Clark Gable was married five times:

• Kay Spreckles - July 11, 1955 to 1960 (his death) 1 child
• Sylvia Ashley - December 20, 1949 to 21 April 1952 (divorced)
• Carole Lombard - March 29,1939 to January 16,1942 (her death)
• Maria "Ria" Franklin Printiss Lucas Langham Gable to July 19, 1931 - March 4, 1939 (divorced)
• Josephine Dillon - December 13, 1924 to April 1, 1930 (divorced)

It's generally thought that Gable married his first two wifes, Josephine Dillon and Ria Franklin because of how they could help his career. Both women were older then him (each 15 years older), wealth and influential in the business. Josephine had been his acting coach and he was married to her when he moved to Hollywood to begin his film career. Ria was married to him during most of his early film career even though they had been separated for years before they were divorced, Gable hesitated getting a divorce since he knew that it would be extremely costly.

When he fell for Lombard, he and she finally decided that it was time to get a formal divorce from Ria. Gable and Lombard were Hollywood's ideal couple and really seemed to be in love and very happy. Most of the success of the marriage was because of Lombard who did everything in her power to be the ideal mate for Gable. They had been seriously been trying to have a child when events of the world made that almost impossible.

At the beginning of World War II Lombard and Gable, being very patriotic and wanting to do something for the cause, volunteered to go out and sell war bonds. Lombard went on a trip by herself while Gable finished a film with Lana Turner. She decided that she wanted to get back to Gable sooner then expected and she and her mother flew home on a plane that crashed thirty miles southwest of Las Vegas into Table Rock Mountain on January 16, 1942. All perished.

Gable was devastated and stayed single for several years until 1949 when he married Lady Sylvia Ashley, the widow of Douglas Fairbanks. They remained married for a few years, but the marriage didn't work out and were divorced in 1952.

In July 1955 he married a former sweetheart, Kathleen Williams Spreckles and became stepfather to her two children, Joan and Bunker, and in 1959 Kay discovered that she was expecting their first child. Several months prior to this Clark became a grandfather, when his daughter with Loretta Young gave birth in November 1959. In early November 1960, he had just completed filming The Misfits, when he suffered a heart attack, and died later that month.