Clark Gable: Rhett Butler and More

"You made me love you (I didn't want to do it)" is an apt song to be dedicated to Clark Gable. The film Broadway Melody of 1938features this song. Judy Garland was fifteen years old when she sang "You made me love you (I didn't want to do it)" as a tribute to Clark Gable. This song would propel Garland into a sensation leading to the movie she is most famous for, The Wizard of Oz. Garland knew what a man was even though she was only fifteen years old. Clark Gable personified the word man

The first important part of Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind is his entrance. I fell in love at first sight as a 12 year old watching the movie for the first time. Whether it was his beautiful eyes or the sly grin he gave while looking at Vivien Leigh's character, I am unsure. Gable was absolutely debonair. The old cliché "they don't make them like that any more" applies. Gable was more than Rhett Butler. He was a phenomenal actor who had a way with the ladies.

Clark Gable was born on 1 Feb 1901. While growing up, he was not exceptional in academics but did hold some talent in music. Gable decided he wanted to be an actor at the age of seventeen after viewing The Bird of Paradise. He was unable to begin his career until the age of 21. While he was preparing to become an actor, he met Laura Hope Crews who would one day be "Aunt Pitty Pat Hamilton" on Gone with the Wind. Clark Gable's first wife, Josephine Dillon, was seventeen years older than he and his drama coach. She considered him ready for a career in the filming industry after much training.

Clark Gable began his film career appearing as an extra in several films during the 1920's. The first film he appeared in is 1924's White Man. Gable appeared as an extra in the immensely popular Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ as well. Beginning with 1930's The Painted Desert, Clark Gable was in a total of 67 theatrically released films. The last film Gable starred in was The Misfits. The Misfits was the last film Marilyn Monroe appeared in as well.

Gable was the "king of Hollywood" during the 1930's. When Margaret Mitchell's book Gone with the Windwas adapted for film, the public demanded he play Rhett Butler. Clark Gable did not want to play Butler because he feared public expectations would be too high. Indeed, he hated his performance as Butler with the exception of the scene where Rhett's daughter Bonnie dies.

Gable was married five times. His third wife Carole Lombard was the love of his life. Lombard was killed in a plane crash in Jan 1942. Following her death, Gable enlisted in World War II and did not want preferential treatment. He returned to movies in 1945's Adventure.

Gable's death was caused by a heart attack ten days following a coronary thrombosis. He died on November 16, 1960. Though Gable lived 18 years after Carole Lombard's death and remarried twice, he is buried beside her at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Gable has two children. Judy Lewis was born following an affair with actress Loretta Young in 1935. John Clark Gable was born four months following his father's death in 1961.

Clark Gable has three grandchildren. He has two great-grandchildren through his daughter Judy. Gable has one grandson who shares his name.

Source: Gable: The King Remembered (1975)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440410/ (for more information about the above documentary)