Clark Gable lived a tumultuous life, full of both triumph and tragedy. Born William Clark Gable in 1901, his mother died before he was even a year old. While he scarcely knew his mother, he became very attached to his stepmother, Jennie. Jennie worked as a pianist and was very supportive and loving toward her stepson. By the time he was in his teens Gable knew he wanted to be an actor, much to the dismay of his father. When Jennie died and Gable officially decided to start acting, it severed the bond between father and son.
Many people would move to New York or Hollywood to further acting careers, but Gable ended up in Oregon and was coached by actress Josephine Dillon. After getting his looks just the way Dillon wanted, honing his talents and recommending he use the stage name Clark Gable, the two set their eyes for California. It was around this time that the couple married.
Gable did indeed get parts in silent films, but he wasn’t happy because they weren’t the leading man roles he wanted. After awhile he tried New York and found success acting on stage, receiving rave reviews for his portrayal of characters.
In 1930 he and Josephine divorced. That very same year Gable got the attention of MGM and a contract was made. Within a year he was in a string of movies like The Painted Desert, A Free Soul and Dance, Fools, Dance. He married Maria (Ria) Langham but was also more than just friends with actress Joan Crawford. MGM co-founder Louis B. Mayer was not pleased with this affair and said he would cancel the contracts of both Gable and Crawford if this did not cease.
Whatever Mayer’s opinions were, Gable did not stop acting in films and found great success throughout the 1930s with such movies as Mutiny on the Bounty and It Happened One Night, for which Clark Gable received the Best Actor Award at the Oscars. However, his most celebrated and famous movie would have to be 1939's classic Gone With the Wind in which he starred as Rhett Butler. The same year of this epic release he divorced Ria and married actress Carole Lombard. Though Gable had numerous relationships, it is said by many that Lombard was the true love of his life.
Unfortunately, their marriage was short and ended in tragedy. In 1942, Lombard died in a plane crash along with all the other passengers. Her husband was devastated. Wanting to help out in World War II, he joined the air force and after being discharged took the time to rest. Though he returned to acting in movies, he would never again regain the success and star power he had once had. He married twice more in his life, to Sylvia Ashley and next to Kay Williams, the latter of whom was his wife when he died. In his later years he was not in the best health, and reasons for this included poor eating habits, drinking and smoking. He died in 1960, at the young age of 59, from coronary thrombosis. His wife, who was pregnant at the time, gave birth to their son the following spring.
Many would consider it appropriate that Gable was interred next to his third wife, Carole Lombard. No one can doubt it had been a turbulent life for Clark Gable, but seeing his lists of movies and acclaim, it was also a life full of success.