Clark Gable | Biography, Movies, & Facts
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Clark Gable, American film actor who epitomized the American ideal of masculinity and virility. An enormously popular actor during his lifetime, Gable was dubbed the ‘King of Hollywood.’ His movies included It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, Gone with the Wind, and The Misfits.
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Stardom: It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty, and San Francisco

In 1930 Gable’s performance in a Los Angeles stage production of The Last Mile brought him to the attention of Hollywood producers. Although he failed his first screen test at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer—in part because producers thought Gable’s ears were too big for a leading man’s—his supporting performance in the low-budget western The Painted Desert (1931) convinced MGM executives of Gable’s talent and screen presence. The actor garnered public attention with his aggressive masculine performances in such films as A Free Soul and Night Nurse (both 1931). This forceful persona—equal parts “man’s man” and “ladies’ man”—helped make him one of Hollywood’s top stars within a year.

Among Gable’s most successful films for MGM during this period were Red Dust (1932), Strange Interlude (1932), Dancing Lady (1933), Hold Your Man (1933), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), and Men in White (1934). Despite his macho persona in such films, Gable’s screen presence was largely nonthreatening: his magnetic smile and playful winks rendered him a charming rogue who did not take himself too seriously. Although Gable himself maintained a self-deprecating attitude toward his own talent throughout the years, he often proved himself most competent in demanding roles and was equally deft at romantic comedy and epic drama.

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