...that she stands out like a beacon on a lightship in this odd place called Hollywood."
-Barbara Stanwyck on Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Born October 6, 1908
Died January 16, 1942
Jane Alice Peters was born not long after the turn of the century, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to parents Frederick and Elizabeth Peters. She was the youngest of their three children as well as the only daughter, having two older brothers named Frederick Jr. and Stuart. She lived in Indiana until she was ready to enter junior high. It was around that time that her parents divorced. Her father had ill health due to a previous work accident and he became temperamental and difficult to live with. So, Elizabeth Peters took her children and moved to Los Angeles, California. After moving to the land of the stars, she began to take an interest in acting. One day in 1920, she was playing baseball outside and when she was noticed by director Allan Dwan. He gave her her first taste of acting, casting her as a tomboy in the 1921 film, A Perfect Crime. She dropped out of high school to try and develop a career, but eventually went back and worked to achieve her diploma.
When she first started acting, she appeared in credits as Jane Peters. It was not until later on that she began to appear as Carole Lombard. She got more film roles with the help of friend and fellow actress Miriam Cooper and the door of opportunity opened to her when talkies were brought into production and she was one of the actresses who was capable of making a successful transition. In 1930, Paramount Pictures offered Lombard a contract, and it was with that studio that her career would begin to blossom. She was hand selected by Howard Hawks to appear in Twentieth Century (1934), which gave her the chance to work with the legendary John Barrymore. As she began to take on more and more roles, Lombard began to establish herself and display her comedic talents. She was dubbed the Queen of Screwball Comedies. In fact, most of her roles were in comedies. She tried to make a switch in 1939 to more dramatic roles like Made for Each Other (1939), In Name Only (1939) and Vigil In The Night (1940). She quickly discovered that audiences did not want to see her in more serious roles--they found her endearing and wanted her to make them laugh. Fortunately for her career, Lombard took the hint and switched tracks. She went on to star in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) and To Be or Not To Be (1942). The latter would be her last on screen appearance.
Just as her career was beginning in the 1930s, Lombard met and worked with actor William Powell. She liked him because she found his sophisticated air lined with acerbic wit to be refreshing. The two of them quickly formed a friendship and then took a leap into marriage in 1931. Their marriage proved difficult and as time went on they both felt that they were ill-suited as companions. They amicably divorced in 1933, but remained very good friends and even worked together until Lombard's death.
Three years later, in 1936, Lombard became involved with Clark Gable. Things were difficult at first because Gable was stuck in his failed marriage to Ria Langham, and there was quite a stir when Gable divorced Langham to marry Lombard. However, he maintained his entire life, as did mutual friends of the couple, that Lombard was the true love of his life, and she said the same of him. The two were incredibly happy together and spent their days living on a ranch that they had purchased together where they raised animals.
In 1942, WWII was going on and many actors and actresses did their part by advertising and selling war bonds. Lombard was very active in war bond sales, and when the opportunity arose for her to travel to her home state of Indiana, she took it. She went to Indiana with her mother and broke records, raising over two million dollars in war bonds in just one night. After she finished, she and her mother had planned to return home via train, but she was anxious to reach home and be with her husband sooner. She wanted to book a flight, but a few of her party, including her mother, were wary of flying. In the end she suggested they flip a coin. She won and they boarded Transcontinental and Western Air DC-3. On January 16, 1942 the plane crashed into Double Up Mountain, southwest of Las Vegas. All 22 passengers were killed on impact.
Hollywood lost it's queen of laughter and Gable lost the light of his life. Witnesses and friends say that he was absolutely devastated and inconsolable after Lombard's death. He moved on to join the United States Army Air Forces--something his wife had begged him to do time and again but he had just never gotten around to doing so. And he later went on to be married two more times, but he was reportedly never quite the same, and when he died of a heart attack in 1960, his will still requested that he be interred beside Lombard, which he was.
Short as her overall career was, Carole Lombard graced the big screen in 60 productions, and she was nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film My Man Godfrey (1936). She is still considered to be one of the greatest American female screen legends.
"I live by a man's code, designed to fit a man's world, yet at the same time I never forget that a woman's first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick."
-Carole Lombard
"Freedom?I'd trade every bit of it for a few hours with Carole!"
-William Powell
"There is a strong case to be made for the divinity of Carole Lombard. One is certain that at Olympian banquets, she's right up there next to Zeus."
-David Shipman
"With her, it was like music, it was completely natural."
-Clark Gable
"You can trust that little screwball with your life, or your hopes or your weaknesses, and she wouldn't even know how to think about letting you down."
-Clark Gable
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