This classic Hollywood star died tragically young. Her costar ‘smelled’ it coming

Jean Harlow and Clark Gable were one of Hollywood’s most magnetic on-screen duos, starring together in classics like Red Dust and Hold Your Man. Off-screen, they shared a close friendship, one that made Gable uniquely attuned to her well-being. Perhaps for this reason, during the filming of Harlow’s last film, Saratoga, in 1937, Gable noticed something deeply troubling about the actress.

Gable later said, when he bent to kiss her, he caught an unmistakable odor on her breath, the sharp, sour scent of ammonia or urine. It startled him, but he didn’t understand what it meant. That smell, later recognized by doctors as uremic fetor, was a signal that Harlow’s kidneys were failing. In her final days, she became weak, swollen, and delirious before slipping into a coma.

The haunting detail of Gable “smelling” Harlow’s illness has become one of Hollywood’s most poignant stories: a real-life warning sign missed in an era when medicine couldn’t yet save her.

Harlow’s sudden decline

Harlow’s death on June 7, 1937, stunned the world. At only 26, she was one of MGM’s brightest stars, beloved for her wit, beauty, and charm. The official cause was listed as acute nephritis, or kidney failure. But the underlying damage had likely begun years earlier.

Biographers generally believe a childhood case of scarlet fever weakened her kidneys. Decades later, during the filming of Saratoga, that hidden injury flared into full renal failure. Without dialysis or transplants — treatments not yet available in the 1930s — her condition was hopeless once it advanced.

By the time doctors intervened, her kidneys could no longer filter toxins from her blood. Those toxins built up, poisoning her body and seeping out through her lungs and saliva, the reason Gable could “smell” her illness.

The science behind the smell

Uremic fetor, the medical term for the odor Gable described, occurs when the kidneys fail to remove urea and other waste from the bloodstream. In the mouth, bacteria convert urea into ammonia, creating a distinctive urine-like smell on the breath. It’s one of the telltale signs of advanced kidney disease. Other symptoms of uremia include nausea, swelling, confusion, and fatigue. In Harlow’s case, witnesses reported she appeared bloated, exhausted, and increasingly disoriented in her final days.

Harlow’s passing marked the end of an era. MGM halted production on Saratoga, but later completed it using body doubles and existing footage. Gable was reportedly devastated, calling her one of the kindest, most genuine people he’d ever known. “She didn’t have a mean bone in her body,” he said afterward. “Everyone loved her.”