Thursday, August 30, 2007

Clark Gable Bi-Sexual?

I guess the moral is that if you were famous in life, you are open game in death. A new biography of Clark Gables is out and it seems to focus principally on Gable's sex life, which obviously must leave out much about the actor who to me defined the role of Rhett Butler. Here's a portion of a Yahoo News review:


The author tags virtually everyone who shows up here as straight, gay or bisexual, the majority falling into the latter two categories. Like previous accounts, this one alleges that early in his career Gable was "gay for pay" and for career advancement. He squired older women, some of them perhaps closet lesbians, and had close personal, possibly sexual relationships with a number of openly gay men. He was, as well, a serial seducer of women.

Bret's sourcing is unclear throughout; he qualifies most assertions about Gable's sexuality with phrases like "it could be" and "it was alleged." As for insight into the star's films and acting, look for it elsewhere. The author lavishes far more care on the details of Hollywood's sexual roundelays than on his flat summaries of Gable's films, including eight unnecessary pages on the plot of "Gone With the Wind."


Gable starred with leading ladies like Claudette Colbert, Vivian Leigh, Myrna Loy, and his third wife and co-star, Carole Lombard, who died tragically in a plane crash. He was married five times. Of course, as I can personally testify, being married does not make one straight. Gay, straight, or bi, he was a great actor, which should be all that matters.

No comments: