William Clark Gable was born on 1 February 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, though he grew up largely in Hopedale after his mother died when he was ten months old. He quit school at sixteen, worked in oil fields and lumber camps, and drifted through odd jobs before a mentor in Portland, Oregon, encouraged his interest in theater. Gable learned stagecraft in stock companies, endured years of small roles, and honed the gravel voice, easy grin, and physical confidence that would define his screen persona. He married multiple times, including to Texas socialite Maria Langham, who helped finance his early career, and later to actress Carole Lombard, the great love of his public life.

MGM signed Gable in 1930, and within two years he became a national sensation in films such as Red Dust, Dancing Lady, and It Happened One Night, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1934. Frank Capra's comedy paired him with Claudette Colbert and exploited his ability to mix rough charm with surprising tenderness. As Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939), Gable delivered one of cinema's most quoted lines and embodied a flawed romantic hero at the epic scale of Civil War myth. He starred opposite Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, and Spencer Tracy, becoming so valuable that MGM lent him to other studios for record fees. Off screen he hunted, flew aircraft, and cultivated a masculine image that studios marketed as "the King of Hollywood."

Lombard's death in a 1942 plane crash while selling war bonds devastated Gable, who enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces and flew combat missions as a gunner over Europe despite being past draft age. After the war he returned to films including The Hucksters and Mogambo, aging into roles that acknowledged wrinkles without surrendering authority. He married Kay Williams and, while filming The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, suffered a heart attack; he died on 16 November 1960 ten days after the attack, before the film's release. Gable's death marked the passing of an era of studio star worship, yet his performances preserved the template of American male stardom—confident, witty, physically present—that successors from McQueen to Clooney would adapt for new generations.

1. 1901

   Born in Ohio

   Raised in rural Ohio and Pennsylvania before pursuing theater in the Pacific Northwest.

2. 1931

   MGM Contract

   Signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and rapidly became one of America's top box-office draws.

3. 1939

   Gone with the Wind

   Starred as Rhett Butler in Victor Fleming's epic adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's novel.

4. 1942

   Lombard's Death and Enlistment

   Lost Carole Lombard in a plane crash and joined the Army Air Forces as a combat airman.

5. 1960

   Death During The Misfits

   Died of a heart attack days after filming with Marilyn Monroe in Nevada.