From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Carole Lombard born Jane Alice Peters October 6 1908 January 16 1942 was an American film actress She was particularly noted for her energetic often offbeat roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s She was the highestpaid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s She was the third wife of actor Clark Gable Lombard was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne Indiana but was raised in Los Angeles by her single mother At 12 she was recruited by the film director Allan Dwan and made her screen debut in A Perfect Crime 1921 Eager to become an actress she signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation at age 16 but mainly played bit parts She was dropped by Fox after a car accident left a scar on her face Lombard appeared in 15 short comedies for Mack Sennett between 1927 and 1929 and then began appearing in feature films such as High Voltage and The Racketeer After a successful appearance in The Arizona Kid 1930 she was signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures Paramount quickly began casting Lombard as a leading lady primarily in drama films Her profile increased when she married William Powell in 1931 but the couple divorced after two years A turning point in Lombards career came when she starred in Howard Hawks pioneering screwball comedy Twentieth Century 1934 The actress found her niche in this genre and continued to appear in films such as Hands Across the Table 1935 forming a popular partnership with Fred MacMurray My Man Godfrey 1936 for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and Nothing Sacred 1937 At this time Lombard married the King of Hollywood Clark Gable and the supercouple gained much attention from the media Keen to win an Oscar at the end of the decade Lombard began to move towards more serious roles Unsuccessful in this aim she returned to comedy in Alfred Hitchcocks Mr Mrs Smith 1941 and Ernst Lubitschs To Be or Not to Be 1942her final film role Lombards career was cut short when she died at the age of 33 in an airplane crash on Mount Potosi Nevada while returning from a war bond tour Today she is remembered as one of the definitive actresses of the screwball comedy genre and American comedy and ranks among the American Film Institutes greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema
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