeback, and films like The Hucksters (1947) with Deborah Kerr and Homecoming (1948) with Lana Turner explored a more reflective masculinity. Command Decision (1948) gave him a complex part as an air commander, echoing themes from his service. As the studio system began to wane, he sought more control over his projects. He left MGM in the early 1950s and embraced freelance work, which led to varied and sometimes riskier roles.

A highlight of this period was Mogambo (1953), John Ford's lush African-set remake of Red Dust, with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly bringing fresh counterpoints to Gable's seasoned persona. He also found success in westerns and adventure dramas, including The Tall Men (1955) with Jane Russell and Soldier of Fortune (1955) with Susan Hayward. In Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), opposite Burt Lancaster, he conveyed a steely, haunted authority as a submarine commander, while Teacher's Pet (1958) with Doris Day showcased his undimmed flair for romantic comedy.

The Misfits and Final Days
Gable's final completed film was The Misfits, written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston, opposite Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, with Eli Wallach in support. Filmed in Nevada in 1960, the production was demanding; Gable, who prided himself on doing his own roping and riding, insisted on a high degree of physical authenticity. Shortly after filming wrapped, he suffered a heart attack and died on November 16, 1960, in Los Angeles, at age 59. His wife Kay Williams was expecting their child; John Clark Gable was born a few months later. Gable was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, beside Carole Lombard, a final testament to the centrality of that relationship in his life story.

Craft, Image, and Legacy
Gable perfected a screen style built on understatement. He rarely overplayed a scene; instead, he listened, reacted, and let audiences discover the feeling beneath his cool exterior. Directors as different as Frank Capra, Victor Fleming, John Ford, and John Huston drew on his capacity to project strength with a hint of self-mockery. Producers like David O. Selznick understood that his star aura could ground even the most expansive narratives. He defined a kind of American masculinity that was urbane yet practical, romantic yet unsentimental. He could spar with Claudette Colbert, match Jean Harlow quip for quip, stare down Charles Laughton in Mutiny on the Bounty, or tenderly register heartbreak opposite Vivien Leigh.

The industry changed around him: the decline of the studio system, the rise of location shooting, and a new generation of actors trained in different methods. Yet his appeal endured, because it rested on clarity of character and a rapport with audiences that felt personal. By the time of his death, Gable had become as much a cultural emblem as a movie star, his image enshrined in publicity stills, magazine covers, and iconic scenes that still circulate in film history. The King of Hollywood was not a title he courted, but it captured a truth about his career: he stood at the center of the American star system when it was at its most influential, surrounded by collaborators like Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, Vivien Leigh, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift, and guided by visionaries such as Capra, Fleming, Ford, Huston, and Selznick.

Clark Gable's life traced the arc of classic Hollywood itself: small-town beginnings, relentless apprenticeship, the burnish of studio craftsmanship, wartime service, and a postwar search for autonomy. What remains is not only the silhouette of a man tipping his hat or delivering a line with ironical grace, but a body of work that continues to define what a leading man can be.

Our collection contains 6 quotes who is written by Clark, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Love - Optimism - Romantic - Humility.

Other people realated to Clark: David Niven (Actor), Margaret Mitchell (Novelist), Anita Loos (Writer), Lana Turner (Actress), Hedy Lamarr (Actress), Ricardo Montalban (Actor), Hattie McDaniel (Actress), Barbara Stanwyck (Actress), Mamie Van Doren (Actress), Mary Astor (Actress)