Clark Gable died on November 16, 1960, from a heart attack (acute myocardial infarction), after suffering an earlier heart attack and spending ten days in the hospital.

Quick Scoop: What Happened

  • Clark Gable was hospitalized in Los Angeles on November 6, 1960, after a serious heart attack.
  • His condition initially seemed to stabilize, and reports at the time described him as improving.
  • On the tenth day in the hospital, he suffered a second, fatal heart attack and died at age 59.

Medical Cause of Death

  • Contemporary medical reports and later clinical reviews describe his cause of death as an acute myocardial infarction (a severe heart attack).
  • No resuscitation was attempted, partly because CPR and modern coronary care techniques were still in their early stages in 1960.

Health And Lifestyle Background

  • Biographical and medical analyses note that Gable was a smoker, a drinker, intermittently overweight, and had high blood pressure, all of which increased his risk of heart disease.
  • Writers looking back on his case often describe his death as “predictable,” given this combination of risk factors and earlier suspected heart episodes.

Myths vs. Reality

  • Over the years, rumors and speculative pieces have suggested dramatic or mysterious circumstances, but primary sources from 1960 and later medical reviews consistently point to a straightforward cardiac cause.
  • Modern retrospectives and “uncovering the truth” articles mostly reiterate the same core facts: hospitalization for a heart attack, apparent improvement, then a sudden fatal cardiac event.

TL;DR: Clark Gable, the “King of Hollywood,” died in 1960 from a sudden, fatal heart attack in the hospital, following an earlier heart attack and long-standing heart risk factors.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.