Clark Gable
Actor
Name at birth: William Clark Gable
Clark Gable was a popular leading man in the movies for nearly thirty years. His big ears and cocky grin helped define his screen persona as a rascal, most famously in It Happened One Night (1934, directed by Frank Capra). His stature as a romantic hero was cemented as Rhett Butler, opposite Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind (1939). Off-screen, he had a famous tragic romance with actress Carole Lombard, who was killed in a plane wreck in 1942. At the age of 41 Gable enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, serving in World War II and eventually reaching the rank of Major.
Extra credit: Gable's last film, 1961's The Misfits, was also the final film of Marilyn Monroe and the antepenultimate film of co-star Montgomery Clift.
Four Good Links
All Movie Guide: Clark Gable
Introduction to his fame and career, plus the long filmography
A Man's Man Off the Screen Too
Great article about the off-screen star
Gable and Lombard alá Shirley
One of Hollywood's legendary romances
Elizabeth's Clark Gable Page
A few bits of biography mixed with some cool movie posters
Vital Stats
Birth
Birthplace
Death
16 November 1960
(Heart failure, age 59)
Best Known As
Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind
