Clark Gable

1920–1923: Early career Gable was inspired to become an actor after seeing the play The Bird of Paradise at age 17, but he was unable to make a start in acting until he turned 21 and received his $300 inheritance from a Hershelman trust. Also working there was local stage actor Earle Larimore (the nephew of Laura Hope Crews, who portrayed Aunt Pittypat alongside Gable in Gone with the Wind), who encouraged Gable to return to acting. He changed his stage name from W. C. Gable to Clark Gable However, he was not offered any major film roles, so he returned to the stage in What Price Glory? (1925).

He became lifelong friends with Lionel Barrymore, who initially scolded Gable for what he deemed amateurish acting but nevertheless urged him to pursue a stage career. During the 1927–28 theater season, he acted with the Laskin Brothers Stock Company in Houston, Texas; while there, he played many roles, gained considerable experience, and became a local matinee idol. He then moved to New York City, where Dillon sought work for him on Broadway. He received good reviews in Machinal (1928), with one critic describing him as "young, vigorous, and brutally masculine".

alt=Three men in aviation outfits are standing facing each other; one is holding the arm of a second back from hitting the third. Gable's 1932 supporting role in Hell Divers was almost as important as Wallace Beery's, and he received second billing above the title for the aviation film's lobby card. Gable's arrival in Hollywood occurred when MGM was looking to expand its stable of male stars, and he fit the bill. He made two pictures in 1931 with Wallace Beery. In the first, he had a seventh-billed support role in The Secret Six, although his role was much larger than the billing would indicate. Then he achieved second billing in a part almost as large as the film's star Beery in the naval aviation film Hell Divers. MGM's publicity manager Howard Strickling started developing Gable's studio image with Screenland magazine playing up his "lumberjack-in-evening-clothes" persona.

To increasing popularity, MGM frequently paired him with well-established female stars. Joan Crawford asked for him to appear with her in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931). The electricity of the pair was recognized by studio executive Louis B. Mayer, who would not only put them in seven more films but also began reshooting Complete Surrender, replacing John Mack Brown as Crawford's leading man and retitling the film Laughing Sinners (1931). His fame and public visibility after A Free Soul (1931), in which he played a gangster who shoved the character played by Norma Shearer, ensured that Gable never played a supporting role again. He received extensive fan mail as a result of his performance; the studio took notice. The Hollywood Reporter wrote "A star in the making has been made, one that, to our reckoning, will outdraw every other star ... Never have we seen audiences work themselves into such enthusiasm as when Clark Gable walks on the screen." Gable was considered for the role of Tarzan in Tarzan the Ape Man, but lost out to Johnny Weissmuller's more imposing physique and superior swimming prowess. Gable then starred as the romantic lead in Strange Interlude (1932), again teaming with Shearer, the second of three films they would make together for MGM.

Next, Gable starred with Jean Harlow in the romantic comedy-drama Red Dust (1932) set on a rubber plantation in Indochina. Gable portrayed a plantation manager involved with Harlow's wisecracking prostitute; however, upon her arrival, Gable's character started to pursue Mary Astor's prim, classy newlywed. many agreed that Gable was a natural screen partner. With Gable established as a star, MGM positioned him in the same manner as Harlow for Myrna Loy, a previously lesser billed actor in Night Flight, moving Loy to a costar role in Men in White, a movie filmed in 1933, though delayed in release due to pre-Code Legion of Decency cuts until 1934. The relationship of a doctor (Gable) and nurse (Elizabeth Allan) implied intimacy with a resulting complication of pregnancy, a sensitive issue and new image for Gable.

Gable and Harlow were then teamed in Hold Your Man (1933), China Seas (1935), in which the pair were billed above Wallace Beery, and Wife vs. Secretary (1936) with Myrna Loy costarring and supported by newcomer James Stewart. A popular combination on-screen and off, Gable and Harlow made six films together in five years. Their final film together was Saratoga (1937), a bigger hit than their previous collaborations. Harlow died during its production. The film was ninety percent completed, and the remaining scenes were filmed with long shots or the use of doubles like Mary Dees; Gable said he felt as if he were "in the arms of a ghost". The result was that Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor in the film. "Critics praised the fast-paced farce that would enter in a whole new romantic genre: the screwball comedy." Gable's career was revitalized by his whimsical, good-natured performance Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) was a critical and commercial success, receiving eight Academy Award nominations. There were three Best Actor nominations for stars Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone, and the film won Best Picture, the second of three films in which Gable played a leading role to do so. The film cost $2 million and grossed $4.5 million, making it one of the top moneymakers that decade. It used life-size replicas of the Bounty and Pandora, and was partly filmed in Catalina and French Polynesia.

