Academy Award-winning actor Clark Gable is best familiar for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 epic historical romance film, Gone With the Wind. He often referred to as The King of Hollywood and starred as the leading man in more than 60 motion pictures in his career which spanned over 30 years.
Gable won the hearts of thousands of women with his performance on stage and the big screen. Gable’s attractiveness and popularity ensured that he had no shortage of beautiful women to choose from. He, however, not picky about the women he had affairs with. It may be also be shocking for some to find out that Gable hooked up with a man at some point.
Join FactsVerse as we take a look at Every Woman Clark Gable Had an Affair With ( And 1 Man).
Franz Dorfler
Gable met Dorfler while he was trying to get into theatre in Oregon. Franz was a young, pretty dark-haired actress, and indeed, a romantic affair developed. The couple soon became engaged in 1922 but decided to set aside their wedding plans until they had a more stable source of income. In a bid to help Gable’s career, Franz encouraged him to try out for a newly formed theatre group, the Red Lantern Players. There, Gable met Broadway actress and acting coach Josephine Dillon. Dillon quickly became Clark’s new love interest, and he broke off his engagement to Dorfler.
Josephine Dillon
Josephine Dillon was over 15 years Clark’s senior and was an experienced acting coach. She became his teacher after seeing his potential as an actor. Dillon was Gable’s patron and very instrumental to his successful career. She paid for him to get cosmetic work on his teeth and his hair groomed. She also help him work on his speech and mannerisms. And in 1924. the pair moved to Hollywood. Also got marries on December 12 of the same year.
Dillon’s efforts to help advance Gable’s career paid off and he began to win roles in silent films. Gable however cheated on Josephine several times, and after their divorce in 1930, she claimed that their marriage never consummated.
Ria Langham
Hollywood was no longer giving Gable the attention he desired, so he decided to go to New York. There, he met Texas socialite Maria ‘Ria’ Langham. Gable met Langham while working on Broadway in 1928, and an affair developed even though he still married to Josephine Dillon. There were allegations that Gable began a relationship with Ria because she possessed more money and connections than his wife. Langham was also older than Gable by about 17 years, and her experience from her previous marriages and socializing proved immensely helpful to Clark’s career. Gable’s career soon gained momentum, and his affair with Langham discovered by the head of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). He insisted that Gable divorce Dillon and marry Langham, which he did. Gable and Langham married in 1931 but separated in 1935 amidst Gable’s many other affairs. They finally divorced in 1939.
Carole Lombard
When Gable met Lombard on the set of No Man of Her Own in 1932, there were initially no sparks to speak of. Lombard herself confirmed this in a memoir written by the film’s director, Garson Kanin. Kanin recounts Lombard disclosing to him that despite filming steamy love scenes together, “she never got any kind of tremble out of him at all”.
The two stars married at the time – Gable to Ria Langham, and Carole to actor William Powell so, it not exactly surprising that it was not love at first sight.
But it was a whole different story four years later when the two actors met again at the Mayfair Ball, which Lombard hosted. Carole attended with a date but a separated but not yet divorced Clark attended alone. That did not stop Gable, though, as there were reports that he invited Lombard back to his hotel room that night.
After Gable’s divorce finalized in 1938, he made his relationship with Carole public. The two were inseparable, and a year later, they eloped in Arizona while Gable was on a break from filming Gone With The Wind.
Lombard is consider by many to have been the love of Gable’s life because she reportedly brought out his playful side. The couple was so close that from the night of the Mayfair Ball until the tragic end of their marriage, they never spent more than six days apart. They went on fishing and hunting trips and generally enjoyed each other’s company.
Struggles with infertility and rumors of Gable’s infidelity troubled the couple’s marriage. In January 1942, Lombard boarded an ill-fated flight to California against several warnings. She had even reportedly visited a psychic with her mother, Elizabeth Peters, who cautioned the actress against boarding any plane flights for the rest of the calendar year.
However, Lombard determined to return to California, probably to reunite with Gable and dispel rumors of any marital issues.
Sadly, the plane did not get past Nevada, before crashing into Potosi Mountain. There were 16 people on board, including 15 young pilots headed west to serve in the war. There were no survivors.
Gable was grief-stricken but managed to ascend 7,800 feet up the mountain on a horse in a bid to locate the ruins of the flight. With the help of guides and officials, Lombard’s body found under one of the aircraft’s wings.
Gable became a widower and could not bear to go back to an empty home. He turned to drinking, smoking, and reckless motorcycle driving to cope with his grief. He finally enlisted in the U.S Army Air forces in August 1942 and told his friends he did not care if he died in battle.
Gable’s bond with Lombard was so strong that he requested to be buried beside her upon his death. When he died in 1960 due to heart complications, his wish was granted.
