William Clarke Gable was Hollywood's greatest actor in the 1930s. He gained worldwide fame thanks to the film "Gone with the Wind". He was a female saint, had many marriages, mistresses, but only two children. His life was filled with ups and downs, tenderness and cynicism. William Gable has remained in the heart of Hollywood cinema forever.
Youth
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in the village of Cadiz, Ohio, USA. His father was an oil driller, and his mother was a simple housewife from Germany. Also among the ancestors of William were not only Germans, but also Belgians. When Gable was six months old, he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in Dennison, Ohio. His mother died when he was ten months old, possibly from a brain tumor, although the official cause of death was given as an epileptic seizure. In April 1903, Gable's father married a second time, but they did not have new children. The stepmother loved William with all her heart, gave a lot of care and taught him to play the piano. Gable grew up a shy boy, loved to repair cars with his father and read Shakespeare.
In 1917, when Gable was in high school, his father began to struggle financially and the family was forced to move to Ravenna, Ohio to try farming. Despite his father's insistence that he work on the farm, Gable soon went to work at Firestone Tire and Rubber, an automobile and agricultural tire company.
Career
At 17, Clark Gable was inspired to become an actor after watching the play Bird of Paradise, but he couldn't really get started until he was 21 and inherited some money. He was also helped in this by his mentor Josephine Dillon, who put his appearance in order, taught him to keep his posture, paid for the alignment of his teeth and improved his speech skills.
Gable began his career as an "errand boy" in theatrical cinema, then began to play supporting roles and gradually moved up the career ladder. In 1931, Clark Gable got his first leading role in the crime melodrama Free Soul, which won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Over the next three decades, he became a leading actor and starred in over 60 films.
In 1934, Gable was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actor in Once Upon a Time and for his most famous role as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind (1939). Decades later, Gable said, "Whenever my career starts to fade, the overabundance of Gone With the Wind will revive my popularity and I will continue to be the leading actor for the rest of my life." Gable also found commercial success in films such as Red Dust (1932), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), San Francisco (1936), Saratoga (1937), Test Pilot (1938), Boom City (1940), The Hexters (1947), Homecoming (1948) and The Misfits (1961), which was his last screening.
Personal life, love, family, children
Early in his life while working in Astoria, Oregon, William Gable met and fell in love with a dark-haired young actress named Franz Dorfler. Their relationship was not bad, but Franz's parents insisted that she marry a little-known actor. In the end, she urged Gable to contact Broadway actress Josephine Dillon. Their relationship developed rapidly and in December 1924, Gable and Josephine were engaged. Despite this, Gable has always maintained that the marriage was never completed. Meanwhile, Franz Dorfler continued to love Gable and did not start a new relationship, although she realized that they could never be together.
Gable was a womanizer, serial seducer, and mercilessly used his attraction to women, especially older women who held powerful positions on Broadway and Hollywood, to make their way to the top.
By the end of the decade, his marriage to Josephine was crumbling. He became famous on Broadway, but not in Hollywood, and he needed help in fulfilling his ambitions. Again he found an older and richer woman. In 1930, he divorced Josephine and married a Texas lady, Ria Franklin Prentiss Lucas Langham. He frankly explained to Josephine that he wanted to marry Ria Langhem because she would help him gain popularity and make more money. And so it happened … After which he calmly broke off relations with Ria. Between 1931 and 1937, he struck up relationships with: Loretta Young, Norma Shearer, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Marion Davis. Loretta Young, for example, was one of the most famous Hollywood stars, twice Oscar winner and strict Catholic. When she became pregnant with Gable in 1935, a sophisticated ploy was devised to circumvent the strict moral codes that put an end to her and Gable's career. She continued to "leave" with her mother to secretly give birth to a child. As a result, Gable simply received an unsigned telegram, in which it was written that the birth was successful, a blonde girl was born. Upon her return, Loretta announced that she had adopted a little girl named Judy Lewis, taking the name of Loretta's second husband. Judy did not know who her real dad was and all his life Gable did not recognize her as his daughter.
After ending his relationship with Loretta, Gable started a new romance with Hollywood actress Carol Lombard. They met for 3 years, and in 1939 they legalized their relationship. Everything was wonderful and it was the most wonderful period of his life. Money, fame, good relationship with my wife.
In January 1942, the plane carrying Carol Lombard crashed into a mountain near Las Vegas. Everyone on board died, including Lombard and her mother. Gable was injured, but returned to their common home, where he continued to live for the rest of his life.
Gable's fourth marriage was the most unfortunate. Lady Sylvia Ashley was an English actress and model and had previously been married three times. They met at a party in 1949 and divorced in 1952.
In July 1955, he married ex-girlfriend Kathleen Williams Spikels, who was previously married and became the stepfather of two children. He is more satisfied than ever since the death of Carol Lombard.
End of life
In early November 1960, while filming a movie, Gable learned about Kathleen's pregnancy and two weeks later he had a heart attack. Due to Gable's addiction to smoking and whiskey, on November 16, 1960, William Clark Gable died. Cause of death: coronary thrombosis. Gable left the world of Hollywood cinema at the age of 59.
Gable's death also marked the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was an amazing man who dominated the Hollywood world like no other before or after. His name was king, and the title died with him.
