Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries

by Paul Donnelley

  The King of Hollywood. When William Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, at 4.30am, the son of thrice-married William H. Gable (b. 1870, d. August 4, 1948), an oil driller, he was mistakenly listed on his birth certificate as a female. It was an inauspicious start to a career that hit its apotheosis with Gone With The Wind (1939) and had 6́ 1˝ Gable labelled ‘The King Of Hollywood’. It was an odd monicker, because Gable, a freemason, was, by his own admission, a poor lover, underendowed, had false teeth and bad breath. He and Cary Grant would exchange unwanted monogrammed Christmas gifts. Mogambo (1953) co-star Ava Gardner said, “He’s the kind of guy who, if you say, ‘Hiya Clark, how are you’ is stuck for an answer.” Even fourth wife, Carole Lombard, opined, “Listen, he’s no Clark Gable at home.” Despite all this, Gable was still one of the most popular figures in Hollywood. He finished full-time education when he was 14 and worked in a tyre factory in Akron, Ohio. There he became interested in the theatre and worked his evenings free of charge as a call boy. Just as it seemed he was about to achieve his break, his father took him to drill for oil in Oklahoma. However, in 1922 he abandoned his father and joined a repertory company headed by Josephine Dillon (b. 1884, d. Verdugo City, California, November 10, 1971). On December 13, 1924, Gable married her and moved to Hollywood, where he began appearing in bit parts. He appeared in White Man (1924), Forbidden Paradise (1924), Declassée (1925), The Merry Widow (1925) and North Star (1926) as Archie West but stardom eluded him. He left his wife (they divorced on April Fool’s Day 1930) and began touring, ending up on Broadway where Lionel Barrymore arranged a screen test for him. Preparing for his film Little Caesar in 1930, director Mervyn LeRoy made what he thought was an excellent test of Gable. When he screened it for executives Darryl F. Zanuck and Jack L. Warner, he was told, “Why do you throw away $500 of our money on a test of that big ape? Didn’t you see those ears when you talked to him? And those big feet and hands, not to mention that ugly face of his?” On June 19, 1931, Gable married, as her fourth husband, an even older woman, Ria Langham (b. January 17, 1884, as Maria Franklin, d. Houston, Texas, September 24, 1966). That same year he signed a contract with MGM. Between 1931 and 1933 he appeared in Night Nurse (1931) as Nick, Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) as Jake Luva, The Painted Desert (1931) as Rance Brett, Laughing Sinners (1931) as Carl Loomis, Sporting Blood (1931) as Rid Riddell, Possessed (1931) as Mark Whitney, Strange Interlude (1932) as Ned Darrell, No Man Of Her Own (1932) as Babe Stewart, Polly Of The Circus (1932) as Reverend John Hartley, Red Dust (1932) as Dennis Carson, Hold Your Man (1933) as Eddie and Dancing Lady (1933) as Patch Gallagher. In 1933 Gable was fretful over his private life and began to drink heavily. One night he was driving to Sunset Boulevard from the Hollywood Hills when he took a corner too sharply and hit and killed a pedestrian. Determined to save Gable and MGM from any harmful publicity, studio mogul Louis B. Mayer bribed one of his junior executives to take the rap for Gable. The man served a year on a manslaughter charge, having obtained a promise from Mayer of a guaranteed lifetime’s employment at MGM. Gable began moaning about the type of role he was required to play – usually a brute – and complained to Mayer. The mogul decided to punish the star by lending him to Columbia to play Peter Warne in what was thought to be a minor film called It Happened One Night (1934). The film won him an Oscar, which he later gave to the son of a friend. It was said that when Clark Gable removed his shirt in the film and revealed