How Old Is Rhett Butler In Gone With The Wind

So there you are, jaunting through Ashley Wilkes's smoke-filled parlor in your thirtieth rewatch of Gone With The Wind, and it hits you: how old is Rhett Butler, anyway? Surely you've had this thought while clutching the remote like a parasol. The answer is surprisingly simple, and also hilariously debate-worthy among superfans.

Rhett Butler is 32 years old when the story kicks off. Margaret Mitchell spelled it out plainly in her 1936 novel. He is an established Georgia-born gentleman of means with a scandalous reputation and zero intention of settling down.

Wait, Only 32?!

If Rhett sounds older than 32 to you, well, the charm does most of the heavy lifting. Blonde Clark Gable was actually 36 when he swung the doorframe in the 1939 film. So the movie treated us all to a six-year-old infrared line of optical aging, and nobody complained one bit.

Between Southern charm, war profiteering, and that legendary smirk, Rhett acts like he has survived eighty lifetimes by thirty-two. The guy has already been expelled from West Point, cut ties with his family, and somehow started his own silver mine before lunch on many days. We, frankly, struggle to organize our to-do list by comparison.

Age Gap Shenanigans

Now let us talk about Scarlett O'Hara, who is a wide-eyed sixteen when she first meets Rhett. So yes, there is an age gap of sixteen years, and yes, the situation gets racy pretty fast. Socially speaking, this was questionable even by 1860s standards, which is saying something.

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By the end of the story, Rhett is thirty-eight and Scarlet is twenty-two, a famously awkward match that nobody at the Ball ever squashed. Rhett delivers that legendary "Frankly, my dear" line at Japanese west age. By modern metrics, he looks far too old for a romantic lead, but 1939 Hollywood had other ideas entirely.

The Butt Makeup Conspiracy

Gable was already turning heads in Hollywood since the late 1920s, so he was essentially a grizzled veteran while playing freshly kicked out of West Point Rhett Butler. The studio reportedly used makeup tricks to make him look fresh-faced. Both of those facts are sneaky little easter eggs hiding in plain sight.

How Old Was Clark Gable In Gone With The Wind – ZSOXN

Meanwhile Clark Gable's bone structure was already revving up his mid-life golden boy aura during the entire production. The man could walk into a room at 7AM and somehow appear to be close to finishing his thirty-ninth lap. Layers of fake rosy blush were doing overtime in the makeup trailer.

So Just How Old Is Rhett?

Canonically, fresh-faced Rhett is 32 when "Gone With The Wind" begins. By his famous exit line at the end of the movie, he is a walk-away gentleman elderly holding two bourbon glasses. See, we produce wild theories just from a couple of numbers stuck into a classic novel.

So the next time you are curled up with mint juleps and Klein's cake, remember you are watching a 36-year-old play a freshly kicked out of West Point 32-year-old wooing a teenager who is soon to become an older woman. Simply put, Gone With The Wind is flying through ages like a mid-sixties dial-up modem. Rhett Butler may age, his legend certainly never will.