1936–1939: Tracy collaborations and Gone with the Wind

Gable made three pictures with Spencer Tracy, which boosted Tracy's career and permanently cemented them in the public mind as a team. San Francisco (1936), with Jeanette MacDonald, featured Tracy for only 17 minutes in an Oscar-nominated portrayal of a Catholic priest who knocks Gable down in a boxing ring. The film was a box office hit and remains the third-highest-grossing film of Gable's career. Their next film together was the Academy Award–nominated box office success Test Pilot (1938), with Myrna Loy, who made seven pictures with Gable. He plays Jim Lane, the test pilot of the title; Tracy is his sidekick mechanic, Gunner Morse.

For their final film, 1940's Boom Town, Tracy would play a larger role, with billing directly under Gable and above Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr. The picture, a lavish epic about two oil wildcatters who become partners then rivals, was a box office success, earning $5 million. Gable and Tracy were off-screen friends; Tracy was one of the few Hollywood industry luminaries who attended Lombard's private funeral. After Boom Town no more Gable-Tracy partnerships were possible; Tracy's success led to a new contract and both stars had conflicting stipulations requiring top billing in MGM movie credits and on promotional posters.

Butler's last line in Gone with the Wind, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", is one of the most famous lines in movie history. Gable phoned the film's director Victor Fleming and told him, "If you don't get those signs down, you won't get your Rhett Butler." The signs were then taken down. Gable tried to boycott the Gone with the Wind premiere in segregated Atlanta, because African American actors Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen were not permitted to attend. He reportedly only went after McDaniel pleaded with him to go. They appeared in several more films, remaining life-long friends and he always attended her Hollywood parties.

Gable did not want to shed tears for the scene after Rhett inadvertently causes Scarlett to miscarry their second child. Olivia de Havilland made him cry, later commenting, "Oh, he would not do it. He would not! Victor (Fleming) tried everything with him. He tried to attack him on a professional level. We had done it without him weeping several times and then we had one last try. I said, 'You can do it, I know you can do it, and you will be wonderful...' Well, by heaven, just before the cameras rolled, you could see the tears come up at his eyes and he played the scene unforgettably well. He put his whole heart into it." Years later, Gable said that whenever his career would start to fade, a re-release of Gone with the Wind would soon revive his popularity, and he continued as a top leading actor for the rest of his life. One reissue publicized "Clark Gable never tires of holding Vivien Leigh".

1939–1942: Established star

Between his marriage to Lombard and her death, Gable again costarred with Norma Shearer in the World War II romantic intrigue film, Idiot's Delight (1939). He plays a nightclub singer that doesn't recognize former love (Shearer) while Nazis are closing in on guests at a hotel on the brink of war. The film is memorable for Gable's song and dance routine, "Puttin' on the Ritz" and an alternative ending.

Gable also starred in Strange Cargo (1940), a romantic drama with Joan Crawford, costarring Peter Lorre and Ian Hunter. The film's focus is on Gable and French Devil's Islands convicts in an escape from the penal colony, who on the way pick up a local entertainer (Crawford) whom Gable had met earlier in the movie. In their eighth and last film together, Gable and Crawford "again demonstrated their on-screen magic" and the film was among the top ten grossing films for the year. ,

Since the couple had been popular with the public, Gable and Turner were quickly paired again in Somewhere I'll Find You (1941) as war correspondents who travel to the Pacific theatre and get caught up in a Japanese attack. From 1934 until 1942, when World War II interrupted his movie career, he was the top of the box office money-makers lists.

1942–1944: World War II

On August 12, 1942, following Lombard's death and his completion of the film Somewhere I'll Find You, Gable joined the United States Army, under the Army Air Forces. Lombard had suggested that Gable enlist as part of the war effort, but MGM was reluctant to let him go. Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces Henry H. "Hap" Arnold offered Gable a "special assignment" with the First Motion Picture Unit following basic training. The Washington Star reported that Gable took a physical examination at Bolling Field on June 19, preliminary to joining the service.