a bare chest, the sales of vests plummeted. The film is also responsible for magic time. Gable left his motel room at 2am, drove around New York, wrote a story for his newspaper and returned to his room, where the clock still said 2am! From 1934 Gable could do virtually no wrong (apart from 1937 when he starred as Charles Stewart Parnell in the flop Parnell and was sued for $150,000 by an Englishwoman, Violet Norton, over the paternity of her daughter, Gwendoline, born in 1923!). He appeared in Chained (1934) as Michael Bradley, Forsaking All Others (1934) as Jeff Williams, The Call Of The Wild (1935) as Jack Thornton, China Seas (1935) as Captain Alan Gaskell, Mutiny On The Bounty (1935) as Fletcher Christian, Cain And Mabel (1936) as Larry Cain, San Francisco as Blackie Norton, Saratoga as Duke Bradley, Too Hot To Handle (1938) as Chris Hunter and Test Pilot (1938) as Jim Lane. In 1935 he and the second Mrs Gable separated and on March 29, 1939, he married foul-mouthed blonde actress Carole Lombard. In 1938 he was ‘crowned’ King Of Hollywood in a ceremony in MGM’s commissary. He was the second choice for his most famous film. Gary Cooper opined, “Gone With The Wind is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his face and not me.” Gable was bitterly disappointed not to win another Oscar for his portrayal of Rhett Butler. Tragedy was to strike on January 16, 1942, when Carole Lombard was killed when her plane crashed returning from a war bond-selling tour. To cope with his grief Gable joined the air force, rising to the rank of Major. Gable’s discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan. However, the vast majority of Gable’s post-war films flopped. In Santa Barbara on December 20, 1949, he married, as her fourth husband, Sylvia, Lady Ashley (b. London circa 1904, d. Los Angeles, California, June 30, 1977, of cancer) who had been the second wife of Douglas Fairbanks. Gable divorced her in 1951. In 1954 his contract with MGM was not renewed. On July 11, 1955, he married for the fifth and final time to Kay Spreckels (b. August 7, 1916, or August 5, 1917, d. Houston, Texas, May 25, 1983, of heart failure). Gable’s finest performance came, perhaps, in The Misfits (1961). Filming was due to begin in the autumn of 1959 but Marilyn Monroe’s commitment to Let’s Make Love (1960) and Gable’s to It Happened In Naples (1960) delayed shooting. The new start date was March 30, 1960, but an actors’ strike delayed the filming of Let’s Make Love by five weeks which, in turn, delayed The Misfits. Almost immediately after the completion of Let’s Make Love, Marilyn flew to New York for costume fittings. Finally, shooting began at 9am on July 18, 1960, only to shut down a week later because director John Huston’s gambling caused a cash flow problem, a situation that was to cause further stoppages later in the shoot. Marilyn’s first scene was filmed on July 21. Shooting was postponed on July 30, and again on August 1, because Marilyn was ‘indisposed’. After numerous problems the film wrapped on November 4, 1960. It had run 40 days over schedule and cost $3,955,000, making it the most expensive black-and-white film then made. Coincidentally, Gable also appeared opposite Jean Harlow, the century’s other most potent sex symbol, in her last film, (Saratoga, [1937]). Gable, who had dieted from 16st to 14st for the film, was worn out by Marilyn’s continual lateness on the set and failure to learn her lines. However, he never publicly criticised her. To alleviate his boredom, the 59-year-old star often performed his own stunts, against all advice. One involved him being dragged behind a truck travelling at 30mph. When Gable’s scenes were finished on November 4, he remarked, “Christ, I’m glad this picture’s finished. She near gave me a damn heart attack. I’ve never been happier when a film ended.” The following day he suffered a heart attack.

