William Clark Gable (1901-1960), America's top male film star for nearly 3 decades, was idolized by millions as the symbol of ideal masculinity.

Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, on Feb. 1, 1901, of Pennsylvania-Dutch farming stock. He quit high school to work in Ohio factories, Oklahoma oilfields, and Oregon lumber camps.

At 18 Gable determined to become an actor. Clumsy, untrained, and with little visible talent, he worked at various (often unpaid) jobs in stock companies. In 1923 Josephine Dillon, an acting teacher 11 years his senior, took him in hand. In 1924 they married and spent several difficult years in Hollywood. Gable worked as a movie extra and unskilled stage actor while being shaped for stardom by his wife. In 1927 the marriage collapsed. Gable left to play stock in Texas and in 1928 landed the lead in a New York production, Machinal. Unemployed thereafter for nearly a year, he returned to a West...