Gable had expressed an earlier interest in officer candidate school, with the intention of becoming an aerial gunner upon enlisting in bomber training school. MGM arranged for his studio friend, the cinematographer Andrew McIntyre, to enlist with him and accompany him through training. followed by a photography course at Fort George Wright, Washington State and promoted to first lieutenants upon its completion. During one of the missions, Gable's aircraft was damaged by flak and attacked by fighters, which knocked out one of the engines and shot up the stabilizer. In the raid on Germany, one crewman was killed and two others were wounded, and flak went through Gable's boot and narrowly missed his head. When word of this reached MGM, studio executives began to badger the Army Air Forces to reassign its most valuable screen actor to noncombat duty. Many of the men he served with, such as former Tech. Sgt. Ralph Cowley, said Gable actually unofficially joined other missions and the above five were only a fraction of the total. Adolf Hitler favored Gable above all other actors. During World War II, Hitler offered a sizable reward to anyone who could capture and bring Gable to him unscathed. In June 1944, Gable was promoted to major. While he hoped for another combat assignment, he had been placed on inactive duty and on June 12, 1944, his discharge papers were signed by Captain (later U.S. president) Ronald Reagan. Gable completed editing of the film Combat America in September 1944, giving the narration himself and making use of numerous interviews with enlisted gunners as focus of the film. Gable was awarded military honors for service: the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. He was a qualified aerial gunner having received his wings upon completion of flexible gunnery school at Tyndall field.

In recent years, an anecdotal story has circulated particularly on Facebook, that Gable visited Bangor in Northern Ireland during 1944. This in turn has been reiterated in the Newsletter and on the BBC N.Ireland website . No evidence exists to support the claim. The US National Archives holds Gable's Military Personnel File within Record Group 319, containing documents from throughout his service, including papers signed by Gable in the United States before, after and during the time he was purportedly in Bangor.

1945–1953: After World War II Immediately after his discharge from the service, Gable returned to his ranch and rested. Personally, he resumed a pre-war relationship with Virginia Grey, a co-star from Test Pilot and Idiot's Delight, that newspapers reported might be the next Mrs. Gable. Professionally, Gable's first movie after World War II was Adventure (1946), with Greer Garson, by then the leading female star at MGM. Given the famous teaser tagline "Gable's back, and Garson's got him", the film was a commercial hit, earning over $6 million, but a critical failure.

Gable was acclaimed for his performance in The Hucksters (1947), a satire of post-war Madison Avenue corruption and immorality, which co-starred Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner. The film was popular with audiences, placing 11th at the box office, but both Variety and The New York Times reviewed it as a sanitized version of the novel with script issues, that was heavy on Gable screentime, who struggled in the role. Gable followed this up with Homecoming (1948), where he played a married doctor enlisting in World War II and meeting Lana Turner's army surgical nurse character with a romance unfolding in flashbacks. After that he made the war film Command Decision (1948), a psychological drama with Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, and John Hodiak. It was a hit with audiences, but it lost MGM money due to the high cost of the all-star cast.

A very public and brief romance with Paulette Goddard occurred after that. In 1949, Gable married Sylvia Ashley, a British model and actress previously married to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The relationship was profoundly unsuccessful; they divorced in 1952. Gable did a series of films with female co-stars: Any Number Can Play (1950) with Alexis Smith, Key to the City (1950) with Loretta Young, and To Please a Lady (1950) with Barbara Stanwyck. They were reasonably popular, but he had more success with two Westerns: Across the Wide Missouri (1951), and Lone Star (1952). He then made Never Let Me Go (1953) opposite Gene Tierney. Tierney was a favorite of Gable's, and he was very disappointed when her mental health problems caused her to be replaced in Mogambo by Grace Kelly. While on location in Africa, reports of an affair between Gable and Kelly began to surface (the result of private dinners the stars were having), but their relationship was an intense friendship according to costar Gardner, with Kelly herself later commenting on the lack of any sexual aspect, "maybe because of the age difference". The publicity only helped ticket sales as the film finished No. 7 at the box office, grossing 8.2 million for the year, easily his most popular hit since he returned to MGM after the war.

