For most actresses, working with Clark Gable was the biggest deal of their career. But for Marilyn Monroe, it was different. It was like her childhood fantasy finally hitting real life, and it left her, the biggest star in the world, “dreadfully nervous” and wide open emotionally.
Back in the summer of 1960, on a burning hot set in Nevada for a movie called ‘The Misfits‘, Monroe came face to face with the man she had secretly imagined as her rescuer. As a kid, Norma Jeane Baker moved between foster homes and the Los Angeles Orphans Home. To get through it, she would escape into a made-up story: Clark Gable, the King of Hollywood, was coming to save her. “She used to have these dreams that he would come to the orphanage. He was like a kind of father figure to her,” recalls Michael Arnold, grandson of famed photographer Eve Arnold, who documented the film’s tense production.
When Fantasy Met Reality on ‘The Misfits’ Set
According to people who were there, Monroe admitted that in her imaginary world, Gable showed up with coloring books for all the little girls, not just her. She would sit in dark movie theaters watching his films over and over, pretending the man on the screen was her dad, who wasn’t there.
Years later, when they finally starred together in John Huston’s movie ‘The Misfits‘, which was written by her husband Arthur Miller at the time, the fantasy ran into a messy reality. Monroe was struggling with addiction, and her marriage was falling apart. She was scared. “She was dreadfully nervous because she was actually acting alongside Clark Gable, who was her childhood hero,” Michael Arnold explained.
One could feel the tension. Gable was a professional and respected Monroe’s talent, but he was an old-school Hollywood man’s man. Monroe relied on sleeping pills and method acting coaches. She was often late and forgot her lines, but for her, this was deeper. She told her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, how fixated she was. Monroe dreamed about sitting on Gable’s lap, and imagined him spanking her and then hugging her and telling her she was “daddy’s little girl.”
The Tragic End of the Fantasy
In a 1960 interview with Marie Claire, Monroe put it all out there. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I say it, because in a Freudian sense it’s supposed to be very good… I used to think of him as my father,” she said. She clarified that she never pretended anyone was her mother, only Gable. “I’d pretend he was my father.”
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When ‘The Misfits‘ finished shooting, the fairy tale turned sad. Gable was worn out from the hard shoot and all the delays. He famously said, “She damn near gave me a heart attack.” A few days later, he had a heart attack and died at 59. Monroe cried for two days straight. She finally met her make-believe father, and then lost him because of the very struggles she carried.
A Bittersweet Hollywood Legend
A lot of people in Hollywood blamed Monroe for Gable’s death, but she held onto the feeling that he got her. In a Family Circle interview three months after he died in February 1961, she talked about how strange it all was. “I always thought some day… I’d be able to tell him,” she said. “I don’t know how he would have reacted if he had known how important he had been to me all those years. I think he would have understood. That was a wonderful thing about Clark. He understood me.”
‘The Misfits‘ ended up being the last movie for both of them. For Monroe, it was the place where the little girl from the orphanage finally met her King. It was a sad but sweet ending to a fantasy that turned out to be too delicate for the real world.
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