  CAUSE: Gable died eleven days after the heart attack. The usual line was to blame Marilyn Monroe for Gable’s demise but it must be remembered that Gable had volunteered to do his own stunts (at age 59) and had smoked 60 cigarettes a day for 30 years. Gable was cremated and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks, 1712 South Glendale Avenue, Glendale, California 91209. Gable once told a reporter his epitaph would read “He was lucky and he knew it.” However, his final resting place, next to Carole Lombard, bears no such legend. His much-longed-for son, John Clark, was born on March 20, 1961, after his father’s death. (Gable also fathered Loretta Young’s daughter but the paternity was not admitted until long after his death.)

  FURTHER READING: Clark Gable – George Carpozi, Jr. (New York: Pyramid Books, 1961); Dear Mr. G – The Biography Of Clark Gable – Jean Garceau with Inez Cocke (London: Four Square, 1961); Long Live The King: A Biography Of Clark Gable – Lyn Tornabene (New York: Pocket Books, 1976); Gable & Lombard – Warren G. Harris (London: Corgi, 1977); G
able’s Women – Jane Ellen Wayne (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1987); Clark Gable: Portrait Of A Misfit – Jane Ellen Wayne (London: Robson Books, 1993).

  Eva Gabor

  Born February 11, 1919

  Died July 4, 1995

  Glamorous sister. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Eva Gabor was the first of the legendary sisters to migrate to America. The Gabor sisters’ habit of rewriting history is legendary, so much of what they ‘reveal’ must be treated with caution. Eva married Eric Drimmer in 1939 and divorced him less than three years later, on February 24, 1942. She began appearing in films in 1941 and featured in, among others, Forced Landing (1941) as Johanna Van Deuren (shot in just ten days), Pacific Blackout (1941) as Marie Duval, Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), The Wife Of Monte Cristo (1946) as Madame Maillard, Song Of Surrender (1949) as Countess Marina, Tarzan And The Slave Girl (1950), Love Island (1952) as Sarna, Captain Kidd And The Slave Girl (1954), Artists And Models (1955) as Sonia, Don’t Go Near The Water as Deborah Aldrich, Gigi as Liane d’Exelmans, It Started With A Kiss (1959) as Marquesa de la Rey, Youngblood Hawke (1964) as Fannie Prince and The Princess Academy (1987) as Countess Von Pupsin. She was probably best known for her role as Lisa Douglas on the TV series Green Acres. Like all the Gabors, she made several trips up the aisle. In September 1943, she married millionaire estate agent Charles Isaacs (divorced April 5, 1949, four days after Zsa Zsa married George Sanders). On April 6, 1956, Dr John Williams became the third Mr Gabor – the couple separated on November 28 of the same year. On October 6, 1959, she wed Richard Brown, a match that proved to be her longest marriage (13 years) and on September 27, 1973, she married tycoon Frank Gard Jameson (divorced 1983). Away from the screen she was chairman of the world’s largest wig-making company. Eva (pronounced A-va) bore a striking resemblance to her elder sister, something which, on occasion, she used to her advantage. Swimming nude one day she was greeted by someone calling “Hello, Eva.” “No, darlink, Zsa Zsa,” came the reply.

  CAUSE: In June 1995 Eva was holidaying with friends at her home in Baja, Mexico. On the 20th of that month she supposedly “ate a bad piece of fruit,” which led to viral pneumonia. This made her giddy and she fell down her stairs, breaking her hip. She was flown back to America, thanks to the generosity of her ‘boyfriend’ TV personality Merv Griffin, and admitted to Cedars-Sinai Hospital Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, on June 21. Her condition deteriorated and she died aged 76 of respiratory failure due to adult respiratory distress syndrome and bilateral pneumoccal pneumonia at 10.05am. She was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park, 1218 Glendon Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024.

  FURTHER READING: Such Devoted Sisters: Those Fabulous Gabors – Peter H. Brown (London: Robson Books, 1986).

  Matthew Garber

  Born March 25, 1956

  Died June 13, 1977

  Child star. Matthew Garber was born in London and made his film début in The Three Lives Of Thomasina (1963) playing Geordie but he shot to fame as Michael Banks in Mary Poppins (1964). Garber was an unenthusiastic star and made just one more film, Disney’s The Gnome-Mobile (1967) in which he portrayed Rodney Winthrop. By coincidence the actress who played his sister, Elizabeth, in the film was Karen Dotrice who had also been his screen sister in Mary Poppins.

  CAUSE: Garber died aged 21 in Hampstead of pancreatitis.

