Over nearly twenty five years of
writing a community column, I have composed stories about everyday people of all
ages and persuasions, and devoted numerous columns in honor of famous movie and
film stars, however I realized the other day that I have never penned a column
about one of my favorite actors. He was born
February 1, 1901, was involved in countless love affairs, married five times,
and died at age fifty nine from complications of a heart attack suffered while
filming a movie with Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.
He landed his first leading role in a
motion picture in 1930 and continued to be the leading man in films for the next
three decades. He might be remembered for
countless starring parts but none of them can ever be more legendary than his
leading role in “Gone with the Wind”. Countless
actresses were considered for the part of Scarlett O’Hara, famous women and
unknowns alike auditioned and campaigned for the leading female role, but Clark
Gable was the one and only choice for the part of Rhett Butler.
Clark Gable began his acting career in
silent films, which were also filmed in black and white, and was one of the
actors who successfully moved into the newer realm of entertainment with
speaking parts and then into colorized presentations. He
was lifelong friends with such legends as Lionel Barrymore, Spencer Tracy and
Ward Bond. During the filming of GWTW, Gable
became close friends with Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy, and he planned to
boycott the opening ceremony in Atlanta because she was not allowed to attend
because she was African American. Hattie was
the one who convinced Clark to attend and the two remained close until his
untimely death.
His third marriage to Carole Lombard
was rumored to be a perfect match; Gable was still married when they fell in
love in 1939 and reportedly used most of his salary from GWTW to obtain a
divorce so he could marry Carole. When she
was killed in an airplane crash while selling war bonds during World War II,
Gable enlisted in the US Army Air Forces, attended Officers’ Candidate School
and served in the Army Air Corps as a gunner on a B-17 bomber. He
was promoted to Major before Hollywood insisted he retire from service.
Clark Gable smoked three packs of
cigarettes a day, was fond of bourbon and at the time of his death, owned over
half a million dollars worth of firearms.
I find it ironic that the gentleman who
was one known as the “King of Hollywood” was accidently listed as a female on
his birth certificate. It was widely rumored
that the sale of men’s undershirts dropped significantly after he took off his
shirt during the filming of “It Happened one Night” and was captured on film as
bare-chested.
Another interesting fact is that not
only was “The Misfits” the last film completed by Gable, it was the last
completed performance for Marilyn Monroe.
