The Women Who MADE HIM A LEGEND

IT TOOK A LOT OF WORK TO TURN A LUMBERJACK INTO A SILVER SCREEN IDOL

- Louise A. Barile

In his lifetime, Clark Gable would be crowned the King of Hollywood- but it's unlikely he would have achieved such heights without help. From his wives to his many co-stars, Clark was indebted to the women who paved the way and transformed him from an actor into a legend.

Born in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1901, William Clark Gable labored as a farmhand, a lumberjack and a telephone lineman as a young man. He grew up loving music and Shakespeare, but his yearning to be a stage actor ran up against his father's wishes. "His father thought it was sissy work," film historian Pierre Montiel tells Closer. "Once Clark broke away, he headed West."

In Oregon, he met Josephine Dillon, a theater manager who took him under her wing. "She taught him how to talk and how to carry himself," says Montiel. She also paid to have Clark's teeth straightened, showed him how to dress and convinced him to use his middle name professionally.