William Clark Gable (1901 - 1960)

Born 1 Feb 1901 in Cadiz, Harrison, Ohio, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Josephine Dillon — married 16 Dec 1924 (to 1 Apr 1930) in Los Angeles, California, United States

Husband of Maria (Franklin) Gable — married 19 Jun 1931 (to 8 Mar 1939) in Orange, California, United States

Husband of Jane Alice (Peters) Lombard — married 29 Mar 1939 (to 16 Jan 1942) in Kingman, Mohave, Arizona, United States

Husband of Edith Louisa (Hawkes) Ashley — married 20 Dec 1949 (to 21 Apr 1952) in Solvang, Santa Barbara, California, United States

Husband of Kathleen Gretchen (Williams) Gable — married 11 Jul 1955 (to 16 Nov 1960) in Minden, Douglas, Nevada, United States

Descendants

Died 16 Nov 1960 at age 59 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Doug Lockwood [send private message]

Biography

Clark Gable is Notable.

Clark Gable has Appalachian roots.

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). ^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

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.^[5]

Financially, Clark's father had done very well up until 1917, when he suddenly lost a great deal of money in an 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.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10]

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.^[11] 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.^[12]

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 n the summer of 1924, the pair moved to Hollywood.^[13] On 16 Dec 1924, Clark and Josephine were married at Hollywood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California.^[14][15]

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.^[16]

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. Ronald Reagan.^[17][18] 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.^[19]

Marriages and Children

Clark's first wife was Josephine Dillon, an acting coach seventeen years his senior whom he married in December 1924^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22] 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.^[23] The couple divorced in April 1952, after less than three years of marriage.^[24]

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, hospital administrator, “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.^[25] The official cause of death was coronary thrombosis.^[26]

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).^[27] Actors Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracy were among his pallbearers.

Sources

1. ↑ Ohio Birth and Christening Records. Ancestry.com [database online], entry for Clark Gable (1901).
2. ↑ DiMare, Philip C. DiMare, Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011) p. 661. [ISBN 978-1-5988-4296-8].
3. ↑ 1910 United States Federal Census, Ohio, Harrison County, Green Township, Village of Hopedale, ED 80, sheet 1A, dwelling 3, family 3, household of William H. Gable. Accessed via Ancestry.com (image 1).
4. ↑ Van Neste, Dan, “The Clark Gable Reconstructed Birthhome: Fit for a King.” Classic Images (Issue #286, April 1999, Iss. #286), p 20-22. Available online at ClassicImages.com
5. ↑ Spicer, Christopher J., Clark Gable, in Pictures: Candid Images of the Actor's Life. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company., 2012) p. 19. [Illustration (p.24) of Captain Racket Program. Hopedale, OH: Hopedale High School, 1916) courtesy of Harrison County Historical Society, OH.] [978-0-7864-1124-5]
6. ↑ Spicer, Christopher J., Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2002) p. 21. [978-0-7864-1124-5]
7. ↑ Spicer, Christopher J., Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2002) p. 24. [978-0-7864-1124-5]
8. ↑ 1920 United States Federal Census, Ohio, Summit County, City of Akron, Ward 5, ED 179, sheet 18A, line 15, entry for William C. Gable. Accessed via Ancestry.com (image 35).
9. ↑ Spicer, Christopher J., Clark Gable, in Pictures: Candid Images of the Actor's Life. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company., 2012) p. 15. [ISBN 978-0-7864-4964-4]
10. ↑ Spicer, Christopher J., Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2002) p. 24. [978-0-7864-1124-5]
11. ↑ DiMare, Philip C. DiMare, Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011) p. 661. [ISBN 978-1-5988-4296-8].
12. ↑ Powers, Dennis. Clark Gable's Connection to Oregon and the Rogue, www.SouthernOregonPastAndPresent.com
13. ↑ Spicer, Christopher J. Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography. Jefferson (North Carolina: McFarland, 2002) p.42 [ISBN 0-786-41124-4].
14. ↑ California County Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1849-1980. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Los Angeles, Marriage, 1924-1925, (image 162) Josephine Dillon to Wm. C. Gable (16 Dec 1924).
15. ↑ Moffitt, John C. "The Climb of Clark Gable" The Milwaukee Journal. p. 1. 30 Oct 1932.
16. ↑ U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946. Ancestry.com [database on-line]. Entry for Clark Gable (1942).
17. ↑ Dorr, Robert F., Actor Clark Gable Served in Uniform, Flew Combat Missions in World War II. Defense Media Network, 11 Aug 2010. https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/clark-gable-served-in-uniform-flew-combat-missions-in-world-war-ii
18. ↑ Clark Gable – WWII B-17 Ariel Gunner. World Ward II Dog Tags Blog, 25 Oct 2020. https://www.wwiidogtags.com/ww2-history/clark-gable-b17-gunner
19. ↑ Radeska, Tijana. Hollywood War Heroes – 5 Famous Actors Awarded Medals for their WWII Service. The Vintage News, 24 Oct 2018. https//www.thevintagenews.co/2018/10/24/hollywood-actors-wwii
20. ↑ California County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Los Angeles County Marriages, 1924-1925, entry for Josephine Dillon (image 162).
21. ↑ Marriage License for Clark Gabel and Carole Lombard (1939). Arizona County Marriage Records, 1865-1972. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Mojave County Marriage Licenses 1936 (image 808)
22. ↑ 1940 United States Federal Census, California, Los Angeles County, City of Los Angeles, Assembly District 42 (Encino), ED 60-1319, sheet 7B, line 67, household of Clark Gable. Accessed via Ancestry.com (image 14).
23. ↑ California Marriage Index, 1949-1959. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Entry for Clark Gable to Sylvia Hawkes (image 157)
24. ↑ Death Certificate for Carole Lombard Gable (1939). Nevada Death Certificates 1911-1965. Ancestry.com (database online with images) Clark County Marriage Licenses 1936 (image 808).
25. ↑ Los Angeles (CA) Times. Clark Gable Dies at 59, 17 Nov 1960.
26. ↑ California Death Index, 1940-1997. Ancestry.com (database online), Index Summary for Clark Gable (1960).
27. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 18 February 2021), memorial page for Clark Gable (1 Feb 1901–16 Nov 1960), Find a Grave Memorial no. 373, citing Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave.

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