Crossword Genius

Old film star's talk that's hard to follow without a book (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

gable

'old film star's' is the definition.
(Clark Gable, 1901-1960)

'talk that's hard to follow without a book' is the wordplay.
'talk that's hard to follow' becomes 'gabble' (gabble can mean unintelligible talk).
'without' is a deletion indicator.
'a book' becomes 'b' (abbreviation for book).
'gabble' with 'b' taken out is 'GABLE'.

(Other definitions for gable that I've seen before include "See 18" , "Part of house" , "Section of wall between roof slopes" , "Triangular upper part of a wall under a roof" , "Side of house or Clark, film star" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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