Clark Gable had bad breath

[snopes]

Comment: I have a question about a rumor I have heard for years regarding
Clark Gable. I heard due to some circumstance (accident, bad dental
hygiene, etc) he had to wear dentures. During that time, dental hygiene
was not as advanced as it was today and a certain stench would come from a
lack of cleaning. The rumor I heard was that Clark Gable's mouth smelled
so bad that almost any leading lady who was "forced" to kiss him in the
script would actually either reject the idea and refuse, try to change the
script, or just kiss Clark Gable and be grossed out. I didn't see it
posted on the website and it is something that I have often wondered
about.

[Brad from Georgia]

The way I heard it, his teeth were real, but those were false ears.

[Morrigan]

Definately false teeth. But I haven't heard anything about bad breath...and his wives seemed to enjoy kissing him.

His false teeth weren't due to an "unfortunately accident," however. It was due to them being a mess to begin with, and at the urging of one of his girlfriends, he got them fixed.

Morrigan

[mcolakis]

According to Hollywood Babble-On (a book of gossipy quotes by stars about other stars), Vivien Leigh said, "Kissing Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind was not that exciting. His dentures smelled something awful."

[RealityChuck]

Leigh's reservations were also quoted in the book Flesh and Fantasy.

[musicgeek]

Add to the dentures the effects of the oh-so-sophisticated smoking that was de rigeur for Hollywood back then, and a case of halitosis isn't terribly far-fetched.

[erinker74]

Originally Posted by mcolakis

According to Hollywood Babble-On (a book of gossipy quotes by stars about other stars), Vivien Leigh said, "Kissing Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind was not that exciting. His dentures smelled something awful."

I also heard that his dentures had a tendency to wiggle when kissed hard, which made Leigh giggle. To remedy this, for the scene when Gable grabs her by the arms and kisses her very forcefully, Leigh began pounding on his chest to keep from giggling; that wasn't written in the original directions. Don't know how true it is but that is what we were told when we watched GWtW in film class.