  Greta Garbo

  (GRETA LOVISA GUSTAFSSON)

  Born September 18, 1905

  Died April 15, 1990

  Solitary Swede. 5́ 6˝ Greta Garbo was the most enigmatic of all film stars. Frederic March revealed, “Co-starring with Garbo hardly constituted an introduction.” Friends called her “GG ” or if they were less well acquainted “Miss G ”. No one called her “Greta”. She retired nearly 50 years before her death yet her legend lived on. Greta Garbo was born in Södra Maternity Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, at 7.30pm weighing 7lb 7oz, the second and younger daughter of Karl Alfred ‘Kalle’ Gustafsson (b. Frinnaryd, Sweden, May 11, 1871 as Karl Alfrid Johansson, d. June 1, 1920 of inflammation of the kidneys) and Anna Lovisa Karlsdotter (b. Högsby, September 10, 1872, d. Scarsdale, New York, October 18, 1944 of a coronary thrombosis). Their son Sven Alfred was born in Södra Maternity Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden on July 26, 1898-10 weeks after his parents were married. Between 1929 and 1930 he would make three films, two as Sven Garbo and one as Sven Gustafsson. He died of an acute heart attack at the Desert Hospital, Palm Springs, on January 27, 1967. On June 14, 1919, Garbo graduated from school and was confirmed on April 18, 1920. Garbo lost her virginity one summer in her early teens, when she and her prettier elder sister, Alva Maria (b. Stockholm, Sweden, September 20, 1903, d. Stockholm, Sweden, April 21, 1926 of lymphatic cancer), had sex together outdoors in a tent. Soon thereafter, a local boy also made use of the same tent to have sex with Greta. When she was 14 she worked in a barber’s shop preparing customers for a shave. She then modelled hats in a shop, which led to a newspaper advert that went on to an advertising film which was spotted by Eric Petchser, a director of Swedish comedies. He cast her in Luffar-Petter (premièred Boxing Day, 1922 at the Odeon Theatre, Stockholm) in which she played a character called Greta. Mauritz Stiller (b. Helsinki, July 17, 1883 as Movscha Stiller) saw this and starred her in the four-hour long Gösta Berlings Saga (premièred March 10 – Part 1 – and March 17 – Part 2 – 1924 at the Röda Kvarn, Stockholm) as Countess Elisabeth Dohna and renamed her Greta Garbo on December 4, 1923. (He had already chosen the name – he was looking for someone to inherit it.) Stiller was offered a contract by MGM but he refused to sign it unless his lover and protégée Garbo was offered a deal as well. “Tell her in America men don’t like fat women,” boss Louis B. Mayer said to Stiller, but common sense prevailed. It took some time for MGM to appreciate the treasure they had unwittingly uncovered. The press office labelled her, “The Mysterious Stranger” because of her lack of desire to do publicity. Her first American film was The Torrent (1926) as Leonora Moreno. It was lucky that sound films had yet to make their appearance because Garbo couldn’t speak a word of English at the time. The Torrent made Garbo a star and Mayer offered her a higher salary even before the film’s February 21, 1926 première at the Capitol Theater, New York and Loew’s State Theater, Los Angeles. Stiller was replaced for Garbo’s next film, The Temptress (premièred October 10, 1926 at the Capitol Theater, New York) and as her career soared, his died. In 1927 he went back to Sweden after she ignored his entreaties to join her. (He died of infective pleurisy on November 7, 1928.) Garbo’s beauty astounded moviegoers in America. Her films included Flesh And The Devil (premièred January 9, 1927 at the Capitol Theater, New York) in which she played Felicitas Von Kletzingk. Her co-star was John Gilbert and, by all accounts, the romance carried on off screen as well. In Love (premièred November 29, 1927 at the Embassy Theater, New York) Garbo played Anna Karenina and was again teamed with Gilbert, possibly so the promoters could write the line “Garbo and Gilbert in Love ”. In Wild Orchids (premièred February 16, 1929) she was Lillie Sterling. This film was originally entitled Heat until wiser heads prevailed and it was realised that marquees carrying the legend “Greta Garbo in Heat ” would be unacceptable. Garbo ended the affair with Gilbert in 1929. It was her first talkie, Anna Christie (premièred January 22, 1930 