50 Fun Facts About Clark Gable

What nickname was Clark Gable widely known by?

He appeared in more than 60 films across 37 years, and the AFI ranked him the seventh-greatest male screen legend in 1999.

For which film did Gable win his only Academy Award for Best Actor?

MGM had loaned him to lowly Columbia as a punishment; he came back a bigger star than ever with an Oscar in hand.

In which Ohio town was Clark Gable born in 1901?

His father Will was an oil-well driller, and his mother died when he was ten months old.

What was Gable's real first name?

He was named for his father but always called Clark, and his father simply called him "the kid".

Which company did the teenage Gable leave the family farm to work for in Akron?

He later toured with tent shows, worked in lumber mills and sold neckties at a Portland department store before acting took hold.

Gable's acting coach Josephine Dillon paid to fix his teeth and became what to him in 1924?

She was 17 years older than him and also served as his manager; they divorced in 1930.

How many times did Clark Gable marry?

Josephine Dillon, Ria Langham, Carole Lombard, Sylvia Ashley and Kay Spreckels; his only son was born four months after his death.

Which studio executive said of Gable, "His ears are too big and he looks like an ape"?

The failed screen test was for Little Caesar; MGM's Irving Thalberg signed him weeks later for $650 a week.

Which jungle-hero role did Gable lose to Johnny Weissmuller in 1932?

The Olympic swimmer's physique and swimming prowess won out; Gable went off to make Strange Interlude with Norma Shearer instead.

Which actress made eight films with Gable, more than any other co-star?

Their off-screen romance was called "the affair that nearly burned Hollywood down"; Myrna Loy made seven films with him and Harlow six.

Which Gable-Harlow film, set on an Indochina rubber plantation, made him MGM's top romantic lead?

Twenty-one years later he played the same role again in Mogambo, John Ford's African remake with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.

Which Gable-Harlow film was finished with doubles and long shots after Harlow died during production?

Gable said he felt as if he were "in the arms of a ghost"; the film became their biggest hit together.

The first film to win the "Big Five" Oscars paired Gable with which leading lady?

Neither star was first choice, and both were unhappy with the script when filming began.

What did Gable's reporter call the blanket hung between the beds in Capra's 1934 comedy?

The film's carrot-munching, fast-talking Gable is thought to have inspired aspects of Bugs Bunny six years later.

An urban legend says a 1934 scene of Gable undressing hurt sales of which garment?

Gable undressed on camera without one; the story is unproven but has followed the film for ninety years.

Which mutineer did Gable play in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)?

He said "I stink in it" after filming, but the picture won Best Picture and he was one of three Best Actor nominees from the cast.

Through the 2026 Oscars, what distinction did Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) hold?

Through the 2026 ceremony it was the last Best Picture winner to win nothing else; Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone all lost Best Actor to Victor McLaglen for The Informer.

Which actor's Oscar-nominated turn as a boxing priest opposite Gable in San Francisco (1936) launched a partnership?

They made Test Pilot and Boom Town too, then both stars' contracts demanded top billing and the team was over.

Which actor was David O. Selznick's first choice to play Rhett Butler?

Cooper predicted the film would be the biggest flop in history and said he was glad Gable would fall on his nose, not him.

How much was Gable paid in total for Gone with the Wind?

It was enough to fund the divorce settlement with Ria Langham that freed him to marry Carole Lombard during a production break.

What did Gable reportedly threaten on finding segregated toilet signs on the Gone with the Wind set?

He also tried to boycott the Atlanta premiere because Hattie McDaniel could not attend, going only after she pleaded with him.

Which co-star coaxed Gable into crying on camera for Rhett Butler's scene after Scarlett's miscarriage?

Director Victor Fleming had tried everything; she told him "You can do it" and the tears came just before the cameras rolled.

Which song-and-dance number did Gable perform in Idiot's Delight (1939)?

He played a nightclub singer who fails to recognise his old flame, played by Norma Shearer, as war closes in on a hotel.

Where did Gable marry Carole Lombard in March 1939?

They honeymooned in room 1201 of the Arizona Biltmore and bought Raoul Walsh's ranch in Encino for $50,000.

What pet names did Gable and Lombard call each other?

They kept a menagerie of animals on the ranch and raised chickens and horses.

