Gable, (William) Clark

US actor. A star for more than 30 years, he played a range of hard-boiled, comic, and romantic roles. He won an Academy Award for his performance in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), and starred as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind (1939).

Gable first gained recognition as a stage actor, notably in Machinal (1928) on Broadway in New York City. His performance in The Last Mile in Los Angeles, California, brought him to the attention of Hollywood producers, and his first major film role was in The Painted Desert (1931). His other films include Red Dust (1932), Manhattan Melodrama (1934), China Seas (1935), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), San Francisco (1936), Idiot's Delight (1939), Mogambo (1953), Teacher's Pet (1958), and The Misfits (1961). He was nicknamed the ‘King of Hollywood’.