Clark Gable

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gable-206

https://en.geneastar.org/genealogy/gable/clark-gable

https://genius.com/artists/Clark-gable

https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcrip...

https://en.geneastar.org/genealogy/gable/clark-gable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDnUR2aw2L4

'The former blue-collar worker from Ohio with the prominently jutting ears became the 'King of Hollywood,' a title based on his being the leading male box office attraction throughout the 1930s. The dashing, mustachioed image of Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind" (1939) remains indelibly associated with the name Clark Gable, but before his "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" made screen history, Gable (with the aid of his MGM publicist Howard Strickland) had already established a distinctive screen persona as the virile, lovable rogue whose gruff facade only thinly masked a natural charm and goodness.

Following his marriage to actress Josephine Dillon, Gable played bit parts in several silent Hollywood features (e.g., "The Merry Widow", 1925) but he first achieved fame as a leading man on Broadway in the late 20s. With the flourishing of sound films, Gable joined the new generation of movie actors who made the move from New York to Hollywood in the early 30s. On the advice of director/actor Lionel Barrymore MGM granted him a screen test and, after a talkie debut in a Pathe western ("The Painted Desert" 1931), Gable signed a contract with the prestigious Metro studio, where he remained until 1954. In his first year alone, Gable appeared in a dozen features, quickly rising from supporting player to romantic lead. He was teamed with all of MGM's leading ladies, most notably opposite Norma Shearer in "A Free Soul" (1931), Greta Garbo in "Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise" (1931) and Joan Crawford in "The Possessed" (1931)--though he proved equally adept in male-oriented action sagas ("The Secret Six", "Sporting Blood", "Hell Divers", all 1931).

Despite his rising popularity, Gable balked at having to play gangsters and overly callous characters. In a now legendary act of studio disciplining, Louis B. Mayer "punished" Gable by loaning him out to lowly Columbia for a role in a minor romantic comedy. The project, Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night" (1934), unexpectedly became the first film to sweep the five major Oscars (for best actor, actress, director, writer, and picture) and vaulted Gable to new prominence in the industry. His sensational appearance "sans" undershirt in the film's bedroom scene went down in Hollywood legend as the event that caused American males to make fewer trips to the haberdasher. While its effect on undershirt purchases may be purely apochryphal, the publicity from the event no doubt led to Gable's next major role, that of the bare-chested Fletcher Christian in MGM's "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935), another Oscar-winner for Best Picture.

With such success under his belt, Gable commanded even greater star treatment at Metro and began appearing in fewer films each year, although his range of genre vehicle expanded. He continued his string of romantic comedies with Jean Harlow ("Red Dust" 1932, "Hold Your Man" 1933, "China Seas" 1935, "Wife vs. Secretary" 1936, and "Saratoga" 1937), but also made off-beat musical appearances ("San Francisco", "Cain and Mabel", both 1936; the comedy-drama "Idiot's Delight" 1939, in which he sang "Puttin' on the Ritz"), action dramas ("The Call of the Wild" 1935, "Test Pilot" 1938) and romances ("Love on the Run" 1936). With MGM even 0promoting his image in its other feature films (Judy Garland singing "Dear Mr. Gable--You Made Me Love You" in "Broadway Melody of 1938" and Mickey Rooney doing Gable impressions in "Babes in Arms" 1939) Clark Gable remained King of the Hollywood box office throughout the decade, culminating in his highly publicized and memorable performance in "Gone With the Wind." Only his ill-conceived biopic "Parnell" (1937) interrupted a string of popular successes.

Gable's reign at the top of Hollywood stardom in 1939 was enhanced by his storybook romance and marriage to actress Carole Lombard. Her untimely death in a plane crash in January 1942 marked a tragic downturn in Gable's life. He turned his back on his film career and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. After two years of decorated combat service, Gable returned to the screen in 1945 with his macho hero's image only further amplified. But despite much studio publicity for his return in "Adventure" ("Gable's Back and Garson's Got Him") and some box office success, Gable's post-war film career consisted mostly of routine, undistinguished vehicles. He consistently starred in one film a year, but never regained his status of 30s. Still, there were no pretenders to the throne. When MGM remade "Red Dust" in 1953 as "Mogambo", Ava Gardner was in for Harlow, Grace Kelly played the Mary Astor role, and Gable's part? Only Gable could fill Gable's shoes, even twenty-one years later.

