American actress, writer, producer, and therapist (1935?2011)
Judy Lewis
(born
Judith Young
; November 6, 1935 ? November 25, 2011) was an American actress, writer, producer, and therapist. She was the secret biological daughter of actors
Loretta Young
and
Clark Gable
.
Early life
[
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]
Lewis was born on November 6, 1935, in Venice, California.
[1]
She was conceived while her birth parents, Loretta Young and Clark Gable,
[1]
[2]
were working on the film
Call of the Wild
. Gable was married at the time of Lewis's conception, and Young concealed her pregnancy to avoid scandal.
[3]
Weeks after her birth, Lewis was placed in an orphanage.
[3]
Lewis would spend the next 19 months in various "hideaways and orphanages" before being reunited with her mother.
[3]
Young then claimed that she had adopted Lewis.
[4]
When Lewis was four years old, Young married radio producer Tom Lewis, and Judy took his last name. Young and Lewis went on to have two sons,
Christopher Lewis
and
Peter Lewis
.
[3]
Lewis bore a striking resemblance to Gable, including having ears that stuck out.
[3]
When Lewis was seven years old, Young had her undergo a painful operation to pin her ears back in another attempt to hide her real parentage.
[3]
In 1950, when Lewis was fifteen, her mother made another film with Gable,
Key to the City
. During this time, Gable came to her mother's house to visit her briefly. Gable asked Lewis about her life and then, upon leaving, kissed her on her forehead. It was the only time that Lewis ever spoke to Gable, and at the time, she had no idea that he was her father.
[5]
As an adult, Lewis spoke of the confusion, isolation and alienation she felt within her own family while growing up.
[3]
Career
[
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Lewis' acting credits include appearances on TV
serials
such as
General Hospital
,
Kitty Foyle
,
The Brighter Day
and
The Doctors
. Ms. Lewis had her longest running serial role on
The Secret Storm
as Susan Ames from 1964 to 1971. She also produced the short-lived
Another World
spin-off,
Texas
and was a script writer for
NBC Daytime
's
Search for Tomorrow
.
In 1958, Lewis guest-starred in "Attack", an episode of the
syndicated
western
series
Mackenzie's Raiders
.
She guest-starred with
Grant Sullivan
in his syndicated western series,
Pony Express
. In 1960, Lewis portrayed a girlfriend of a
United States Navy
officer in the episode "Tiger Blood" of the syndicated series
The Blue Angels
. In the 1961?1962 television season, she appeared as Connie Masters, an employee of the
Wells Fargo
office in
Stillwater, Oklahoma
, in the
NBC
western series,
Outlaws
. In 1975, she guest-starred in the short-lived
CBS
family drama
Three for the Road
.
In 1985, Lewis shared a
Writers Guild of America
award for several episodes of CBS's
Search For Tomorrow
.
Lewis obtained bachelor's and master's degrees in
clinical psychology
from
Antioch University
in Los Angeles, became a licensed family and child counselor in 1992, and was a practicing
psychotherapist
with a specialty in foster care and marriage therapy.
[3]
Personal life and death
[
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]
Lewis was the niece of actresses
Polly Ann Young
,
Sally Blane
, and
Georgiana Young
. She was also the paternal half-sister of John Clark Gable (Clark Gable's son with his fifth wife, Kay Williams) and the maternal half-sister of
Christopher Lewis
and
Peter Lewis
(Loretta's biological sons). Musician
David Lindley
was her maternal cousin.
[6]
Lewis married Joseph Tinney in 1958, having one child together, daughter Maria. They divorced in 1972.
[1]
After Lewis became engaged to Tinney at age twenty-three, he told her it was common knowledge that Gable was her biological father; Lewis was stunned.
[3]
After Gable's death, Lewis, at age 31, finally confronted her mother about the mystery behind her parentage.
[3]
Her mother said "YES you are my sin." Young became nauseated, but acknowledged that she and Gable were Lewis's biological parents.
