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50 free Clark Gable trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Clark Gable was called the King of Hollywood for three decades, and this quiz covers the whole reign: the oil-driller's son from Cadiz, Ohio, the acting coach who fixed his teeth and married him, the Oscar for It Happened One Night, Rhett Butler, the marriage to Carole Lombard and its tragic end, the B-17 combat missions over Europe, and the last picture with Marilyn Monroe. Easy questions ask which film won him his Academy Award and who he played in Gone with the Wind; harder ones dig into the studio boss who said his ears were too big, the secret daughter with Loretta Young, the future president who signed his discharge papers and the reward Hitler put on his head. It is built for classic-film fans, TCM regulars and any movie quiz night that wants a golden-age round with real teeth. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on Gable, his films and the people around him, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What nickname was Clark Gable widely known by?
The King of Hollywood
He appeared in more than 60 films across 37 years, and the AFI ranked him the seventh-greatest male screen legend in 1999.
Q 02For which film did Gable win his only Academy Award for Best Actor?
It Happened One Night
MGM had loaned him to lowly Columbia as a punishment; he came back a bigger star than ever with an Oscar in hand.
Q 03In which Ohio town was Clark Gable born in 1901?
Cadiz
His father Will was an oil-well driller, and his mother died when he was ten months old.
Q 04What was Gable's real first name?
William
He was named for his father but always called Clark, and his father simply called him "the kid".
Q 05Which company did the teenage Gable leave the family farm to work for in Akron?
Firestone Tire and Rubber
He later toured with tent shows, worked in lumber mills and sold neckties at a Portland department store before acting took hold.
Q 06Gable's acting coach Josephine Dillon paid to fix his teeth and became what to him in 1924?
His first wife
She was 17 years older than him and also served as his manager; they divorced in 1930.
Q 07How many times did Clark Gable marry?
Five
Josephine Dillon, Ria Langham, Carole Lombard, Sylvia Ashley and Kay Spreckels; his only son was born four months after his death.
Q 08Which studio executive said of Gable, "His ears are too big and he looks like an ape"?
Darryl F. Zanuck
The failed screen test was for Little Caesar; MGM's Irving Thalberg signed him weeks later for $650 a week.
Q 09Which jungle-hero role did Gable lose to Johnny Weissmuller in 1932?
Tarzan
The Olympic swimmer's physique and swimming prowess won out; Gable went off to make Strange Interlude with Norma Shearer instead.
Q 10Which actress made eight films with Gable, more than any other co-star?
Joan Crawford
Their off-screen romance was called "the affair that nearly burned Hollywood down"; Myrna Loy made seven films with him and Harlow six.
Q 11Which Gable-Harlow film, set on an Indochina rubber plantation, made him MGM's top romantic lead?
Red Dust
Twenty-one years later he played the same role again in Mogambo, John Ford's African remake with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.
Q 12Which Gable-Harlow film was finished with doubles and long shots after Harlow died during production?
Saratoga
Gable said he felt as if he were "in the arms of a ghost"; the film became their biggest hit together.
Q 13The first film to win the "Big Five" Oscars paired Gable with which leading lady?
Claudette Colbert
Neither star was first choice, and both were unhappy with the script when filming began.
Q 21What did Gable reportedly threaten on finding segregated toilet signs on the Gone with the Wind set?
To walk off unless they came down
He also tried to boycott the Atlanta premiere because Hattie McDaniel could not attend, going only after she pleaded with him.
Q 22Which co-star coaxed Gable into crying on camera for Rhett Butler's scene after Scarlett's miscarriage?
Olivia de Havilland
Director Victor Fleming had tried everything; she told him "You can do it" and the tears came just before the cameras rolled.
Q 23Which song-and-dance number did Gable perform in Idiot's Delight (1939)?
Puttin' on the Ritz
Q 14What did Gable's reporter call the blanket hung between the beds in Capra's 1934 comedy?
The walls of Jericho
The film's carrot-munching, fast-talking Gable is thought to have inspired aspects of Bugs Bunny six years later.
Q 15An urban legend says a 1934 scene of Gable undressing hurt sales of which garment?
Men's undershirts
Gable undressed on camera without one; the story is unproven but has followed the film for ninety years.
Q 16Which mutineer did Gable play in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)?
Fletcher Christian
He said "I stink in it" after filming, but the picture won Best Picture and he was one of three Best Actor nominees from the cast.
Q 17Through the 2026 Oscars, what distinction did Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) hold?
Last Best Picture winner to win nothing else
Through the 2026 ceremony it was the last Best Picture winner to win nothing else; Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone all lost Best Actor to Victor McLaglen for The Informer.
Q 18Which actor's Oscar-nominated turn as a boxing priest opposite Gable in San Francisco (1936) launched a partnership?
Spencer Tracy
They made Test Pilot and Boom Town too, then both stars' contracts demanded top billing and the team was over.
Q 19Which actor was David O. Selznick's first choice to play Rhett Butler?
Gary Cooper
Cooper predicted the film would be the biggest flop in history and said he was glad Gable would fall on his nose, not him.
Q 20How much was Gable paid in total for Gone with the Wind?
$117,917
It was enough to fund the divorce settlement with Ria Langham that freed him to marry Carole Lombard during a production break.
He played a nightclub singer who fails to recognise his old flame, played by Norma Shearer, as war closes in on a hotel.
Q 24Where did Gable marry Carole Lombard in March 1939?
Kingman, Arizona
They honeymooned in room 1201 of the Arizona Biltmore and bought Raoul Walsh's ranch in Encino for $50,000.
Q 25What pet names did Gable and Lombard call each other?
Ma and Pa
They kept a menagerie of animals on the ranch and raised chickens and horses.
Q 26Carole Lombard died in January 1942 returning from what kind of trip?
A war bond selling tour
TWA Flight 3 crashed into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas, and she was declared the first American woman killed in the line of war duty.
Q 27What was Lombard's final film, completed just before her death?
To Be or Not to Be
The Ernst Lubitsch comedy was her 57th movie; a Liberty ship named SS Carole Lombard was launched in 1944 with Gable attending.
Q 28What was Carole Lombard's birth name?
Jane Alice Peters
She was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and raised in Los Angeles by her single mother.
Q 29Which branch did Gable join in August 1942 after Lombard's death?
The Army Air Forces
General Hap Arnold gave him a special assignment: make a recruiting film for aerial gunners with the Eighth Air Force in England.
Q 30How many combat missions did Gable fly as an observer-gunner in B-17s in 1943?
Five
Flak went through his boot on the Germany raid; comrades said he unofficially flew more, and MGM begged the Air Force to ground him.