Clark Gable

The Contempt of the Major Studios

Darryl F. Zanuck said his ears were too big and that he looked like a primate. It was 1930, and Clark Gable was looking for a foothold in the Los Angeles studios after years of struggling in traveling theater companies. He had a rough physique that never quite fit the refined style of silent film leading men.

But the arrival of sound changed everything for him. His voice was deep and conveyed a confidence that the actors of the old guard lacked. In 1931, he signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for 650 dollars a week and began working nonstop in any supporting role he was offered.

The gamble paid off.

In 1934, he starred in It Happened One Night under the direction of Frank Capra. It was a punishment from the studio for his bad behavior, but he ended up winning the Oscar for Best Actor. There's a legend that undershirt sales plummeted across the United States after audiences saw him appear shirtless in a scene from the film.

A Mustache Worth Millions

By 1939, he was already the King of Hollywood. He earned $120,000 for shooting Gone with the Wind, while Vivien Leigh received only $25,000 despite working many more days on set. Gable didn't want to cry during Melanie's childbirth scene, and he threatened to walk off the set unless the director rewrote the script to avoid showing his vulnerability.

His public image was a carefully built blend of masculinity and detachment. But that facade cracked in 1942, when his wife Carole Lombard died in a plane crash while returning from a war bond tour. Gable sank into a deep depression and decided to enlist in the army to escape reality.

He flew real missions over Germany as a gunnery observer on a B-17 bomber. Adolf Hitler admired his films and even offered a cash reward to anyone who could capture him alive and bring him to Berlin as a war trophy. He returned from the front with the rank of major and several decorations, but his interest in acting was never quite the same again.

The shoot was a technical ordeal.

The Years of Drought and the Nevada Desert

During the 1950s, his career entered a phase of forgettable titles and projects that failed to connect with younger audiences. In 1960, he agreed to take part in The Misfits alongside Marilyn Monroe, directed by John Huston. The shoot took place in a scorching desert, where temperatures constantly topped 40 degrees.

Gable insisted on performing his own action scenes and was dragged by horses over rocky ground during several takes. He was tired of Monroe's constant delays and of the crew's heavy drinking. In 1960, he finished his scenes physically exhausted, a fatigue that was obvious in every shot of the final cut.

He didn't live to see the result on the big screen.

He died on November 16, 1960, at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital after suffering a fourth heart attack. His son John Clark Gable was born four months after his funeral at Forest Lawn Cemetery. An autopsy determined that his heart failed due to an acute coronary thrombosis ten days after production wrapped on his last film.