at the Criterion Theater, Los Angeles), in which she played the lead role of a waterfront prostitute, that won her an Oscar nomination and worldwide interest – “Garbo Talks!” – an interest that she shunned with a passion. Her next film, Romance (premièred July 18, 1930 at Loew’s State Theater, Los Angeles), in which she was cast as Rita Cavallini, won her another Oscar nomination but no trophy. When she made her first comedy Ninotchka (premièred November 10, 1939 at the Radio City Music Hall, New York) playing Ninotchka, the tag ran “Garbo Laughs!” For Camille (premièred December 12, 1936 at the Plaza Theater, Palm Springs), in which she appeared as the consumptive heroine Marguerite Gautier, one wag suggested the line should read “Garbo Coughs!” Nonetheless, both
films won her Oscar nominations. Garbo was the favourite actress of Adolf Hitler. On May 3, 1938 she was labelled “box office poison” by The Independent Film Journal in an advertisement paid for by Harry Brandt, the president of the Independent Theatre Owners Association. “Among those players whose dramatic ability is unquestioned, but whose box office draw is nil, can be numbered Mae West, Edward Arnold, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Fred Astaire.” It did not seem to harm her legend. Her other films included Mata Hari (premièred New Year’s Eve, 1931 at the Capitol Theater, New York) in the title role, Grand Hotel (premièred April 12, 1932 at the Astor Theater, New York) as Grusinskaya, As You Desire Me (premièred June 3, 1932 at the Capitol Theater, New York) as Zara/Countess Maria Varelli, Queen Christina (premièred Boxing Day, 1933 at the Astor Theater, New York) as Queen Christina. (In the closing scene Garbo’s character sails off into exile but the wind in her hair is blowing in a different direction from that through the sails directly behind her), Anna Karenina (released August 20, 1935) as Anna Karenina, Conquest (premièred November 5, 1937 at the Capitol Theater, New York) as Marie Walewska and Two-Faced Woman (released December 4, 1941) as Karin Borg Blake/Katherine Borg. Then it all ended. Garbo announced her retirement. She never explained why except to say, “I have made enough faces.” Director Clarence Brown stated: “She has this great appeal to the world because she expresses her emotions by thinking them. Garbo does not need gestures and movements to convey happiness, despair, hope and disappointment, joy or tragedy. She registers her feelings literally by radiating her thoughts to you.” The diarist Alistair Cooke remarked that Garbo was “every man’s harmless fantasy mistress. She gave you the impression that if your imagination had to sin, it could at least congratulate itself on its impeccable taste.” Her retirement was long. Despite rumours of comebacks none ever materialised. She refused to appear on the radio, once turning down $25,000 for a single show. She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1954 but didn’t bother to show up to collect it. She spent her reclusive years travelling around Europe and living in Manhattan. Every day she would take the same route from her home, The Campanile, 450 East 52nd Street, for her morning constitutional and every day fans would approach her and ask her the time. She always told them. Although predominantly lesbian, she had probable affairs with designer Cecil Beaton (who was himself predominantly homosexual) and actors John Gilbert, George Brent and conductor Leopold Stokowski. She continued her sex life in other ways, too. Garbo liked to masturbate frequently while looking at photos of her favourite film actors. For many years historians speculated over a possible affair with socialite Mercedes de Acosta who also claimed to have slept with Marlene Dietrich. On April 15, 2000, at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, 25 secret letters from Garbo to de Acosta were unsealed along with 88 other items including notes that accompanied flowers, photographs, telegrams, and poems. However, although the documents verified the two women’s 28-year friendship they neither confirmed nor refuted the existence of a sexual relationship between them. The Garbo enigma remained intact. Speaking in 1963 Clarence Brown said: “Today she is still the greatest. She is the prototype of all stars.”