After a short-lived marriage (Lady Sylvia Ashley) and an unsuccessful attempt at independent production in the 1950s, Gable proved himself the King one last time, romancing the fragile Marilyn Monroe in John Huston's "The Misfits" (1961). His performance was greatly praised, but Gable had insisted on performing his own stunts, including breaking a horse. Doctors had warned him about an already weakened heart and the exertion proved too much (this would be Monroe's last completed film as well). He widowed his fifth wife, the former Kay Spreckles, in 1960, shortly before she gave birth to John Clark Gable, the son Gable had always longed for. As per his last wishes, Spreckles buried him alongside the great love of his life, Carole Lombard.

Gable's most famous role was Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh. His performance earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor; he won for It Happened One Night (1934) and was also nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Later memorable performances were in Run Silent, Run Deep, a classic submarine war film, and his final film, The Misfits (1961), which paired Gable with Marilyn Monroe in her last screen appearance.

In his long film career, Gable appeared opposite some of the best and most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with,[1] was partnered with Gable in eight films, Myrna Loy was with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer in three. Gable was often named the top male star in the mid-30s, and was second only to the top box-office draw of all, Shirley Temple.

Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio to William Henry "Bill" Gable, an oil-well driller,[1][2] and Adeline Hershelman, of German and Irish[3] descent. He was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. His original name was probably William Clark Gable, but birth registrations, school records and other documents contradict one another. "William" would have been in honor of his father. "Clark" was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. In childhood he was almost always called "Clark"; some friends called him "Clarkie," "Billy," or "Gabe".[4]

When he was six months old, his sickly mother had him baptized Roman Catholic. She died when he was ten months old, probably of an aggressive brain tumor. Following her death, Gable's father's family refused to raise him as a Catholic, provoking enmity with his mother's side of the family. The dispute was resolved when his father's family agreed to allow Gable to spend time with his mother's Catholic brother, Charles Hershelman, and his wife on their farm in Vernon, Pennsylvania.

In April 1903, Gable's father Will married Jennie Dunlap, whose family came from the small neighboring town of Hopedale. Gable was a tall shy child with a loud voice. After his father purchased some land and built a house, the new family settled in. Jennie played the piano and gave her stepson lessons at home; later he took up brass instruments. She raised Gable to be well-dressed and well-groomed; he stood out from the other kids. Gable was very mechanically inclined and loved to strip down and repair cars with his father. At thirteen, he was the only boy in the men's town band. Even though his father insisted on Gable doing "manly" things, like hunting and hard physical work, Gable loved language. Among trusted company, he would recite Shakespeare, particularly the sonnets. Will Gable did agree to buy a seventy-two volume set of The World's Greatest Literature to improve his son's education, but claimed he never saw his son use it.[5] In 1917, when Gable was in high school, his father had financial difficulties. Will decided to settle his debts and try his hand at farming and the family moved to Ravenna, just outside of Akron. Gable had trouble settling down in the area. Despite his father's insistence that he work the farm, Gable soon left to work in Akron's B.F. Goodrich tire factory.

At seventeen, Gable was inspired to be an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise, but he was not able to make a real start until he turned 21 and inherited money. By then, his stepmother Jennie had died and his father moved to Tulsa to go back to the oil business. He toured in stock companies and worked the oil fields and as a horse manager. Gable found work with several second-class theater companies and worked his way across the Midwest to Portland, Oregon, where he found work as a necktie salesman in the Meier & Frank department store. While there, he met actress Laura Hope Crews, who encouraged him to go back to the stage and into another theater company. His acting coach was a theater manager in Portland, Oregon, Josephine Dillon (seventeen years his senior). Dillon paid to have his teeth repaired and his hair styled. She guided him in building up his chronically undernourished body, and taught him better body control and posture. She spent considerable time training his naturally high-pitched voice, which Gable slowly managed to lower, and he gained better resonance and tone. As his speech habits improved, Gable's facial expressions became more natural and convincing.[6] After the long period of rigorous training, she eventually considered him ready to attempt a film career.

Gable had a daughter, Judy Lewis,[38] the result of an affair with actress Loretta Young that began on the set of The Call of the Wild in 1934. In an elaborate scheme, Young took an extended vacation and went to Europe to hide the fact that she was pregnant. After a few months, she came back to California and gave birth to their child in Venice. Nineteen months after the birth, Loretta claimed to have adopted Judy. This ploy got less believable when the child grew up to not only look like her mother, but also Clark Gable. Judy had Gable's big ears that stuck out as well as his eyes and smile.

