Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters on October 6, 1908, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her parents divorced in 1916, and her mother took the family on a trip out West, eventually settling in the Los Angeles area.
Carole was spotted playing baseball by a film director, and at the age of 12, she was signed to a one-picture contract in 1921 for the film A Perfect Crime. Although she tried for other acting jobs, she wouldn't be seen on screen again for four years.
She returned to a normal life, attending school and participating in athletics, excelling in track and field. By age 15, she had had enough of school and quit to join a theater troupe, playing in several stage shows.
In 1925, she passed a screen test and was signed to a contract with Fox Films, making her film debut in Hearts and Spurs. She appeared in several films throughout the year, including Durand of the Bad Lands and Marriage in Transit.
In 1926, Carole was seriously injured in an automobile accident, resulting in the left side of her face being scarred. Fox canceled her contract, but she found work in a number of shorts during 1928.
In 1929, Carole transitioned to "talkies" with her first sound film, High Voltage. She went on to star in Man of the World with William Powell in 1931, and they married soon after, but the marriage didn't work out and they divorced in 1933.
Carole received her only Oscar nomination for Best Actress for My Man Godfrey in 1936, but unfortunately, the award went to Luise Rainer in The Great Ziegfeld. She continued to star in films, including Twentieth Century and To Be or Not to Be.
Tragically, Carole died on January 16, 1942, at the age of 33, in a plane crash while returning to California from a war bond rally.