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Grace Kell
Before Grace Kelly became Princess of Monaco, she was one of the most iconic actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Kelly and Gable were co-stars in the 1953 film, Mogambo. Gable reportedly hooked up with many of his co-stars, so it was not surprising when rumors began about an affair with Kelly. There were reports that the pair got pretty intimate on set in Africa during the filming of Mogambo. According to gossip Gable and Kelly became an item but broke up due to Gable’s unwillingness to marry.
Adela Rogers St. John
There were numerous allegations of Gable fathering children with several women but the ‘fixers’ of 1930s Hollywood kept such stories quiet. Rogers St. John was a writer that Gable allegedly impregnated within a month of signing his contract with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Adela was sent on an ‘extended vacation’ to have the baby and that was the end of the affair.
Marion Davies
Gable and Marion Davies starred in two films together – 1932’s Polly of The Circus and 1936’s Cain and Mabel. Davies, who was rumored to be the mistress of newspaper publisher William Hearst, began an affair with Gable. According to Hollywood sources, Hearst and MGM knew about the affair and offered Gable a pay rise to end it. His pay was increased from $650 a week to $2000 a week, and he quickly stopped his dalliance with Marion.
Joan Crawford
During Gable’s career, he was paired with many leading actresses including Joan Crawford. Even though both were married at the time, they began an affair. Their affair was soon discovered by MGM who threatened to end both their contracts if they did not end their relationship.
The pair decided to keep things under the radar but reportedly never stopped seeing each other. Sometime in 1931, Crawford became pregnant with Clark’s baby. She believed the child to be Gable’s because she was estranged from her husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. at the time. An abortion was arranged, and Crawford claimed she lost ‘Doug’s’ baby on a boat deck while filming a movie.
Loretta Young
In 1935, Oscar-winning actress Loretta Young became pregnant with Gable’s child. However, an elaborate plan was devised to cover it up as it could potentially have ended both their careers. Young went on ‘vacation’ with her mother to secretly have the baby. There are reports of Gable receiving a telegram announcing the baby’s arrival. When Young returned, she announced that she had adopted a little girl who she named Judy Lewis, taking the last name of her second husband. Judy had no idea that Gable was her biological father when he visited her once as a teenager. Gable himself never acknowledged her as his child. However, most people in Hollywood knew that Gable was Judy’s father, and it wasn’t long before she found out from friends at school. Judy confronted her mother who threw up immediately and told her the truth.
Pauline Frederick
At the start of his career, Gable was involved in an affair with actress Pauline Frederick who was 20 years his senior. Their romance began in 1926 and lasted two years. She helped his career on Broadway by giving him the plays, Madame X and Lucky Sam McCarver. She also bought him new suits, a car and paid for Gable to get further dental treatment.
Elizabeth Allan
Allan was an English actress who Gable met on the set of Men In White. They became friends and spent a lot of time together. Their close friendship prompted Gable to persuade MGM to make her contract long-term. Soon enough, their friendship turned into a romantic affair. This happened even though they were married to other people. Eventually, Gable lost interest in Elizabeth after he started dating Carole Lombard.
Lady Sylvia Ashley
Gable’s fourth marriage in 1949 was his shortest. He met Lady Sylvia Ashley at a party and spent most of his evening with her, ignoring his date. Ashley, who was formerly married to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle that Gable was uncomfortable with. The marriage only lasted two and a half years.
Kay Williams
Actress Kay Williams was Gable’s fifth wife and the mother of his only acknowledged child. The couple dated briefly after the death of Carole Lombard but Gable suddenly broke it off. The two reconnected after the end of Gable’s fourth marriage and dated secretly until they eloped in 1955.
Williams became pregnant in the summer of 1960 and Gable was excited about having a child of his own. Sadly, he never got to meet his son, as Gable died on 16 November 1960, two weeks after he finished filming The Misfits. Four months later his son, John Clark Gable was born.
William Haines
Gable adored women, and when he has the chance to, he had affairs with many of them so,
it’s a bit surprising that he is also involve with a man. William Haines is an openly gay actor that Gable allegedly had an affair with when Clark was a struggling young actor. According to gossip, they seen together at the studio, and also at a party at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where they allegedly engaged in a variety of sexual acts. Gable was certainly not gay or bisexual but this affair was part of his relentless determination to make it big in Hollywood.
The King of Hollywood certainly had an interesting love life. Clark, one of the most attractive and successful men in Hollywood have his pick of beautiful women who has interest in him. For Gable, being the rake he was, it was hard to resist the advances of so many women who loved and adored him. Women were his Achilles heel.
Now let’s hear from you: which of Gable’s affairs did you find most shocking? Please let us know in the comments. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to FactsVerse for more videos!
