Carole Lombard was born on October 6, 1908 in Fort Wayne,
Indiana. On January 16, 1942 she passed away in Table Rock
Mountain, Nevada from an airplane crash.
Lombard was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt as the first woman killed in the line of
duty in WWII. Roosevelt greatly admired Lombard's work for the war
effort, and ironically Carole Lombard was returning from an
engagement selling War Bonds when her plane crashed.
Sometimes Carole Lombard was credited as Carol Lomard and
Jane Peters her birthname. Carole went by the nicknames The
Profane Angel and The Hoosier Tornado. In 1936 Jane Peters
legally changed her name to Carole Lombard. Only in her first
film, A PERFECT CRIME (1921) did she use her real name, Jane
Peters.
Carole was named the #23 Actress of the The American Film Institutes
50 Greatest Screen Legends.
While playing baseball in the street with the neighborhood
boys Carole Lombard was spotted by director Allan Dwan who
cast Carole as a tom-boy in A PERFECT CRIME, Carole was signed
to a one picture contract in 1921 when she was 12.
By the age of 23 Carole and William Powell age 39 were married
for 23 months but divorced in 1933. They stayed friends and
film partners, for example they co-starred in MY
MAN GODFREY.
In 1925, Lombard passed a screen test and was signed to
a contract with 20th Century Fox. Lombard's first role as a Fox
player was HEARTS AND SPURS where she had the lead. By now,
the film industry was moving from the silent era to talkies.
Carole made a very smooth transition. Her first film with
sound was HIGH VOLTAGE with Pathe (her new studio employer)
in 1929.
Playing opposite Clark Gable in NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932),
this was the first and only time they acted together. They
married seven years later in 1939.
In 1936, Carole received her only Oscar nomination for Best
Actress in MY
MAN GODFREY.
Lombard's last film was in 1942, when Carole played Maria
Tura in TO BE OR NOT TO BE. She did not live to see its release.
Carole Lombard's other notable credits include...
