Carole Lombard first hit the silver screen in A Perfect Crime (1921) at only 12 years old. She continued to pursue acting in her adolescence, screen-testing for a Charlie Chaplin film at 15. While Lombard didn’t land the role, she secured a $75/week contract with Fox Film Corporation by 16.
While on a date, Lombard was in a car accident that left a scar across her face, for which she underwent reconstructive surgery. During this era of Lombard’s career, she became one of the Sennett Bathing Beauties (beautiful, swimsuit-clad women featured in Mack Sennett’s slapstick comedies during the silent film era, intended to drum up buzz and draw bigger audiences for Sennett’s films). Lombard’s work at Mack Sennett’s studio (described by Lombard as “the most delightful madhouse imaginable”) laid the foundation for her future career as a comic actor.
Lombard soon began landing leading roles and hit her stride in 1934, appearing in 6 films that year alone. By 1937, Lombard became the highest-paid Hollywood starlet, signing a $450,000 deal with Paramount. That same year, Lombard received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for My Man Godfrey, in which she starred opposite her ex-husband William Powell.
Lombard, dubbed “the Queen of Screwball,” was known for her bold physicality, rowdy fast-talking, and zany wit. Criterion asserts that she “practically invented screwball comedy, or at least shaped its contours.”
However, while Lombard was less“vixen” and more “screwball comedian,” it’s hard to deny her beauty. It’s easy to be distracted by Lombard’s quirky goofball schtick, but she was pure glamour, star power, and mischief, all rolled into one.
Sadly, Lombard was killed in a plane accident that also took the lives of 21 other passengers. To defend against Japanese bombers potentially entering American airspace, safety beacons were turned off, and, without those visual warnings, the pilot was unable to navigate the mountains in their flight path. Carole Lombard was only 33 years old.
The American Film Institute named Carole Lombard one of the 25 greatest American female screen legends in Hollywood cinema, and fun fact – you can see Carole Lombard’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the film Pretty Woman.
Google
Facebook
