With a grin, a moustache and a confidence that filled the screen, Clark Gable became Hollywood’s King — a working-class boy from Ohio who never seemed to try too hard, and never lost the audience.
Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, on 1 February 1901, the son of an oil driller. He worked in factories and on the stage in his youth, and he toured with theatre companies before settling in Hollywood in the early 1930s. After a series of supporting roles, he signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where his rugged charm and easy masculinity made him one of the studio’s biggest stars.
Gable’s breakthrough came with a run of popular films in the 1930s, including Red Dust (1932), It Happened One Night (1934) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). In 1939 he played Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, a role that became the defining performance of his career and made him a lasting cultural figure. During the Second World War he served in the United States Army Air Forces, flying combat missions in Europe, and he returned to Hollywood after the war.
In the 1950s Gable continued to play strong, worldly heroes, in films such as Mogambo (1953) and Teacher’s Pet (1958). His last film was The Misfits (1961), in which he played an ageing cowboy alongside Marilyn Monroe. He died in Los Angeles on 16 November 1960, before The Misfits was released. Gable’s appeal was simple and enduring: he seemed natural, he seemed honest, and he made being a movie star look effortless.