According to Lewis, Gable visited her home once, but he didn't tell her that he was her father. While neither Gable nor Young would ever publicly acknowledge their daughter's real parentage, this fact was so widely known that in Lewis's autobiography Uncommon Knowledge, she wrote that she was shocked to learn of it from other children at school. Loretta Young never officially acknowledged the fact, which she said would be the same as admitting to a "venial sin." However, she finally gave her biographer permission to include it only on the condition the book not be published until after her death.

Gable died in Los Angeles, California on November 16, 1960, the result of a heart attack ten days after suffering a severe coronary thrombosis. There was much speculation that Gable's physically demanding role in The Misfits contributed to his sudden death soon after filming was completed. In an interview with Louella Parsons, published soon after Gable's death, Kay Gable was quoted as saying "It wasn't the physical exertion that killed him. It was the horrible tension, the eternal waiting, waiting, waiting. He waited around forever, for everybody. He'd get so angry that he'd just go ahead and do anything to keep occupied."

Freemason: , Beverly Hills Lodge No. 528, California

Clark Gable’s Secret Daughter Dies

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/clark-gable-secret-daughte...

http://www.phoenixmasonry.org/masonicmuseum/masonic_actors_and_scre...

Masonic membership: Beverly Hills Lodge No. 528, Al Malaika Temple A.A.O.N.M.S. Los Angeles, California. (Gable was raised October 31, 1933 in Beverly Hills Lodge.)

http://ww2gravestone.com/people/gable-william-clark/

• Residence: Green, Harrison, Ohio, United States - 1910
• Residence: Akron Ward 5, Summit, Ohio, United States - 1920
  • Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Nov 18 2017, 16:13:37 UTC

Actor. Born under the name William Clark Gable, his early life was ordinary, unhappy and confusing. Two towns claim him as a native son, Cadiz, Ohio and Meadville, Pennsylvania. His mother died when he was but a few months of age. He attended the Hopedale Schoolhouse in Hopedale, Ohio, which then was both a grammar and high school housed in the same building located on a hilltop directly behind the family residence. With his family, William attended Hopedale Methodist Church where his father was a Sunday School teacher. A poor student, he became a school dropout leaving home to take a job with Firestone Tire in Akron, Ohio. The biggest attractions in the city for William Gable were movies and especially the Akron Music Hall where a stock company was doing a live performance. He hung around the hall until landing an unsalaried position. He found out what he wanted to be and no amount of adversity, hardship or negative opinion would ever change his mind. A long indirect journey to Hollywood began with many odd jobs along the way leading him to Portland, Oregon. He landed a job with a stock company gaining valuable training from the woman who would become his wife and lead him to Hollywood and a career which spanned three decades with appearances in 92 movies including "Gone With the Wind," one of the most popular film of all times. Gable won an Academy Award in 1934 for his role in "It Happened One Night." His third marriage to actress Carole Lombard ended with her tragic death at 33 in a plane crash in 1942 while participating in a bond drive. Distraught, he withdrew from his career and though well over the draft age, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps becoming an aerial gunner during World War II flying in five bombing missions over Germany and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal. Discharged with the rank of Major, he returned to Hollywood and resumed film making. Two weeks after completing his last movie, "The Misfits," He suffered chest pains and was transported to Presbyterian Hospital in Los Angeles where he was diagnosed as having suffered a coronary thrombosis. On the ninth day of his confinement he was gone. Clark Gable was buried in a closed casket. An Episcopal service was led by an Air Force chaplain accompanied by an honor guard at the Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. His fifth wife Kay had arranged for him to be interred next to his third wife, Carole Lombard. A few weeks later she delivered a boy at the same hospital where his father died. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46585747" target="_blank Donald Greyfield)] Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Jan 01, 2001

Find A Grave Memorial# 373

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 18 2017, 16:21:19 UTC

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Birth and Youth
William Clark Gable was born on 1 Feb 1901, in the small town of Cadiz in Harrison County, Ohio. He was the only child of William Henry "Will" Gable and his wife Adeline (née Hershelman). Clark was named William after his father, but he was almost always called Clark, even as a child. Clark was his maternal grandmother's family name.

Clark was just nine months old when his mother died and he was sent to live for a time with his mother's relatives. In April 1903, Clark's father married Jennie Dunlap, and soon afterwards reclaimed custody of his son. The new family settled in the village of Hopedale in Green Township, Harrison County, Ohio, about seven miles southwest of Cadiz – first with Jennie's parents, and then in a home of their own on Mill Street. There, Clark's father was employed as an oil driller.