Carole Lombard died in January 1942 returning from what kind of trip?

TWA Flight 3 crashed into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas, and she was declared the first American woman killed in the line of war duty.

What was Lombard's final film, completed just before her death?

The Ernst Lubitsch comedy was her 57th movie; a Liberty ship named SS Carole Lombard was launched in 1944 with Gable attending.

What was Carole Lombard's birth name?

She was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and raised in Los Angeles by her single mother.

Which branch did Gable join in August 1942 after Lombard's death?

General Hap Arnold gave him a special assignment: make a recruiting film for aerial gunners with the Eighth Air Force in England.

How many combat missions did Gable fly as an observer-gunner in B-17s in 1943?

Flak went through his boot on the Germany raid; comrades said he unofficially flew more, and MGM begged the Air Force to ground him.

Which future US president signed Gable's discharge papers in June 1944?

Captain Reagan was serving with the Army Air Forces motion picture unit at Culver City, where Gable was editing his film.

Which dictator reportedly offered a reward for Gable's capture, unharmed?

He was said to favour Gable above all other actors and wanted him delivered unscathed.

What 1945 gunnery documentary did Gable narrate from his footage with the 351st Bomb Group?

By the time it was finished the shortage of aerial gunners had eased, so it became a tribute to the Eighth Air Force instead.

Which 1946 film's teaser tagline announced "Gable's back, and Garson's got him"?

The Greer Garson picture earned over $6 million but was panned by critics.

Which actress secretly bore Gable's daughter, Judy Lewis, in 1935 and later claimed to have adopted her?

The child was conceived during The Call of the Wild; Young had her ears surgically pinned at age seven to hide the resemblance.

Gable's 1953 hit Mogambo was a remake of which of his own earlier films?

Ava Gardner took the Harlow role and Grace Kelly the Mary Astor part; both were Oscar-nominated and the film grossed $8.2 million.

Which director made Mogambo on location in East Africa?

Producer Sam Zimbalist coined the title by tweaking the name of the Mocambo nightclub in Hollywood.

Which was the only film Gable produced, through his company Russ-Field-Gabco?

He formed the company with Jane Russell and her husband Bob Waterfield, found producing too much work and never did it again.

Which 1958 submarine film gave Gable his first on-screen death since 1937?

Burt Lancaster co-starred and produced; that same year Gable said, "Now it's time I acted my age."

Who was Gable's co-star in the 1958 comedy Teacher's Pet, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination?

Day later said he was as masculine as any man she had known and as much a little boy as a grown man could be.

Who wrote the screenplay for Gable's final film, The Misfits (1961)?

Miller wrote it for his wife Marilyn Monroe; John Huston directed and Gable insisted on doing his own mustang-wrangling scenes.

Filming It Started in Naples, Gable's weight rose to 230 pounds; what did he blame?

He crash-dieted to 195 and briefly quit drinking and smoking to pass the physical required for The Misfits.

How old was Clark Gable when he died of a heart attack in November 1960?

Doctors did not attempt CPR for fear of rupturing his heart, and no defibrillator was available.

Which two stars served as pallbearers at Gable's funeral?

He was interred at Forest Lawn in Glendale beside Carole Lombard and her mother.

Gable's only son, John Clark Gable, was born how long after his father's death?

Kay Spreckels gave birth in March 1961; the grandson Clark James Gable later hosted the reality show Cheaters.

How many times did Gable appear on Quigley's annual Top Ten Money Making Stars poll?

From 1934 until the war interrupted his career in 1942 he sat at the top of the box-office lists.

Which cartoon character's carrot-chewing pose came from a Gable scene in It Happened One Night?

Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett all traced it to Gable leaning on a fence, munching carrots and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert.

Gable's first name helped inspire the alter ego of which comic-book superhero?

Gable also turns up caricatured in Warner Bros. cartoons, with his famous ears flapping on their own in The Coo-Coo Nut Grove.

Gable's 1949 marriage to Sylvia Ashley made him the husband of which star's widow?

The English model and actress was Gable's fourth wife; they divorced in 1952, three years before he married Kay Spreckels.

Which actor played Gable in the 1976 biopic Gable and Lombard?

Later Gables include Bobby Valentino in RKO 281 and Josh Hartnett in a Drunk History episode about Gable's wartime training in Miami.