R.I.P. Judy Lewis: Clark Gable’s Secret Daughter

Judy Lewis, a psychotherapist and former actress, passed away, in Gladwyne, Pa., at age 76 from cancer. She was the daughter of Hollywood legends Loretta Young and Clark Gable, who kept her parentage a secret throughout their entire lives.

Lewis wrote a memoir in 1994 her life as the product of a short affair between co-stars in an era when an illegitimate child was a big scandal anywhere, even in Hollywood.

Loretta Young and Clark Gable were co-starring in “Call of the Wild” (1935). She was 22 and single. Gable was 34 years old and married to Ria Langham.  Loretta Young had her child and after a period of hiding her in a home run by nuns, she faked an adoption and brought the child up as her adopted daughter. Despite the fact that Judy’s paternity was far from a well-kept secret in Tinseltown, Loretta Young never publicly named Gable as the father.

When her memoir was released, Ms. Lewis told The L.A. Times in 1994 that she felt compelled to tell her story: “I don’t think anyone knows what it’s like not to be acknowledged by your own parents.”

She describes meeting Gable once at the age of 15 in her memoir and also speaks about her confronting her mother with her knowledge at age 31. Clark Gable passed away on November 16, 1960.  Loretta Young died on August 12, 2000.

During her stint as an actress, Ms. Lewis appeared in many popular television series of the 1960s, such as “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Perry Mason” and “77 Sunset Strip.” In the 1970s, she appeared in “The Streets of San Francisco,” “One Day at a Time,” and had a role on the daytime soap “General Hospital” as Barbara Vining.

In the 1980s, Lewis became a marriage and family therapist, working with foster children and pregnant teens.

Judy Lewis is survived by her daughter, Maria Tinney Dagit, two grandsons and three half-brothers, Peter Lewis, Christopher Lewis and John Clark Gable.