How much was Carole Lombard worth?
| Net Worth: | $20 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Actress |
| Date of Birth: | October 6, 1908 |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 1.68 m |
About Carole Lombard
American actress Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 – January 16, 1942) is thought to have had a net worth of $20 million. Throughout her 17-year career, Carole Lombard consistently impressed audiences with her beauty, sex, and humor in movies like Twentieth Century, Nothing Sacred, My Man Godfrey, and To Be or Not to Be. married to Hollywood aristocrat Clark Gable, she was undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s golden girls. Sadly, Lombard’s talents were lost to the world when she died during World War II.
Young Years
On October 6, 1908, Jane Alice Peters was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her divorced mother made the decision to relocate to Los Angeles while visiting the west coast. When Lombard was 12 years old, director Allan Dwan signed her to appear in the 1921 movie A Perfect Crime. Before she received another part, four years had passed. She dropped out of school at age 15 and joined a theater group.
Uneven Path to Success
When she was 17 years old, Lombard participated in a screen test and was hired by Fox Films as Carole Lombard. She produced several short films and four full-length films while at Fox.
Lombard was then involved in a terrible car accident in 1926 that left her with facial deformities. Her face muscles were unable to relax after reconstructive surgery since she was not given anesthesia. Fox terminated her contract, leaving her jobless and with a significant scar on the left side of her face. Lombard studied photography books while going through a trying rehabilitation in which she had to keep her face as still as possible. Plastic surgery eventually reduced the scar.
Later, cameraman Harry Stradling said, “She is as knowledgeable about business tactics as I am. By concentrating the lights on her face, I was able to hide her scar and make it appear as though it were part of her cheek. She was the one who first informed me that the diffusing glass in my lens would do the same function more effectively, and she was correct!”
Lombard learned about comedy while working as a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty after she had healed. Lombard’s breathless, seductive voice was helpful when talkies were introduced. Her debut sound picture, High Voltage, saw her start a career with Pathe.
Lombard moved to Paramount and rose to fame there, but it was her comic portrayal of a movie star in the 1934 film Twentieth Century, starring John Barrymore, that catapulted her to prominence. Barrymore presented her with an autographed photo after the shoot with the inscription: “To the finest actress I have worked with, bar none.” She attributed her success in the movie to his counsel to “let go” and later, when his career was in decline, she cast him in True Confession (1937).
Another timeless masterpiece, My Man Godfrey, earned Lombard a Best Actress Oscar nod in 1936. She had a reputation for picking the perfect movie, and it paid off because she was earning $35,000 a week at one time in her career. She nevertheless declined some genuine jewels, like It Happened One Night, His Girl Friday, and a movie that Orson Welles would not have made without her.
Individual Life
Lombard married actor William Powell and then actor Clark Gable twice. On the set of Man of the World in 1931, she got to know Powell. They got divorced in 1933 but stayed close. She claimed that Bill Powell was the only intellectual actor she had ever met. Lombard was engaged with singer Russ Columbo against the wishes of her studio. However, Columbo passed away at the age of 26 in a strange accident in 1934.
As extras on the Ben Hur set in 1924, Gable and Lombard became friends (1925). They would work together on three movies as extras and in No Man of Her Own (1932), but they wouldn’t start dating until 1936. In 1939, they got hitched. Lombard said, “I think marriage is harmful. “It is incorrect to think that two people would try to possess one another. I don’t believe that a romantic fling lasts. Your thinking, not your emotions, must take responsibility for the success of marriage. It must be friendship—calm companionship that may endure throughout time.”
She was famed for her salty vocabulary, which her brothers had trained her to use to fend off unwanted attention! It is said that she never used a dressing room during her time as a celebrity since she preferred to socialize with the cast and staff at lunch and break times. She was renowned for her warmth, kindness, and charity. Lombard famously remarked, “I’ve lived by a man’s code designed to fit a man’s world…[but]…I never forget that a woman’s first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick,”
A Tragedy
Lombard collaborated with Jack Benny in her final film, To Be Or Not to Be, in 1942. She traveled to her native state of Indiana for a war bond rally after the United States entered World War II, where she sold more than $2 million in war bonds. Even though her mother and MGM publicist Otto Winkler were frightened of flying, she insisted on taking a train home because she needed to go back home fast (it was claimed that she had heard Gable was having an affair). The plane prevailed when Carole tossed a coin. In order to make place for more military personnel, Lombard’s group was ordered to disembark at the following stop during the flight. Lombard claimed that since she had just sold $500,000 worth of war bonds, she should be permitted to stay on the aircraft. Her tenacity would be her downfall.
Lombard, her mother, and 20 other people perished in the plane disaster outside of Las Vegas on January 16, 1942. She was 33 years old. The creators of To Be or Not to Be edited out her character’s ominous line, “What can happen in a plane?” Clark Gable is interred next to her today in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Lombard was the first woman to die in the line of duty during World War II, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt bestowed the Medal of Freedom upon her posthumously.
Strangely, Lombard’s dachshund, Commissioner, had never paid Gable any attention, but once she passed away, he became his loyal friend.
Summing-Up
Carole Lombard was a talented comedienne and dramatic actor. She was renowned for her graceful beauty, which was unaffected by the occasional pie in the face or the passage of time. She recently appeared in a GAP advertisement where a picture of her wearing khakis was shown. She was stunning in dresses or denim, and despite having a tragically brief career, her screen presence still shines in her movies. Carole Lombard’s estimated net worth at the time of her death in 1942 was $20 million. Before her life was tragically cut short in a plane crash in Nevada, she was one of the most well-known actresses in Hollywood. She had just turned 33.
Movies starring Carole Lombard, such as Twentieth Century, My Man Godfrey, Made for Each Other, and To Be or Not to Be, will guarantee that she is regarded as one of the greatest Hollywood screen icons forever.
