Clark Gable: Portrait of a Misfit

In her 10th book about cinema celebrities, Wayne ( Marilyn's Men ) makes judgmental and often unverified statements apparently intended to refute Joan Crawford and other interviewees who praise the actor's professionalism and remember him with devotion. Dubbed ``King of Hollywood'' 23 years before his death in 1960 at age 59, Gable, who was raised in a small town in Ohio, landed in the movie capital during the 1920s. A big, rough, unhandsome youth who seemed an unlikely prospect for stardom, he had a magnetism that soon made him an unrivalled favorite of both male and female film fans. Whether performing in It Happened One Night , Mutiny on the Bounty , Gone with the Wind or less epic fare, the star drew SRO crowds. To the author, however, Gable was a drunken lecher whose recklessness cost the lives of Americans who served with him in the Air Force during WW II after his wife, Carole Lombard, was killed in a plane crash. This accusation is as unsupported as most of the gossip served up in this biography-by-indictment, which gives small credit to the hardworking actor mourned by many when his life ended almost simultaneously with the completion of The Misfits. (June)