[3]
In 1994, Lewis published a book about her life entitled
Uncommon Knowledge
in which she stated that Gable was her father; Young refused to speak with her for three years after the book was published. Loretta Young died on August 12, 2000, at age 87; her autobiography, published posthumously, confirmed that Gable was indeed Lewis's father.
[3]
Lewis died of
cancer
at age 76 on November 25, 2011, in
Gladwyne, Pennsylvania
[1]
and is interred at
Mount Vernon Cemetery
in Philadelphia.
[7]
In 2015, Linda Lewis, the wife of Loretta Young's son Christopher, stated publicly that Young had realized at age 85 that Judy had been conceived in an act of
date rape
:
[8]
"Young loved to watch Larry King Live, which is most likely what prompted her to first ask her friend, frequent houseguest, and would-be biographer, Edward Funk, and then her daughter-in-law, Linda Lewis, to explain the term “date rape.” As Lewis recalled from her Jensen Beach, Florida, home this April, sitting next to her husband, Chris ? Young's second born ? and flanked by Young's Oscar and Golden Globe, it took tact to explain, in language that an 85-year-old could understand, what “date rape” meant. “I did the best I could to make her understand,” Lewis said. “You have to remember, this was a very proper lady.”
"When Lewis was finished describing the act, Young's response was a revelation: 'That's what happened between me and Clark.' "
Young had never before understood the particulars of that 1935 incident. She had not discussed this information before 1998. Young wished to keep the pregnancy secret from Twentieth Century Pictures, knowing they would try to pressure her to have an
abortion
; a devout Catholic, Young considered
adultery
and abortion to be
mortal sins
.
[8]
According to Linda Lewis, Young added that no consensual intimate contact had occurred between Gable and herself. Young had never previously disclosed the rape to anyone. Before learning of the concept of
date rape
, Young had believed it was a woman's job to fend off men's amorous advances and had perceived her inability to thwart Gable's attack as a moral failing on her part.
[9]
The family remained silent about the claim until Young (died 2000) and Lewis (died 2011) were both deceased.
[8]
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Downey, Sally A. (November 30, 2011).
"Judy Lewis, daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, dies"
.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
. Retrieved
November 30,
2011
.
- ^
Walters, Patrick (December 1, 2011).
"Secret daughter of Clark Gable, Loretta Young dies"
.
The News Journal
.
Associated Press
. Retrieved
December 1,
2011
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
Vitello, Paul
(November 30, 2011).
"Judy Lewis, Secret Daughter of Hollywood, Dies at 76"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
November 9,
2019
.
- ^
"Clark Gable's 'Secret' Daughter Judy Dies"
.
Sky News
. December 2, 2011
. Retrieved
November 9,
2019
.
- ^
Rosen, Marjorie (April 18, 1994).
"Daughter of Deception"
.
People
. Retrieved
November 9,
2019
.
- ^
David Lindley's father, Jack Lindley, was Loretta Young's brother. See
Interview with Peter Lewis
Archived
2008-09-06 at the
Wayback Machine
by Jud Cost, 1995; www.sundazed.com.
- ^
Webster, J.P. (2014).
Vanishing Philadelphia: Ruins of the Quaker City
. Charleston, SC: The History Press. p. 145.
ISBN
978-1-62585-134-5
. Retrieved
October 10,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
Petersen, Anne Helen (July 12, 2015).
"Clark Gable Accused of Raping Co-Star"
.
BuzzFeed
. Retrieved
July 12,
2019
.
- ^
Petersen, Anne Helen (July 12, 2015).
"Clark Gable Accused of Raping Co-Star"
.
BuzzFeed
. Retrieved
November 10,
2019
.
Further reading
[
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]
- Uncommon Knowledge
by Judy Lewis (Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, 1994),
ISBN
0-671-70019-7
- All the Stars in the Heavens
by Adriana Trigiani (The Glory of Everything Company, an imprint of Harper/Collins, 2015),
ISBN
978-0-06-231919-7
External links
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]