1954–1957: Leaving MGM Lionel Barrymore's 61st birthday in 1939, standing: Mickey Rooney, Robert Montgomery, Clark Gable, Louis B. Mayer, William Powell, Robert Taylor, seated: Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, and Rosalind Russell Despite the positive critical and public response to Mogambo, Gable became increasingly unhappy with what he considered mediocre roles offered by MGM, while the studio regarded his salary as excessive. Studio head Louis B. Mayer was fired in 1951, amid slumping revenue and increased Hollywood production costs, due in large part to the rising popularity of television. The new studio head, former production chief Dore Schary, struggled to maintain profits for the studio. Many long-time MGM stars were fired, or their contracts were not renewed, including Greer Garson and Judy Garland. Gable refused to renew his contract. His last film at MGM was Betrayed (1954), an espionage wartime drama with Turner and Victor Mature. Critic Paul Mavis wrote, "Gable and Turner just don't click the way they should here...poor plots and lines never stopped these two pros from turning in good performances in other films." In March 1954, Gable left MGM.

His next two films were made for 20th Century Fox: Soldier of Fortune, an adventure story in Hong Kong with Susan Hayward, and The Tall Men (1955), a Western with Jane Russell and Robert Ryan. Both were profitable, although only modest successes, earning Gable his first profit sharing royalties. In 1955, Gable would be 10th at the box office – the last time he was in the top ten. That same year, Gable married fifth wife Kay Spreckels (née Kathleen Williams). A former fashion model and actress, she had previously been married three times: first to Charles Capps (1937–39), then to Argentinian cattle tycoon Martín de Alzaga (1942–43), and to sugar-refining heir Adolph B. Spreckels Jr. (1945–52). Gable became stepfather to her son Bunker Spreckels, who went on to live a notorious celebrity lifestyle in the late 1960s and early 1970s surfing scene, ultimately leading to his early death in 1977.

Gable also formed Russ-Field-Gabco in 1955, a production company with Jane Russell and her husband Bob Waterfield, and they produced The King and Four Queens (1956), a film Gable thought would also star Russell to capitalize on The Tall Mens moderate success. That role instead went to Jo Van Fleet. It was Gable's only time as producer. He found producing and acting to be too much work and this Raoul Walsh western was the only film made. his next project was the Warner Bros. production Band of Angels (1957), co-starring Yvonne De Carlo and featuring relative newcomer Sidney Poitier; it was not well received, despite Gable's role's similarities to Rhett Butler. Newsweek said, "Here is a movie so bad that it must be seen to be disbelieved."

His next two films were light comedies for Paramount: But Not for Me (1959) with Carroll Baker, and It Started in Naples (1960) with Sophia Loren. Naples was written and directed by Melville Shavelson and it mainly showed the beauty of Loren and the Italian island Capri. It was a box-office success and was nominated for an Academy Award for Art Direction and two Golden Globes, one for Picture, Comedy/Musical and Loren for Actress, Comedy. Filmed mostly on location in Italy, it was Gable's last film released in color. While there Gable's weight had increased to , something he credited to pasta, and he started on a crash diet to achieve a goal weight of 195, along with briefly quitting drinking and smoking, to pass a required physical for his next movie.

On February 8, 1960, Gable received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures, located at 1608 Vine Street.

Gable's last film was The Misfits (1961), with a script by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston. Co-starring with Gable were Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter and Rex Bell. Many critics regard Gable's performance to be his finest, and Gable, after seeing the rough cuts, agreed,

Portraitist Al Hirschfeld created a drawing, and then a lithograph, portraying the film's stars Clift, Monroe, and Gable with screenwriter Miller, in what is suggested as a typical "on-the-set" scene during the troubled production. In a 2002 documentary Eli Wallach recalled the mustang wrangling scenes Gable insisted on performing himself, "You have to pass a physical to film that" and "He was a professional going home at 5 p.m. to a pregnant wife". The New York Times found "Mr. Gable's performance as a leathery old cowboy with a realistic slant on most plain things" ironically vital, with his death before the film's release.

Critical reception and commentary Film critic Pauline Kael wrote of Gable: his was a "bold open challenge to women" and his unspoken question was "Well sister, what do you say?" with the idea that "if she said no, she was failing what might almost be nature's test. She'd become overcivilized, afraid of her instincts, afraid of being a woman." Kael goes on to describe Gable's sex scenes as "violent and primal."

