In 1901, a star was born. Clark Gable, the Gone With the Wind actor who came to be nicknamed the King of Hollywood, had humble beginnings. He was the son of an Ohio oil driller and a high school dropout when, as the story goes, he saw a production of Bird of Paradise at the Akron Music Hall at age 17, sparking his interest in becoming an actor.
After a few years of working odd jobs and hanging around performers as much as possible, Gable joined a traveling theater group. He then met Josephine Dillon, a theater manager and acting coach who trained Gable and helped shape his image, even paying for dental work to perfect his smile. In 1924, Gable moved to Hollywood with Dillon, who was 17 years his senior. They were wed in what would be the first of Gable’s five marriages. Dillon worked as his manager, getting him bit parts on stage and in silent films. The pair were divorced in 1930, but by then, Gable was well on his way to making it as a film star; he was signed to MGM that same year and would stay under contract with the film studio for over two decades.
Off-screen, Gable preferred to spend his time hunting, fishing, and tending to the gardens at his Encino ranch, where he lived from 1939 until his 1960 death. Read on to see how the rugged Hollywood legend spent his leisure time.
Rising Star in Beverly Hills
Gable relaxes on the veranda of his new Beverly Hills rental home in this 1931 photo, which accompanied an article in Screenland magazine. “Mrs. Gable and I are thrilled with our new home,” the 30-year-old told the outlet, referring to his second wife, socialite Maria Franklin Langham, whom he had married that year. “We have always lived in apartments, but I’ve wanted a house all along…. We’ve had to shop for more to fill the house. And has that been fun!”
Ranch Life
Gable, now with a best-actor Oscar under his belt (for Frank Capra’s 1934 film It Happened One Night), officially divorced Franklin in 1939 and married actress Carole Lombard shortly after. The newlyweds are pictured on their Encino, California, ranch in this photo from that year—the same year Gable starred in Gone With the Wind. The nine-room house, which formerly belonged to director Raoul Walsh, had a white brick exterior with wood framing, topped with a gambrel roof.
Married…with chickens
Gable and Lombard pose with the property’s chicken coop in 1939. Gable reportedly paid $50,000 for the 20-acre property, where the Hollywood couple resided along with their egg-laying hens, cows, turkeys, ducks, horses, cats, dogs, and a mule named Judy, according to an article written that same year by future television host Ed Sullivan.
Home from the war
Gable’s marriage to Lombard was tragically cut short when she died in a 1942 plane crash while on a tour promoting war bonds. The devastated Call of the Wild star then enrolled in the Army Air Forces, serving the war effort and flying combat missions until 1944, when he returned to his beloved Encino ranch. In this 1948 snapshot, he poses on the diving board of the property’s kidney-bean-shaped pool. That year, he starred alongside Lana Turner in Homecoming, a romantic drama set amidst the chaos of World War II.
Suddenly Sylvia
In the years after Lombard’s death, much tabloid fodder was devoted to the subject of who would be Gable’s next bride. However, he didn’t tie the knot again until December 1949, when he married English model and actress Sylvia Ashley. The relationship surprised the public, considering Ashley’s ritzy socialite status and Gable’s outdoorsy, down-to-earth image. The couple is pictured with one of Gable’s horses at his Encino ranch in this 1950 photo.
Bachelor pad
Gable and Ashley’s marriage was short-lived; the couple separated in 1951, around the time this photo was taken of the Mogambo star sitting alone in front of his Encino dwelling. Their divorce was finalized the following year.
Home until the end
In July 1955, Gable married his fifth and final bride, Kay Williams Spreckels in a surprise elopement, per Gable’s marital tradition. Spreckels had two children from a previous marriage who joined the couple at their ranch. In this photo from a 1956 photoshoot, Gable and Spreckels pose in the home’s office, which featured botanical-printed drapes and a glossy wooden desk. Four years later, Gable died at 59 of a heart attack. A few months after that, Kay gave birth to their son, John Clark Gable. The home, which last changed hands in 1977, still stands.
