Clark Gable's Real Name: William Clark Gable

Quick answer: Clark Gable's documented full name is William Clark Gable. Encyclopaedia Britannica records that form and gives his birth date as February 1, 1901, in Cadiz, Ohio. Turner Classic Movies also gives William Clark Gable, February 1, 1901, in Cadiz (Encyclopaedia Britannica; Turner Classic Movies).

Real name and early life

Britannica says he was the only son of an itinerant oil-field worker and that his mother died when he was not yet 10 months old; TCM says she died when he was seven months old and describes his father as a farmer-turned-oil driller. He grew up in Ohio. Britannica reports that he dropped out of high school at age 16; TCM says that by 14 he had struck out on his own. Both accounts describe a string of laboring jobs before he turned to acting. While in Oregon he became the protégé of actress Josephine Dillon, who coached him; although 17 years her junior, he married her in 1924, Britannica says. His first major stage break was the Broadway play Machinal (1928).

Career highlights

A 1930 Los Angeles staging of The Last Mile brought Hollywood's attention. After a failed first screen test at MGM—producers thought his ears too big, Britannica says—his supporting work in The Painted Desert (1931) led to a contract. Loaned to Columbia as punishment for refusing a role, he starred in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934) and won the Academy Award for best actor. He earned another Oscar nomination for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and became identified with Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939). TCM notes that he remained a top box-office name until World War II service in the Air Force, for which he received medals for bombing missions; Encyclopedia.com records U.S. Army Air Corps service from 1942 to 1945 and a discharge as a major. He was often called the "King of Hollywood." His last film was The Misfits (1961), co-starring Marilyn Monroe.

Death

Britannica records that he died of a heart attack on November 16, 1960, in Los Angeles, within days of finishing The Misfits. Several months later his fifth wife, Kay Williams, gave birth to his only son, John Clark Gable.

Name notes for searchers

William Clark Gable is the documented full name; he was known professionally as Clark Gable. Searchers looking for Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind, the star of It Happened One Night, or the actor nicknamed the King of Hollywood are usually aiming at the same person.