Clark Gable - Quotes About Gable

Quotes About Gable

In a photo essay of Hollywood film stars, Life Magazine called Gable, "All man... and then some."

Doris Day summed up Gable's unique personality: "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."

Longtime friend, eight time co-star and on-again, off-again romance Joan Crawford concurred, stating on David Frost's TV show in 1970 that "he was a king wherever he went. He walked like one, he behaved like one, and he was the most masculine man that I have ever met in my life."

Robert Taylor said Gable "was a great, great guy and certainly one of the great stars of all times, if not the greatest. I think that I sincerely doubt that there will ever be another like Clark Gable; he was one of a kind."

In his memoir Bring on the Empty Horses, David Niven states that Gable, a close friend, was extremely supportive after the sudden, accidental death of Niven's first wife, Primula (Primmie) in 1946. Primmie had supported Gable emotionally after Carole Lombard's death four years earlier: Niven recounts Gable kneeling at Primmie's feet and sobbing while she held and consoled him. Niven also states that Arthur Miller, the author of The Misfits, had described Gable as "the man who did not know how to hate".

Gable has been criticized for altering critical aspects of a script when he felt that the script would not fit in with his image. Screenwriter Larry Gelbart, as quoted by James Garner once stated that Gable, "...would not go down with the submarine, (referring to Run Silent, Run Deep, where the movie ended differently from the book on which it was based) because Gable doesn't sink".

Eli Wallach, in his autobiography, also states that Wallach's most dramatic scene in The Misfits, was cut from the movie after it had been filmed over several takes. This scene depicts Wallach's character (who secretly loves the character played by Marilyn Monroe), being emotionally crushed when he visits her, hoping to propose to her, and instead sees her with Gable's character. Both Gable and Monroe are off-screen, and Wallach's heartbreak is indicated by his dropping the rose bouquet he had brought for her. Gable ordered the scene removed because he felt that his character would never steal a woman from another man. Wallach, however, refrains from criticizing Gable, noting that he was professional and considerate in his behavior.