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1-6 of 6
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania, where he stayed until he was two. His father then returned to take him back to Cadiz. At 16, he quit high school, went to work in an Akron, Ohio, tire factory, and decided to become an actor after seeing the play "The Bird of Paradise". He toured in stock companies, worked oil fields and sold ties. On December 13, 1924, he married Josephine Dillon, his acting coach and 15 years his senior. Around that time, they moved to Hollywood, so that Clark could concentrate on his acting career. In April 1930, they divorced and a year later, he married Maria Langham (a.k.a. Maria Franklin Gable), also about 17 years older than him.
While Gable acted on stage, he became a lifelong friend of Lionel Barrymore. After several failed screen tests (for Barrymore and Darryl F. Zanuck), Gable was signed in 1930 by MGM's Irving Thalberg. He had a small part in The Painted Desert (1931) which starred William Boyd. Joan Crawford asked for him as co-star in Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) and the public loved him manhandling Norma Shearer in A Free Soul (1931) the same year. His unshaven lovemaking with bra-less Jean Harlow in Red Dust (1932) made him MGM's most important star.
His acting career then flourished. At one point, he refused an assignment, and the studio punished him by loaning him out to (at the time) low-rent Columbia Pictures, which put him in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), which won him an Academy Award for his performance. The next year saw a starring role in Call of the Wild (1935) with Loretta Young, with whom he had an affair (resulting in the birth of a daughter, Judy Lewis). He returned to far more substantial roles at MGM, such as Fletcher Christian in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939).
After divorcing Maria Langham, in March 1939 Clark married Carole Lombard, but tragedy struck in January 1942 when the plane in which Carole and her mother were flying crashed into Table Rock Mountain, Nevada, killing them both. A grief-stricken Gable joined the US Army Air Force and was off the screen for three years, flying combat missions in Europe. When he returned the studio regarded his salary as excessive and did not renew his contract. He freelanced, but his films didn't do well at the box office. He married Sylvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks, in 1949. Unfortunately this marriage was short-lived and they divorced in 1952. In July 1955 he married a former sweetheart, Kathleen Williams Spreckles (a.k.a. Kay Williams) and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Adolph ("Bunker") Spreckels III.
On November 16, 1959, Gable became a grandfather when Judy Lewis, his daughter with Loretta Young, gave birth to a daughter, Maria. In 1960, Gable's wife Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits (1961), when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month, on November 16, 1960. Gable was buried shortly afterwards in the shrine that he had built for Carole Lombard and her mother when they died, at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
In March 1961, Kay Gable gave birth to a boy, whom she named John Clark Gable after his father.- Andy Clark was born on 12 March 1903 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Hit the Deck (1929), The Shamrock Handicap (1926) and The Great Bradley Mystery (1917). He died on 16 November 1960 in New Rochelle, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Probably the most famous personality on British TV in the 1950s, Gilbert Harding was notorious for his rudeness and short temper as a panel member on the genteel parlor game What's My Line (1951), a program he occasionally presented. He also appeared in several British films, mostly playing himself. His most celebrated (if not infamous) appearance on film or TV was on the interview show Face to Face (1959), hosted by John Freeman, shortly before Harding's early death in 1960. A former policeman who was raised in the confines of a Victorian workhouse, he briefly broke down in tears during Freeman's relentless questioning. He was asked if he had ever been in the presence of someone dying. The only occasion he had been was with his mother, a fact Freeman was not aware of when this particular question came up. Freeman afterward said he very much regretted this action; indeed, a few minutes later in the interview Freeman assumed Harding's mother was still alive, and was promptly corrected by Harding. Revealingly, Harding admitted his bad temper and manners were "indefensible", "I'm profoundly lonely", "I'm not afraid of death . . . I would like to be dead . . . " and sadly, several weeks after the recording, he was.
A play based on Harding's life, starring Edward Woodward, was performed in London.- France Asselin was born on 13 March 1923 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France. She was an actress, known for Classe Tous Risques (1960), The Good Time Girls (1960) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1954). She was married to Robert Vernay. She died on 16 November 1960 in Paris, Ile-de-France, France.
- Director
- Writer
Fernando A. Palacios was born on 19 February 1890 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Fernando A. was a director and writer, known for Hambre (1938), China poblana (1944) and Cadetes de la naval (1945). Fernando A. was married to Emilia Olivera . Fernando A. died on 16 November 1960 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.- Costume Designer
N'was McKenzie was born on 8 May 1897 in Missouri, USA. N'was was a costume designer, known for Missing Witnesses (1937), Sh! The Octopus (1937) and They Won't Forget (1937). N'was was married to Russell Saunders. N'was died on 16 November 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA.