A native of Indiana, actress Carole Lombard was living in Los Angeles with her mother in 1920 when, at the age of 12 years old, she was recruited by a movie director who cast her in her first film, the 1921 movie A Perfect Crime. She moved from bit parts to leading lady status and quickly became one of the greatest female stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. She even married Clark Gable, one of the greatest male stars of the era. Carole Lombard seemed to be living a charmed life, but it was all tragically cut short when she was just 33 years old.
Carole Lombard spent her teen years paying extras or minor roles in 1920s films, but by the end of that decade, she had successfully transitioned from silent movies to sound films and from juvenile roles to more mature ones, such as her parts in the 1929 High Voltage and The Racketeer and the 1930 The Arizona Kid.
With a new decade came new opportunities for Carole Lombard. She was a perfect blend between glamor and comedy. She was pretty, but she was also energetic with a great sense of comedic timing. She was often cast to play zany characters. Among her best-known movies are Twentieth Century in 1934, My Man Godfrey in 1936, Nothing Sacred in 1937, Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 1941, and To Be or Not to Be in 1942. For her role in My Man Godfrey, Lombard was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress but lost out on winning the Oscar.
Carole Lombard married two of Hollywood’s hottest leading men. She admired the work of actor William Powell and was pleased when she was cast opposite him in two back-to-back movies, Man of the World and Ladies Man. Although they two had vastly different personalities and there was a 16-year age gap between them, they nonetheless began a romance and got married in 1931. The marriage, however, dissolved a little more than two years later.
Before her divorce was final, Carole Lombard landed the leading role in No Man of Her Own opposite Clark Gable who would become Lombard’s second husband. The two were not romantically involved while making this movie, the only film the two appeared in together. She was still a married woman at the time and even after her divorce, she dated other men, not Gable.
In 1936, four years after they met on the set of No Man of Her Own, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable reconnected at a Hollywood party. This time, the sparks flew. At the time, Gable was separated from his wife, Ria Langham, who was dragging her feet on their divorce. Just days after his divorce was official in March 1939, Gable and Lombard eloped.
With the outbreak of World War II, Carole Lombard used her fame and celebrity to sell war bonds. In January 1942, she traveled to her home state for a war bond rally. Joining her on the trip were her mother and Clark Gable’s press agent. The group had planned to travel back to LA by train, but Lombard was eager to get home quicker and she wanted to see what air travel was like. The other two wanted to stick with the original plan to travel by train, but Lombard pressured them to fly back to California.
Carole Lombard, her mother, and the press agent boarded their flight on the morning of January 16, 1942. They had an uneventful flight to Las Vegas where the plane stopped for refueling. After taking off from the Vegas airport, however, the plane slammed into the side of Potosi Mountain, killing Carole Lombard and the 21 other people aboard the plane, including her mother, her husband’s press agent, and 15 U.S. Army soldiers. Because of the war, there was fear that enemy bombers from Japan would invade U.S. airspace from the Pacific Ocean, therefore the safety beacons that were placed on the mountain peaks to guide commercial pilots had been turned off. In the dark, the pilots could not see the mountain in front of them.
Carole Lombard’s last movie, To Be or Not to Be, was in post-production at the time of her death and released after her funeral. She was set to star in They All Kissed the Bride and the studio gave her role to Joan Crawford. Crawford generously donated her paycheck for that film to the Red Cross, the organization that helped to recover the bodies of the victims of the tragic plane crash. Clark Gable was devastated by the sudden death of his wife. To honor her memory, Gable joined the U.S. Army Air Force because Lombard was passionate about supporting the troops. Gable was sent to England and flew five combat missions.