# Judy Lewis
**Judy Lewis** (November 6, 1935 – November 25, 2011) was an American actress, television writer and producer, and psychotherapist who was the biological daughter of the film stars [Loretta Young](https://www.edgepedia.org/loretta-young) and [Clark Gable](https://www.edgepedia.org/clark-gable), a parentage concealed by her mother for nearly six decades.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | November 6, 1935, in a house in Venice, California, where Young hid during the last weeks of the pregnancy[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/judy_lewis) |
| Parents | Loretta Young, then single and 22, and Clark Gable, then married and 34, co-stars of *The Call of the Wild* (1935)[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) |
| Public identity | Raised in Bel-Air as Young's "adopted" daughter; Young announced the adoption 19 months after the birth[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) • [4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) |
| Memoir | *Uncommon Knowledge* (1994), an account of her upbringing and her parentage[5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/news/judy-lewis-actress-secret-daughter-hollywood-stars) |
| Second career | Master's degree in clinical psychology from Antioch University, Los Angeles; marriage and family–child counseling license in the early 1990s[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/) |
| Death | November 25, 2011, of cancer, at Waverly Heights, Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, aged 76[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) |
## Parentage and concealment
Young and Gable conceived Lewis in 1935 while filming *The Call of the Wild*, the Yukon adventure based on the [Jack London](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-london) novel.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) • [4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) Gable was married to his second wife, and Young, a devout Roman Catholic, had a morals clause in her contract with 20th Century Fox, so she hid the pregnancy and birth.[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) • [6](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/judy-lewis) According to Young's biographer Joan Wester Anderson, Young spent part of the pregnancy in Europe wearing full skirts, gave out a story of an "unknown malady" for her last trimester, and staged a sickroom scene for the gossip columnist Dorothy Manners before giving birth at a house owned by her mother, attended only by a doctor sworn to secrecy.[7](https://abcnews.com/2020/story?id=124146&page=1)
The concealment continued after the birth. Lewis spent her first months in the Venice house, then was placed with a home run by nuns; Young retrieved her before she turned 2 and presented her to the public as an adopted daughter.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) • [4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) When Young married radio producer Thomas Lewis in 1940, the girl took his surname, though he never legally adopted her.[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) To disguise her resemblance to Gable, Young hid her ears under bonnets and had them surgically altered when she was 7.[8](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/trivia/)
Gable never publicly acknowledged that Lewis was his daughter. He saw the baby once shortly after her birth, and Lewis herself recounted a single meeting at 15, shortly after Young and Gable finished *Key to the City*: he appeared in her living room, they talked for about half an hour, and he kissed her on the forehead before leaving; she did not know at the time that he was her father.[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) • [9](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2001-06-06/segment/00)
## Learning the truth
By Lewis's own account on [Larry King Live](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-king-live) in 2001, she first heard that Gable was her father two weeks before her wedding, at 23, when her fiancé told her, "It's common knowledge, Judy."[9](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2001-06-06/segment/00) A 2011 ABC News report gives the age as 31, saying she learned it just before marriage during an identity crisis; the two accounts differ on when she first heard and when she fully grasped the truth.[10](https://abcnews.com/blogs/entertainment/2011/12/secret-children-of-hollywood-clark-gables-daughter-dies) After her fiancé's revelation she called the priest officiating rather than confront her mother; about ten years later she confronted Young, who confirmed the full story and asked her to keep it secret.[9](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2001-06-06/segment/00) The rumor nevertheless circulated widely in Hollywood; a childhood friend, producer Jack Haley Jr., said their whole high-school group knew who her parents were and assumed her mother would eventually tell her.[11](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-08-la-ca-judy-lewis-19940508-story.html)
Young never admitted the parentage publicly during her lifetime. The confirmation came in *Forever Young*, an authorized biography by Joan Wester Anderson published after Young's death in 2000, which stated that Lewis was Gable's daughter.[7](https://abcnews.com/2020/story?id=124146&page=1) • [4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html)