Filmography

Gable is known to have appeared as an "extra" in 13 films between 1924 and 1930. He then appeared in a total of 67 theatrically released motion pictures, as himself in 17 "short subject" films, and he narrated and appeared in a 1945 World War II propaganda film entitled Combat America, produced by the United States Army Air Forces.

Gable was one of the most consistent box-office performers in the history of Hollywood, appearing on Quigley Publishing's annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll sixteen times. He appeared opposite many of the most popular actresses of their time. Joan Crawford was a favorite actress of his to work with, His second wife was Texas socialite Maria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham Gable (nicknamed "Ria"). The couple married on June 19, 1931, in California and divorced on March 7, 1939. after becoming reacquainted at a party. They were soon inseparable, with fan magazines and tabloids citing them as an official couple.

Gable thrived being around Lombard's youthful, charming, and frank personality, once stating: You can trust that little screwball with your life or your hopes or your weaknesses, and she wouldn't even know how to think about letting you down. They purchased a ranch previously owned by director Raoul Walsh in Encino, California, for $50,000, making it their home. The couple, who lovingly referred to each other as "Ma and Pa", owned a menagerie of animals and raised chickens and horses there. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor many Hollywood stars joined the war effort, some such as James Stewart signing up for active duty. Carole Lombard sent a telegram to President Roosevelt on behalf of Gable expressing his interest in doing so, but F.D.R. thought the 41-year-old actor could best serve by increased patriotic roles in movies and bond drives, which Lombard tirelessly began.

On January 16, 1942, Lombard was a passenger on Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3 with her mother and press agent Otto Winkler. She had just finished her 57th movie, To Be or Not to Be, and was on her way home from a successful war bond selling tour when the flight's Douglas DC-3 airliner crashed into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas, Nevada, killing all 22 passengers aboard, including 15 servicemen en route to training in California. Gable flew to the crash site to claim the bodies of his wife, mother-in-law, and Winkler, who had been the best man at Gable and Lombard's wedding. Lombard was declared to be the first war-related American female casualty of World War II, and Gable received a personal note of condolence from President Roosevelt. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation into the crash concluded that pilot error was its cause. He acted in 27 more films, and remarried twice more. "But he was never the same", according to Esther Williams. "He had been devastated by Carole's death." His son had two children including Clark James Gable.

Relationship with Loretta Young During the filming of The Call of the Wild in early 1935, the film's lead actress, Loretta Young, became pregnant with Clark Gable's child. Gable reportedly had sex with Young while on an overnight train from a studio location to Hollywood. Their daughter, Judy Lewis, was born on November 6, 1935, in Venice, California. Young hid her pregnancy in an elaborate scheme. Nineteen months after the birth, she claimed to have adopted the baby. In 1950, Gable came to Young's house for a brief visit. Gable asked Lewis about her life and then, upon leaving, kissed her on her forehead. It was the only time that Lewis ever spoke to Gable and, at the time, she had no idea that he was her father. but never publicly acknowledged that he was Lewis's father. Five years after Gable's death, when confronted by Lewis, Young said that she was Lewis' biological mother and that Gable was her father. Young died on August 12, 2000; Young's autobiography, published posthumously, confirmed that Gable was indeed Lewis' father Lewis died of cancer at age 76 on November 25, 2011. In 2015, Young's daughter-in-law alleged that Young had said in 1998 that Lewis was conceived by date rape. Young's family had chosen to remain silent about the information until both Young and Lewis were deceased.

Politics Gable was a conservative Republican. In 1944, Gable became an early member of the conservative Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a group explicitly created to help root out communists from the film industry. In addition to Gable, its members included such industry figures as Walt Disney, Ayn Rand, Ronald Reagan, and John Wayne; they helped create and enforce the Hollywood blacklist, often by testifying under oath before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In 1933, Gable was initiated into Freemasonry at the Beverly Hills Lodge No. 528 California.

Illness and death alt=Marble crypt with brass plaque inscribed: Clark Gable, Feb. 1. 1901 Nov. 16. 1960. Two vases are attached to the crypt, one contains a purple rose.

On November 6, 1960, Gable was sent to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, where doctors found that he had suffered a heart attack. Newspaper reports the following day listed his condition as satisfactory. By the morning of November 16, he seemed to be improving, but he died that evening at the age of 59 from a second heart attack caused by an infection. Medical staff did not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation for fear that the procedure would rupture Gable's heart, and a defibrillator was not available.