Jennie taught young Clark to play the piano, and he later also learned to play the French horn and other brass instruments. At age 13, he become the youngest member of the Hopedale Men's Town Band. As a teen, Clark attended Hopedale High School – then with a student body of just 28 students – where he was described as a good student with athletic skills, who also loved performing. In fact, his earliest known stage performance was the role of Timothy Tolman in Hopedale High School's production of Captain Racket on 11 Mar 1916.

Financially, Clark's father had done very well up until 1917, when he suddenly lost a great deal of money in a failed business venture. As a result, in the summer of 1917, Will Gable temporarily left the oil industry and moved his family to a farm at Yale (now New Milford), Ohio, just outside of Akron. Clark then enrolled in the eleventh grade at Edinburg Centralized High School. Deeply unsatisfied with farm life, however, Clark soon quit school and returned to live with his stepmother's family back in Hopedale. There, he took several menial jobs, including carrying water to a mine crew at the Harmon Creek Coal Company.

In 1919, eighteen-year-old Clark followed a friend to Akron, where he found work as a clerk in the timekeeping office at the Miller Tire and Rubber Company. In 1920, Clark was residing at 24 Steiner Avenue, along with James McDermott and Calvin Bixbee. The friends were just three of hundreds of rubber company employees “lodging” in this Akron neighborhood. It was in Akron that Clark became infatuated with the theater after seeing a production of the play The Bird of Paradise. He was so enamored, in fact, that he took an unpaid position working backstage as a call boy, while continuing his job at the rubber factory.

In 1920, when the rubber production industry began to falter, Clark took a job selling neckties at Gates & Kittle's haberdashery and also worked for a time at Haun's drugstore. That same year, Clark's beloved stepmother, Jennie, died. Unable to manage his farm alone, Clark's father sold his farm and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. A few months later, nineteen-year-old Clark followed, joining his father at work in the oil fields.

When Clark turned 21, he inherited $300 from a trust fund established by a maternal uncle which he used to move west in pursuit of an acting career. Leaving his Ohio home, Clark joined a traveling theater company, which eventually disbanded in Montana. He then rode the rails on a freight train to Bend, Oregon, in 1922, where he worked at a sawmill, as well as in the hop fields as a picker. He then moved to Portland where he sold neckties for the Meier & Frank department store and worked in the classified advertising department for the Oregonian newspaper.

Career - Clark Gable won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Actor
In Portland, Clark met an acting teacher named Josephine Dillon, who eventually became his patron. She paid to have Clark's teeth fixed and his hair styled, guided him in building up his chronically undernourished physique, taught him better body control and posture, and trained him to lower and gain better resonance of his naturally high-pitched voice. Eventually, Josephine determined that Clark was ready to attempt a film career, and in the summer of 1924, the pair moved to Hollywood. On 16 Dec 1924, Clark and Josephine were married at Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California.

In Los Angeles, Dillon served as Clark's manager, continuing to work with him on his acting and voice while he went to auditions. During this time, Clark followed Dillon's advice to change his stage name from W.C. to Clark. Over the next few years, Clark's career gained momentum with stage and minor roles in silent films and a few two-reel comedies. However, he was not offered any major film roles, so he returned to the stage. In time, the couple moved to New York City, where Dillon sought work for him on Broadway.

Clark began his film career as an extra in Hollywood silent films between 1923 and 1926, before progressing to supporting roles for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first leading role came in 1931, when he starred opposite Joan Crawford in Dance, Fools, Dance. The following year, his performance in the romantic drama Red Dust, with reigning sex symbol Jean Harlow, made Gable MGM's biggest male star and propelled him into becoming one of the most dominant leading men in Hollywood history.

In 1934, Clark won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night, co-starring Claudette Colbert. He was nominated two more times for the same award for his roles as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and as Rhett Butler in the legendary film, Gone with the Wind (1939).

In all, Clark appeared appeared in more than 70 feature films and several short films, over a career that spanned more than 35 years. Clark's last feature was the posthumously-released 1961 film The Misfits, scripted by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and co-starring Marilyn Monroe. For Clark's complete filmography, see his IMDB profile.

Military Service
Major Clark Gable served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II
Service started: August 1942
Unit(s): First Motion Picture Unit
Service ended: Sep 1947
A few months after the United States entered World War II, in August 1942, Clark enlisted as a private in the United States Air Corps – a move many have viewed as his way of dealing with the tragic death of his third wife, Carole Lombard, earlier in the year.

