Name: Carole Lombard
Born: Fort Wayne, Indianna, October 6, 1908
Died: January 16, 1942
Nationality: American
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Height: 5' 3 1/2"
Discovered: Lombard made her film debut at the age of twelve after she was seen playing baseball in the street by director Allan Dwan; he cast her as a tomboy in A Perfect Crime (1921). In the 1920s, she worked in several low-budget productions credited as 'Jane Peters', and then later as 'Carol Lombard'. Her friend Miriam Cooper helped Lombard land small roles in her husband Raoul Walsh's films. In 1925, she was signed as a contract player with Fox Film Corporation (which merged with Daryl Zanuck's Twentieth Century Productions in 1935). She also worked for Mack Sennett and Path? Pictures. She became a well-known actress and made a smooth transition to sound films, starting with High Voltage (1929). In 1930, she began working for Paramount Pictures after having been dropped from both Twentieth Century and Path?.
Romance:
In October 1930, Lombard met William Powell. They worked together in the films Man of the World and Ladies' Man. Unlike many of Lombard's other suitors at the time, Powell was urbane and sophisticated and showed her a side of life she had not seen before. He also appreciated her blunt personality and bawdy sense of humor. They married on June 26, 1931.
Lombard's most famous relationship came in 1936 when she became involved with actor Clark Gable. They had worked together previously in 1932's No Man of Her Own, but at the time Lombard was still happily married to Powell and Gable already had more women than he was willing to deal with. It was not until 1936, when Gable came to the Mayfair Ball that Lombard had planned, that their romance began to take off. During a break in production on Gone With the Wind, Gable and Lombard were married on March 29.
Filmography:
A Perfect Crime (1921)
Gold Heels (1924)
Dick Turpin (1925)
Marriage in Transit (1925)
Gold and the Girl (1925)
Hearts and Spurs (1925)
Durand of the Bad Lands (1925)
The Plastic Age (1925)
Ben-Hur (1925)
The Road to Glory (1926)
The Johnstown Flood (1926)
The Fighting Eagle (1927)
My Best Girl (1927)
The Divine Sinner (1928)
Power (1928)
Me, Gangster (1928)
Show Folks (1928)
Ned McCobb's Daughter (1928)
High Voltage (1929)
Big News (1929)
The Racketeer (1929)
The Arizona Kid (1930)
Safety in Numbers (1930)
Fast and Loose (1930)
It Pays to Advertise (1931)
Man of the World (1931)
Ladies' Man (1931)
Up Pops the Devil (1931)
I Take This Woman (1931)
No One Man (1932)
Sinners in the Sun (1932)
Virtue (1932)
No More Orchids (1932)
No Man of Her Own (1932)
From Hell to Heaven (1933)
Supernatural (1933)
The Eagle and the Hawk (1933)
Brief Moment (1933)
White Woman (1933)
Bolero (1934)
We're Not Dressing (1934)
Twentieth Century (1934)
Now and Forever (1934)
Lady by Choice (1934)
The Gay Bride (1934)
Rumba (1935)
Hands Across the Table (1935)
Love Before Breakfast (1936)
The Princess Comes Across (1936)
Swing High, Swing Low (1937)
Nothing Sacred (1937)
True Confession (1937)
Fools for Scandal (1938)
Made for Each Other (1939)
In Name Only (1939)
Vigil in the Night (1940)
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Trivia:
During World War II, after her death, a Liberty ship was named after her.
A 1926 auto accident badly cut her face. Advanced plastic surgery and adroit use of make-up covered the scars. However, at the time the belief was that use of anesthetic during the operation would leave worse scars, so she endured the reconstructive surgery without an anesthetic.
Her film To Be or Not to Be (1942) was in post-production when she died in a plane crash, and the producers decided to leave out a part that had her character ironically saying, "What can happen in a plane?"
She was good friends with Gloria Swanson.
Quotes:
"Marvelous girl. Crazy as a bedbug." - Howard Hawks
"I've lived 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
"I think marriage is dangerous. The idea of two people trying to possess each other is wrong. I don't think the flare of love lasts. Your mind rather than your emotions must answer for the success of matrimony. It must be friendship - a calm companionship which can last through the years." - Carole Lombard
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