## Acting and television career
Lewis began acting in her teens. Her screen credits included the daytime dramas *The Secret Storm* and *General Hospital*, along with *The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet*, *Highway Patrol*, *77 Sunset Strip*, *The Outlaws*, *The FBI*, *The Streets of San Francisco*, *[Police Woman](https://www.edgepedia.org/police-woman-tv-series)*, and *One Day at a Time*, and the 1963 [Tab Hunter](https://www.edgepedia.org/tab-hunter) film *Operation Bikini*.[5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/news/judy-lewis-actress-secret-daughter-hollywood-stars) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/judy_lewis) She appeared on Broadway in Jean Kerr's *Mary, Mary*.[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/) Behind the camera she wrote for the daytime drama *Search for Tomorrow*, work for which IMDb records a Writers Guild award win, and produced the daytime soap *[Texas](https://www.edgepedia.org/texas-tv-series)* in 1980.[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/) • [5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/news/judy-lewis-actress-secret-daughter-hollywood-stars)
## Psychotherapy and the memoir
In the 1980s Lewis earned a bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in clinical psychology at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and received her marriage and family–child counseling license in the early 1990s.[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/) She worked as a family and child counselor, described in press accounts as a psychotherapist.[5](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/news/judy-lewis-actress-secret-daughter-hollywood-stars) • [1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html)
Her 1994 memoir *Uncommon Knowledge*, which became a best seller, recounted her upbringing, her meetings with Gable, and her search for identity in a family she described as rooted in denial and deception.[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) • [12](https://dearmrgable.com/?page_id=3605) "I had to write this book," she told the Los Angeles Times at publication. "I don't think anyone knows what it's like not to be acknowledged by your own parents."[1](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html) In May 2001 she was publicly introduced as Clark Gable's daughter for the first time, at a *Gone with the Wind* convention, and she discussed the story on Larry King Live that June.[8](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/trivia/) • [9](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2001-06-06/segment/00)
## Personal life and death
Lewis lived in [Palm Springs, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/palm-springs-california), and had one daughter, Maria Tinney Dagit, and two grandsons, Michael and Gregory.[13](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/judy-lewis-obituary?id=10003730) She died of cancer on November 25, 2011, at Waverly Heights, a retirement community in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, at the age of 76.[4](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html) A memorial Mass was held on December 3, 2011, at Saint John Vianney Church in Gladwyne.[13](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/judy-lewis-obituary?id=10003730)
## References
1. [Elaine Woo, "Judy Lewis, daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, dies at 76," The Washington Post, December 1, 2011](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judy-lewis-daughter-of-loretta-young-and-clark-gable-dies-at-76/2011/12/01/gIQAe85sHO_story.html)
2. [Judy Lewis, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/)
3. [Judy Lewis, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/judy_lewis)
4. [Sally A. Downey, "Judy Lewis, daughter of Loretta Young and Clark Gable, dies," The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 30, 2011](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/breaking/20111130_Judy_Lewis__daughter_of_Loretta_Young_and_Clark_Gable_dies.html)
5. ["Judy Lewis, Actress, Secret Daughter of Hollywood Stars," Television Academy, October 4, 2012](https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/news/news/judy-lewis-actress-secret-daughter-hollywood-stars)
6. [Patrick Walters (Associated Press), "Judy Lewis" obituary, Legacy.com](https://www.legacy.com/legacy/notable-deaths/judy-lewis)
7. ["Chat Transcript: Loretta Young Biographer Joan Wester Anderson," ABC News, November 27, 2000](https://abcnews.com/2020/story?id=124146&page=1)
8. [Judy Lewis, Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507395/trivia/)
9. ["Judy Lewis Tells Her Story," Larry King Live, CNN transcript, June 6, 2001](https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/lkl/date/2001-06-06/segment/00)
10. [Susan Donaldson James, "Secret Children of Hollywood: Clark Gable's Daughter Dies," ABC News, December 1, 2011](https://abcnews.com/blogs/entertainment/2011/12/secret-children-of-hollywood-clark-gables-daughter-dies)
11. [Bettijane Levine, "'I always felt half a person'," Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1994](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-08-la-ca-judy-lewis-19940508-story.html)
12. ["1994: Daughter of Deception," Dear Mr. Gable](https://dearmrgable.com/?page_id=3605)
13. ["Judy Lewis" obituary, Philadelphia Inquirer/Philadelphia Daily News via Legacy.com, November 30, 2011](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/judy-lewis-obituary?id=10003730)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames Le to L*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license