Clark Gable: A Biography

Bought for my mother. She is 90 years old and she enjoyed this very much.

I found this book to be very informative. If you want to know more about Clark Gable this is the book for you. The book gives allot of detailed information about his life growing up in Oklahoma, the early struggles and successes he had growing up, his growing ambition to be an actor and his MANY romances (Joan Crawford, Loretta Young, William Randolph Hearst's mistress, and Grace Kelly to name a few) and marriages (most notably to Carole Lombard and Kay Spreakles) along the way to stardom. It tells in great detail his grieve at the death of Carole Lombard and how he joined the air force after in the hopes that he would crash his plane and be reunited with the love of his life. It also goes into detail about his last years, happy and contented with two step children and his wife, and finally his last days making The Misfits and very happy in the fact that he was going to have a child he could claim as his own (he has a daughter Judy Lewis by Loretta Young) and the heart attack that claimed his life at the age of 59 before he could see his son John Clark Gable who was born the March after he died. (Ironically Clark had his heart attack on his daughters 25th birthday and died on his granddaughter's 1st birthday).The book goes into detail about the early years of Clark's acting career doing plays and gives details about every single one of Clark's movies as well as amusing anecdotes that happened during such movies as Parnell (during a death scene the director had Clark and Myrna Loy listen to sad music to get them in a somber place and Clark complained to Carole about it. The next day when the director called for the somber music they got a blues version of "I'll be glade when your dead you rascal you) or Gone With the Wind (After the scene when Bonnie Blue Butler is being born and Mamie and Rhett are celebrating with alcohol Clark and Hattie McDaniels were drinking water. After several takes Hattie complained about it so Clark switched it with real alcohol and did not tell her until after she had drunken it. The next day when he saw her on the set he called to her "Hey Mamie how's your hangover?)It is really a very good book, and I would recommend it to any Clark Gable fan

Mr. Harris has written a well-researched biography of Clark Gable, one that allows the subject to maintain his dignity. It satisfies those who are familiar with Gable, as well as those who only know him from Gone with the Wind. Any film buff will benefit from the information about Gable's long and fascinating career, as well as the information about the history of the American film industry. The love between Clark Gable and Carole Lombard is surely one of the great tragedies of Hollywood, nearly Shakespearean in its scope.

He has a tough life. Thrown from one family to another. A complex with what he saw in the mirror. Alcoholic parents etc. Worked hard in stock & when it came to his career, never took the bullshit!! Good friends with (my favorite ever) SPENCER TRACY….and did 3 movies together became lifelong friends. If he saw a wrong being done to a actor just starting out….he bawled out the director & MGM or whoever the studio was…Stuck up for the lil guy. Many women tried to take advantage….but his true love was Carole Lombard….& never the same after the crash. It’s truly a book of humanity, love, hope & strength

Good read. Thorough research and filled in gaps about Gable's life I didn't know. Now I need a good biography of Carole Lombard and Loretta Young to read and get their sides of the story.

Such a pleasure to read about such a humble man. The research involved in this book was amazing. Well done

I know that only so much can be written about Clark Gable but Warren Harris's book is yet another rehash of his book, "Gable and Lombard".First, I have an extreme bias against books that don't document sources. Harris makes several statements as fact without backing them up with sources, like saying that Gable was forced to marry Ria Langham because she went to Thalberg and Mayer complaining that he wouldn't marry her. But he doesn't say where he gets this tidbit from. I know that it can be done, because David Stenn does a remarkable job of it in "Bombshell" and "Runnin' Wild".Second, if you read "Gable and Lombard", you can see that Harris is much more partial to Lombard and really had no love for Gable. I got the impression that (and this is just my impression) that he blames Gable for Lombard's death because he might have been fooling around with Lana Turner. You can see this some more in this newest book. I just felt that Harris really doesn't care much for Gable. I think he would have been better off writing about Lombard than he would have been writing about Gable.I guess it there is only so much you can write about one person but this book doesn't cover anything new or interesting about Gable, the man nor Gable, the star.

This biography of Clark Gable is very well written and well researched. The author does a good job in balancing Gable's good traits along with his bad. The "bad" are pretty considerable - he was a womanizer, a homophobe, drank excessively and ignored the fact that he had fathered a child with Loretta Young (who had to have been the biggest hypocrite in Hollywood). On the other hand, he was well-loved by his friends and family and although he fought tooth and nail to get the biggest salary he could, he always looked out for his co-workers who were sometimes overlooked and treated unfairly. His private life as well as career highlights are all covered extensively.

Mr Gable has always been my favorite movie actor, so I wanted to know more about him. This book is compact but well researched and written, so now I know much more about his upbringing, career, films, women etc. Unfortunately, if Mr Warren tells truth, with Gable as a human being I am dissapointed. A lot. I guess you have to be an egoist if you want to be the best in whatever you do, but.... Anyway - 5 stars for Gable the Actor, 2 stars for Gable the Man, 4 stars for Mr Warren's book.

This is by far the best biography i have ever read. It takes you back in time and is so beautifully written. The writer is not sensationalist at all, but leaves you, the reader to wonder how you would have reacted in these "unreal" circumstances. I could not put the book down and have now passed it on.I have ordered further books by this author as he has intrigued me with the whole movie industry that is long gone - but never forgotten.Thanks Warren for a fabulous read.

One of the most informative biographies I have ever read, (worts and all) I enjoyed this book I always rated Gable a top actor especially in "Gone with the wind" when he puts Scarlet in her place. so, yes I would recommend this especially if you are a fan.

Excellent biography of Clark Gable. Very well written and easy to follow. Highly informative and a must read for any Gable fan. I read it all in one day and wish it could have gone on longer as was very enjoyable.

Excellent biography of the all time King of Hollywood. Informative, interesting and extremely readable. Gable is probably one of, if not the best known star of the golden age of film, but I knew little about his private life until I'd read Warren Harris' first rate book.