Death of Clark Gable's grandson reveals painful legacy
Clark Gable Gone With the Wind Clark James Gable John Clark Gable Carole Lombard Loretta Young Call of the Wild Joan Crawford Malibu
Martha Ross mross@bayareanewsgroup.com
Aspiring actor Clark James Gable, 30, reportedly struggled in the shadow of his legendary grandfather Clark Gable, who died decades before he was born.
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The Mercury News
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The handsome, rakish “King of Hollywood” in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, Clark Gable was considered a model of 20th century American masculinity. Off-screen, he enjoyed affairs and marriages with some of the industry’s most beautiful and acclaimed stars, notably Joan Crawford and Carole Lombard.

But for various reasons, the mustachioed “Gone With the Wind” star struggled with one traditional male role: becoming a father. Gable never knew his only son, never acknowledged his secret love-child daughter, and certainly never became acquainted with any of his grandchildren.

Over the weekend, one of those grandchildren, Clark James Gable, made headlines, but for tragic reasons.

On Friday, Clark James Gable, also known as Clark Gable III, was found unresponsive in his bed at his Dallas home by his fiancée, according to Variety and other reports. The 30-year-old model and aspiring actor, who inherited his grandfather’s famous good looks, was transported to nearby Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A cause of death has not yet been released.

“My brother was found unresponsive this morning by his fiancé and didn’t wake up,” Gable III’s sister, Kayley, wrote on Facebook. “I LOVE YOU CLARKIE I’m so sorry we couldn’t save you my heart is broken and shattered RIP.”

His mother, Tracy Yarro Scheff, also confirmed the news on Instagram, writing, “It’s … with an extremely heavy heart we say goodbye to my beautiful son Clark.”

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Sadly, the young actor’s death made public some raw, hard feelings among Clark Gable’s descendants. In another Facebook post, Kayley Gable revealed two generations of apparent dysfunction and possible substance abuse, suggesting the latter may have been a factor in her brother’s death.

Kayley Gable also shared texts, purportedly written by their father, John Clark Gable, in which he accused his son and daughter of using their grandfather’s name “in disgrace.” John Clark Gable also said he preferred that his son be cremated and not buried in the family plot.

Kayley Gable responded by threatening to write a tell-all that would let the world know “the truth” about their apparently messed-up family.

As it happens, John Clark Gable, 58, was most recently in the headlines in 2013, when he was arrested on charges of driving under the influence after hitting several parked cars in Malibu, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies suspected he was “on drugs,” the Times added. The year before, John Clark Gable’s live-in girlfriend was found dead in their Malibu home.

Clark Gable’s name probably is pretty much all his descendants have of him, aside from any property he left when he died in November 1960. Clark Gable suffered a fatal arterial blood clot following a heart attack, shortly after he wrapped up the physically demanding work of filming “The Misfits” with Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift.

The reason that Clark Gable never knew any of his descendants is that his son was born in March 1961, four months after he died. John Clark Gable was the son of Gable’s fifth wife, model and socialite divorcee Kay Gable. His baptism was a star-studded affair that was attended by Monroe.

But it turns out that Gable had at least one other child. In 1994, a former actress named Judy Lewis revealed in a memoir that she was the secret love child of Clark Gable and actress Loretta Young, the New York Times reported. When Gable was married to his second wife, he and the unmarried 22-year-old Young had an affair while working on their 1935 film “Call of the Wild.”

Young, who was devoutly Catholic, decided to have the baby but hide the truth about her daughter’s parentage. For decades, she passed off her love child with Gable as an orphan whom she adopted.

Gable never acknowledged to Lewis that he knew she was his daughter. Lewis, who died in 2011, said Young finally revealed the truth to her in 1966. Lewis also had a daughter and two grandchildren, meaning that Gable had more descendants.

Meanwhile John Clark Gable’s two children appeared to struggle in the shadow of their grandfather’s enduring fame. Clark Gable won a best actor Oscar for 1934’s “It Happened One Night,” but he became an American icon after playing Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind.”

When he died, Gable III was still looking for his way into the industry that made his grandfather rich and famous. Gable III is probably best known for hosting several seasons of a reality TV show, “Cheaters,” which showed him confronting people on TV for committing adultery.

But Gable III also made headlines in 2012 when he was sentenced to 10 days in jail for a bizarre incident in which he reportedly shined a green laser at a Los Angeles police helicopter in July 2011. Gable III was accused of pointing the laser at a police chopper that was hovering hundreds of feet above Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. News reports didn’t explain why the then-22-year-old would do such a thing.

More recently, Gable III had reportedly “cleaned up his act,” according to Radar Online. In 2017, he became the father of a baby girl, Shore LaRae Gable, with girlfriend Summer.

Gable III also was trying to get into movies. Before his death, he appeared to be easing into more acting roles, having just completed a thriller called “Heckle,” with him playing a man who begins stalking a famous comedian.