Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), based on the popular namesake novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, and starring Charles Laughton and Clark Gable as Bligh and Christian, respectively. The film's story was presented, says Dening, as "the classic conflict between tyranny and a just cause"; Laughton's portrayal became in the public mind the definitive Bligh, "a byword for sadistic tyranny". The two subsequent major films, "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1962) with Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando, and "The Bounty" (1984) with Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, largely perpetuated this image of Bligh and that of Christian as tragic hero. The latter film
Clark Gable Henry "Will" Gable (1870–1948), an oil-well driller, and his wife, Adeline (née Hershelman). His father was a Protestant and his mother a Roman Catholic. Gable was named William after his father, but even in childhood, he was almost always called Clark or sometimes Billy. He was mistakenly listed as a female on his birth certificate. Among Gable's ancestors were Pennsylvania Dutch (German), Belgians, Rhinelanders, and Bavarians. When Gable was six months old, he was baptized at a Roman Catholic church in Dennison, Ohio. His mother died when he was ten months old, possibly from a brain tumor, although the official