Clark enrolled in the Army's 13-week Officer’s Candidate School at Miami Beach, emerging as a second lieutenant and earning his wings as an aerial gunner. Due to his Hollywood connections, Clark was assigned to the First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) located at the Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California (colloquially knows as Ft. Roach). But soon, Lt. Gable was sent to England as head of a six-man film crew, with the 8th USAAF's 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook, Northamptonshire. This “special assignment” was tasked with capturing footage for a propaganda film intended to boost enlistment rates (later entitled Combat America and presented in movie theaters in 1945). Although neither ordered nor expected to, Clark flew with several B-17 operational missions in active combat over Europe in his desire to obtain the combat footage he believed he required.

Clark had been promoted to first lieutenant before reaching England and to captain soon after. In 1943, he returned to the United States to begin assembling his film, and in 1944 he was promoted to the rank of major. Realizing that he was no longer going to be permitted on combat missions due to his age, he requested relief from active duty, which was granted, 12 Jun 1944. He resigned his commission as a reserve officer on 26 Sep 1947, a week after the Air Force became an independent service branch. His discharge papers were signed by fellow-actor Capt. Ronald Reagan. For his service, Clark was awarded the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Air Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Marriages and Children
Clark's first wife was Josephine Dillon, an acting coach seventeen years his senior whom he married in December 1924. Josephine had taken young Clark under her wing, helped him improve his acting, spruced up his look, and took him to Hollywood where she served as his manager. The couple divorced in April 1930. Clark would later say that "he owed [Josephine] a debt of gratitude" for the training he received from her in the early years of his career, and he apparently voluntarily provided her with financial support for the remainder of his life.

In 1929, just as he was about to be signed by MGM, Gable asked Josephine for a divorce. Josephine filed for legal separation on March 28, 1929, and their divorce became final on April 1, 1930.

On 3 Apr 1930, just two days after his divorce from Josephine was finalized, Clark married Texas socialite Ria Langham, whom he had met while performing in New York in 1929. Langham had recently ended her third marriage and had moved to New York to begin anew. She quickly became infatuated with Clark, throwing money at him, buying him expensive clothes, and introducing him to her rich friends. At age 47, Ria was also 17 years Clark's senior – in fact, she was actually nine days older than his first wife. Oddly, Clark and Ria were married a second time 19 Jun 1931 - some suggest it was due a legal glitch between New York and California and the couple simply needed to make sure their marriage was legitimate. Clark and Ria divorced on 7 Mar 1939.

In 1932, Clark starred opposite actress Carole Lombard in the romantic comedy No Man of Her Own, after which the two parted ways. Four years later, however, the pair were reunited at a party at the Mayfair Club in New York City. They soon fell in love and subsequently carried on a very public affair. On 29 Mar 1939, just three weeks after his divorce from Ria was finalized, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were married during a production break on Gone with the Wind. In 1940, Clark and Carole Gable were residing in a $40,000 home at 4525 Petit in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. The block-long Petit Street would later be renamed 'Tara', in honor of the Gone with the Wind estate. Tragically, the woman Clark considered the love of his life would be killed in a plane crash less than three years later, in January 1942.

In December 1949, Clark married Sylvia Ashley, a British model and actress who was the widow of actor Douglas Fairbanks. The couple divorced in April 1952, after less than three years of marriage.

In 1955, Clark married his fifth and final wife, Kay Spreckels a three-times-married former fashion model and Hollywood starlet. With two young children of her own, Kay was able to give Clark the family he had long wanted. Then in 1960, Kay became pregnant with Clark's child. Sadly Clark Gable would pass away just four months before his only son, John Clark Gable, was born, 20 Mar 1961.

In 1965, well after Clark Gable's death, actress Loretta Young revealed privately to her daughter, Judy Lewis, that Judy was actually Clark Gable's daughter, conceived during the filming of The Call of the Wild, in early 1935. Young hid her pregnancy in an elaborate scheme and nineteen months after the birth she claimed to have adopted the baby. Young confirmed the story publicly in her autobiography which was published posthumously after her death in August 2000.

Death
On 6 Nov 1961, a few days after returning to his Encino home following filming of his final scenes for The Misfits, Clark suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, where he died following a second heart attack ten days later, on 16 Nov 1961. According to hospital administrator, B. J. Caldwell, “He appeared to be doing fine. He was sitting up, then he put his head back on the pillow and that was that.” It was assumed that a second heart attack took the actor’s life. The official cause of death was coronary thrombosis.

Clark Gable was laid to rest beside his late-third wife, Carole Lombard, in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Los Angeles County, California. (Plot: Great Mausoleum, Memorial Terrace, Sanctuary of Trust, Mausoleum Crypt 5868). Actors Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracy were among his pallbearers.