Gable is interred in the Great Mausoleum, Memorial Terrace, at Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park next to Carole Lombard and her mother.

Style and reception In a photo essay of Hollywood film stars, Life magazine called Gable, "All man ... and then some."

Doris Day summed up Gable's unique personality: "He was as masculine as any man I've ever known, and as much a little boy as a grown man could be—it was this combination that had such a devastating effect on women."

Robert Taylor said Gable "was a great, great guy, and certainly one of the great stars of all times, if not the greatest. I think that I sincerely doubt that there will ever be another like Clark Gable; he was one of a kind." David Niven states that Gable, a close friend, was extremely supportive after the sudden, accidental death of Niven's first wife, Primula (Primmie), in 1946. Primmie had supported Gable emotionally after Carole Lombard's death four years earlier: Niven recounts Gable kneeling at Primmie's feet and sobbing while she held and consoled him. Niven also states that Arthur Miller, the author of The Misfits, had described Gable as "the man who did not know how to hate." The novel's author, Capt. Beach, noted changes should be made among the crew to get a Hollywood audience and where a subsequent battle sequence was altered when he should have had script approval, feeling his book was bought by United Artists for its title.

Eli Wallach recalls in his 2006 autobiography The Good, The Bad and Me, that what he felt was one of his best dramatic scenes in The Misfits was cut from the script. Wallach's character is emotionally crushed when he visits Roslyn (Marilyn Monroe), and instead runs into Gable's character and realizes any hope with Roslyn is dashed. Gable asked (within his contractual rights) that the scene be removed, and when Wallach spoke to him, Gable explained he felt that "his character would never steal a woman from a friend." Examples include: Have You Got Any Castles? (in which his face appears seven times inside the novel The House of the Seven Gables), The Coo-Coo Nut Grove (in which his ears flap on their own), Hollywood Steps Out (in which he follows an enigmatic woman), Cats Don't Dance (in which he appears on a billboard promotion for Gone with the Wind and on the backlot of MGM), and Jungle Jitters (where the queen of a village imagines a traveling salesman as Gable).

He also appears in Disney cartoons like Mickey's Polo Team, where he is flirting with Clarabelle Cow, and The Autograph Hound.

Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film It Happened One Night (1934), in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as parody.

Gable's block in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. In January 1937, Gable was honored with a block in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

Along with actor Kent Taylor, Clark Gable served as the inspiration behind the name of Superman's alter-ego Clark Kent.

In the 1937 film Broadway Melody of 1938, Judy Garland (aged 15) sings "You Made Me Love You" while looking at a composite picture of Gable. The opening lines are: "Dear Mr Gable, I am writing this to you, and I hope that you will read it so you'll know, my heart beats like a hammer, and I stutter and I stammer, every time I see you at the picture show, I guess I'm just another fan of yours, and I thought I'd write and tell you so. You made me love you, I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to do it..."

The 1948 Cole Porter tune "Always True to You in My Fashion" contains the lyrics "Mister Gable, I mean Clark / Wants me on his boat to park".

The 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail contained a reference to impersonating Gable in the song performed by the Knights of the Round Table.

The 2003 music album Give Up by The Postal Service has a song titled "Clark Gable". The singer wants to "find a love that looks and sounds like a movie", and includes the lyric, "I kissed you in a style Clark Gable would have admired, I thought it classic".

Gable has been portrayed in a number of films. Actors who have played the role include: Phillip Waldron in It Happened in Hollywood (1937), James Brolin in Gable and Lombard (1976), Larry Pennell in Marilyn: The Untold Story (1980), Edward Winter in Moviola: The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980), Boyd Holister in Grace Kelly (1983), Gary Wayne in Malice in Wonderland (1985), Gene Daily in The Rocketeer (1991), Bobby Valentino in RKO 281 (1999), Bruce Hughes and Shayne Greenman in Blonde (2001), and Charles Unwin in Lucy (2003).

In Drunk History Season 3 2015 Miami episode 2, Josh Hartnett portrays Gable. The focus is on Gable's military service and his training in Miami.

He, along with Bette Davis and James Dean, are referenced in the lyrics of the song "Girl on TV" by the boy band LFO.

Awards and nominations