Born Today October 6: Carole Lombard

1908-1942

Born Jane Alice Peters, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, her parents divorced when she was 8, and her mother moved her to Los Angeles.  The story goes that she was spotted on the street playing baseball with neighborhood boys by a film director, which may or may not have been Allan Dwan, and made her screen debut at the age of 12 in the Dwan directed A Perfect Crime (1921).  The experience left her with an acting bug and she signed a contract with Fox Films when she was 16.  In between this time, she appeared in several stage productions and had two bit parts that went uncredited in two short films.  As she was credited in her first film by her birth name, it was probably some Fox studio executive who decided to change her Carole Lombard upon the signing of her contract with Them.  There she played mainly bit roles.  Fox dropped her after she was in a car accident and was left with a scar on her face (nice uh?), so she went to work with comic producer and director Mack Sennett.  For an actress who had no formal training when she made her film debut (although, as mentioned, she did spend a little time on stage, before returning to film 3 years later), she showed every sign that she possessed genuine acting talent and made a fine transition into on screen speaking roles.  So much so that she became a super star.  She even received Best Actress In Leading Role Oscar nomination in 1937.  Her life, along with her mother's and 20 other people (15 of whom were army servicemen) was tragically cut short, when a plane they were traveling on crashed just outside Las Vegas on 16 January 1942.  She was only 33 years of age.  They are were returning to California after going on a war bond promotional event in her birth state of Indiana.  She had previously been married to William Powell, and at the time of her death she was married to Clark Gable.  She was entombed as Carole Lombard Gable.  When Clark Gable himself passed away in 1960, he had made plans to be entombed next to her, which he is at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Los Angeles. IMDb.