BK_Daniel says on 22/Jun/08
I think everyone agrees that he's a big dude, atleast 185 cms. In his prime he was probably close to 6'2".

rob roy says on 20/Jun/08
i love watching old movies. but i dont like "gone with the wind" starred by clark gable. i think to me the movie is somewhat boring. can't believe my eyes when i saw the heroin ( i forgot her name ) walking in her all-white dress in a war torn place and not a single dirt is seen. nah. i cant believe such thing. as if she had just been in abc's "dancing with stars". i never finish watching it.

Jackie says on 20/Sep/07
^Clark Gable by no means was a short man, but still he was no stranger to wearing lifts or high heeled boots or shoes. See this picture with Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow: Click Here
And also in Gone With The Wind he wore quite high heeled boots: Click Here Click Here
He did have a magnificent chest, though.

John Lucas says on 18/Sep/07
I met Clark Gable with my father in 1952 when I was thirteen years old. Mr. Gable, an astonishingly handsome middle-aged man at that time, was perhaps two inches taller than my father who was 5'11' in height. I was about 5'3'' at the time and Mr. Gable was surely nearly a foot taller than I, if memory serves me well. He was also quite large, with a big chest.
By the way, he did not stand on a box to kiss Vivien Leigh; it was the other way around. And Rhett's boots did not have lifts; those were pretty standard heels for dress or cowboy boots.

patrick says on 26/Feb/07
I read the same story about Lee Marvin meeting Gable and trying out his jacket; Sure, Lee was purposely exagerating because he was precisely treating the "what is a star" topic; I remember he added something about a young female extra who supposedly fainted in seeing "the King"; so, this one ran and tried to reanimate her; while he was succeeding, she awoke and what did she see then? Clark Gable and she fainted again! It was a magic time when living people were more than "people";It is not that different today except concerning the "general taste"; People now want cute and teenage men (and girls)NOT MATURE at all! That is why Jhonny Depp, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell are the current stars; They would have then been relegated to secondary roles; Imagine them alongside Clark, Wayne, Mitchum etc.
When actors are tough now, they are either on TV and do not get the "first place" (Dennis Farina in "law & order") or play the vilains in movies (David Morse or so); At last, real tough guys are often somewhere crazy (for me !) as are Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke; The other are "gentle"!
At the time Clark Gable was a (deserved) star, nice guys like Spencer Tracy or James Stewart were able to credibly embody very tough and savage men; Clooney playing that or worse, J. Depp...to funny ! I think actors at the time,were not inspiring themselves with what was not considered as "an art"; The di their job and that was all; Now, all of these people are "so called" intellectuals who went to university and are sooo admiring not Gable or Wayne BUT ONLY Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro; Who currently, ever mentions Spencer Tracy among them? My best advice: READ THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY RAOUL WALSH WROTE IN THE 70ies OR SO. You will see what was a man at the time and why the 40ies films are what they are! Gable today would not even have been able to play an extra !

Brad says on 27/Aug/06
Read Burt Reynolds' account of meeting him when he first went to Hollywood.

Anonymous says on 29/Jul/06
I read a Lee Marvin bio. in which there's a mention of Marvin as a young actor trying on a jacket that Gable wore in a movie. Supposedly the arms of the jacket came down to Marvin's knees. Gable was shorter than Marvin but he was very well built and broad shouldered. Marvin was self deprecating and I think he told the interviewer the story so as to say 'Clark Gable was a star. I'm just an ordinary mortal'. I don't know whether the story is true or not to be honest.

Frank2 says on 21/Jun/06
MGM publicity always stated that Gable was that height. I have no doubt he was about 6' when he was young. But I've seen him with other actors who I know are over 6' and Gable was usually shorter. He wasn't that much taller than 5'8" Spencer Tracy in San Francisco. Tracy must have worn the best lifts in the biz 'cause in that film I can't spot them. The two men are standing next to each other in long shots where you can see their feet. But then when Tracy co-starred with Gable in Boom Town he was a lot shorter. In that film Gable tells him he's wearing "Justin boots with four-inch heels."

jess says on 19/Jun/06
wow i thought he was alot taller. he always seemed to be on screen i thought he would be listed as 6'3" or 6'4". wonderful actor in any case

Frank2 says on 23/Apr/06
Well, looking at the photo, Gable is just as tall as Montgomery. Bob is standing erect and Gable is slouching a bit. Montgomery was about 5'11.5". So had Gable stood up straight he'd have been about the same height or slightly taller. Lionel is purposely trying to look short. Had he stood up straight he'd have appeared about 5'7" or three and a half inches shorter than Montgomery. Paul Muni was 5'8" and is obviously wearing lifts in his shoes. Gable is dressed in the torn outfit he wore after the earthquake sequence in San Francisco. I believe Montgomery is wearing his outfit for Trouble for Two. Lionel is wearing the costume for "Devil Doll" a film in which he appeared as a man who seeks revenge on those he believes wronged him in the past. He hides out wearing women's cloths while he gets his revenge using hypnotized living dolls he's created who kill using poisonous needles. I kid you not! Paul Muni is dressed in costume for his role in The Good Earth. All were being made at the same time at MGM. Circa 1936.

larry says on 21/Mar/06
Thanks Frank2!

Frank2 says on 20/Mar/06
Unfortunately, I never met Gable or even saw him. Ditto that with Robert Ryan who was at least 6'3". Great actor!! I did meet and talk with Cam Mitchell. He was at least two inches shorter than me so I'd say he was around 5'9". In The Tall Men he was shorter by at least two inches than Gable. One famous actor I did see in the flesh was Bogart. I was only about 9 at the time. I was with my dad eating lunch at the famed Brown Derby in Beverly Hills and Bogie was seated across from us in another booth with a group of people. He looked terrible. Very Frail and sickly. At the time I had no idea who he was until my father told me. On the way out we stopped and said hello. He died not long after from cancer.

larry says on 19/Mar/06
I recall Gable looking a good bit shorter than Robert Ryan in THE TALL MEN, but there were few scenes where they showed them together. Frank2: Did you ever see Robert Ryan or Cameron Mitchell?

S says on 17/Mar/06
He looked very tall in 'The Misfits' with Marilyn Monroe (5'5 1/2"), even when she was wearing heels.

Frank2 says on 10/Mar/06
One thing is for certain and that's Gable wore lifts in Gone With the Wind. I know since I found those very shoes at the MGM prop and wardrobe auction. They had two-inch Cuban heels. Take a look at publicity stills and you'll notice them. I think Gable was closer to 5'11 1/2" or maybe a solid 6' when he was young. By the time he made The Tall Men at Fox he had shrunk to about 5'10 1/2". I knew the film editor who worked on the film as well as a fellow who worked in Fox Publicity. They both confirmed this. The man who was a publicist said that when he first met Gable he was surprised he wasn't this big 6'2" guy, but was instead only slightly taller than he was and this fellow I knew was about 5'10".

sam says on 15/Dec/05
Leigh was the one standing on a box to be in the same frame as Gable, not the other way around (I've seen a picture of that myself).

fiveten says on 7/Jun/05
i'm in film...and one of my teachers showed us a picture of clark gable standing on an apple box to achieve the towering presence he had over leigh....theres no way he was 6'1... she was only 5'3 anyways.