How Clark Gable Changed His Voice For Hollywood Success

Publish date: 2024-05-04

As the New York Film Academy explains, the voice is influenced by the positioning and movement of the body, and benefits greatly from being "warmed up" as an athlete would warm up their muscles. Veteran actors, naturally, learn to manipulate these factors to their advantage, and Clark Gable spent his formative years in the industry rigorously working on his posture, breathing, and poise. Over time, he developed his famous tone and pitch of speech.

Hollywood didn't seem to think that Gable looked the part of a film star at first, either. Louis B. Mayer of MGM Studios (per OZY) once dismissed the actor's chances of ever being a star, deeming him "unattractive" and "elephant-eared." The studio also played a part in his transformation, arranging new, neater false teeth and encouraging him to work out to change his physique. Everything from his taste in cars to his clothing was changed to be more palatable to Hollywood's tastes of the time. Gable, however, was proud of his ears (which he apparently called his "flops," per OZY) and refused to have them pinned back.

Despite all of this, Gable insisted that the Hollywood star and the man were one and the same. "I'm no actor and I never have been. What people see on the screen is me," he once said, per Far Out Magazine.

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