 "He made you feel like twice the woman you thought you were." ~Ursula Theiss "The only man who could make a love scene comfortable was Clark Gable. He was born graceful, he knew what to do with his feet and when he took hold of you, there was no fooling around." ~Rosalind Russell "The tough thing about describing Clark Gable is that there's nothing bad to say." ~director Mervyn Leroy "I think every woman he ever met was in love with him." ~Loretta Young "I never considered Clark a typical movie actor. That's a bad profession for men. They become picky and fussy and spend a lot of time talking to mirrors. Clark wasn't like that, ever." ~Joan Blondell "No actor I ever performed with had such public appeal. He was as masculine as any man I've ever known and as much a little boy as a grown man could be--it was this combination that had such a devastating effect on women. But there was nothing of 'the King' about his personality. Just the opposite. Utter simplicity. Uncomplicated. A man who lived on a simple, down-to-earth scale." ~Doris Day "When I think of [my relationship with Gable], considering the way it started, it was curious. We became devoted to each other. We weren't lovers--he was in love with Carole Lombard...we eventually became more like siblings. Nobody believes that and you can understand why...but our relationship was unique. Oh he sometimes gave me the macho routine when people were watching but he changed when we were alone."~Myrna Loy "He razzes me every minute in hopes of getting my goat...and sometimes he does. In a big, hot love scene the other day he whispered, 'Jean, you've got your eyebrows on upside down.'" ~Jean Harlow "He came to the set each day knowing every word of his dialogue--every word! I set about picking his brain, trying to ferret out exactly how he did it. That he studied his scripts aggressively and that he sometimes recorded his lines on tape to be played back while he slept was about all he would allow me to unearth."~Sidney Poitier "It was hard for me to work with him at first. I had been in love with Clark Gable since I was a little girl. And every once in a while I'd think, 'It's CLARK GABLE!' and I'd go to pieces."~Ava Gardner "I adored him. Just adored him. I don't believe any woman is telling the truth if she ever worked with Gable and did not feel twinges of a sexual urge beyond belief. I would call her a liar." ~Joan Crawford “I guess there isn’t anybody else like him. I don’t mean I want to be like him on the screen, because we’re so different. But I wish I knew how he manages to make every single soul he ever meets think he’s the absolute tops. I wish I knew how he makes newspapermen, every single one of them, think everything he does is just right. Why, that guy can say no, and make people like it better than anyone else can when they say yes." ~Tyrone Power "I would have liked to work with him, yes, that would have been something....he was one of the few men at MGM, hell, in Hollywood period, that had the reputation of being an all around nice guy...rare thing, that."~Katharine Hepburn "He was the best babysitter we ever had. Odd to say, but true. He always arrived loaded with goodies for the children and played with them for hours..." ~David Niven "Clark was a damn sight better comedian that he ever got credit for being." ~director Wesley Ruggles "He was very shy but fun with people he knew. He was very sensitive about those goddamned ears, but he'd make jokes about them. After a shot, he'd ask, 'What'd they get, an ear?' He didn't look like anyone else. It was not only physical. He had mannerisms all his own: ways of standing, smoking, and a great flair for clothes. Whatever came natural to him, I let him do it." ~director Frank Capra. "Yes, Clark and I had an affair, a glorious affair and it went on a lot longer than anybody knows. He was a wonderful man. Very simple, pretty much the way he's been painted...forever the virile, ballsy hero."~Joan Crawford "A sharp shooter if there ever was one." ~Gary Cooper It was the joy of your life to know Clark Gable. He was everything good you could think of. He had delicious humor, he had great compassion, he was always a fine old teddy bear. In no way was he conscious of his good looks, as were most other men in pictures at that time. Clark was very unactorly." ~Joan Blondell "I’ve met, in my business, a lot of the great men of our time. I’ve met several presidents of the United States, and Colonel Lindbergh, and Jack London, and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, and I knew Valentino—and well, anyway, most of the famous ones. But I think Clark Gable is the only completely natural human being I have ever met in my life. And that’s something to say about an actor. That’s why he’s always on balance, that’s why he always does the right thing at the right time for the right people, because he’s natural.” I was thinking over the years that I’ve known Clark and, as I thought, it became truer and truer."~ writer Adela Rogers St.Johns "He was a fellow you were sure would live for a hundred years..." ~producer David O. Selznick (at Gable's funeral) |
