Biography

Birth Name: William Clark Gable 
Born: February 01, 1901, Cadiz,OH 
Died: November 16, 1960 

The "King" of Hollywood

lark Gable and Myrna Loy the "King and Queen of the Silver Screen" were crowned in 1938 by Ed Sullivan, on his radio show, speaking on behalf of 20 million fans. A title which Gable still holds today Gable had a long a very successful film career starting from bit parts in silent Films, but his first success was as a Broadway leading man in the late 20's. He began with the flourishing of sound films and made the move from New York to Hollywood in the early 30's. He eventually starred with almost every popular leading lady including Norman Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford in mostly Gangster roles, when Gable balked at these roles Louis B Meyer loaned him to Columbia for a role in a minor romantic comedy, It Happened One Night, giving Gable his Academy Award for Best Actor. Soon after followed Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935, his role as Fletcher Christian helped the film capture the Best Picture Academy Award that year.

Gable incidentally made six films with one of my favorites Jean Harlow (The Secret Six-1931, Red Dust-1932, Hold your Man-1933, China Seas-1935, Wife vs. Secretary-1936 and Saratoga-1937) One of his most famous roles is that of Rhett Butler in the 1939 Blockbuster Gone With the Wind.

At this time as well he was in the midst of a storybook romance with the beautiful and talented Carole Lombard, but that ended suddenly in 1942 as she was killed in a plane crash. The rest of Gables career was an eclectic mix of war stories mysteries and love stories with his final film being The Misfits. With Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, it was good film that meant the end for all three of their careers.

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