Clark Gable: Tormented Star

Clark Gable was the archetypal Hollywood gentleman, the kind of man red-blooded women lusted after, and who their envious husbands yearned to be. Yet as David Bret reveals, Gable was also bisexual, a facet of his complex persona that was airbrushed out in an age when such men were invariably mocked as effete and lily-livered. Bret recounts Gable's two failed marriages to women who turned a blind eye towards his affairs with men, such as the actors Earl Larimore, Johnny Mack Brown, William Haines, and Rod LaRocque — men whom Gable outed to the press to prevent himself from being outed. Bret also reveals exclusively that Gable's wartime "heroics," which saw him promoted through the ranks from private to major in less than a year, were no more than an elaborate publicity stunt, which subsequently embarrassed the U.S. government. Bret draws on a wealth of unpublished material to examine every aspect of Clark Gable's career and personal life, telling his story as it has never been told before — wholly uncensored, with accuracy and passion.

David Bret's first biography, The Piaf Legend, was published in 1988 to great critical acclaim. Biographies of the French star Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier followed, and Marlene Dietrich, one of his closest friends, was the subject of his fourth book, fully authorized by Marlene and published shortly after her death. Since then he has written successful biographies of Morrissey, Gracie Fields, Freddie Mercury, Tallulah Bankhead, and Maria Callas.