TRIVIA:
She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 film "One Million B.C." from United Artists. |
Landis made her film debut as an extra in the 1937 film "A Star Is Born". | Landis landed a contract with Twentieth Century-Fox and began a sexual relationship with Darryl F. Zanuck. She had roles playing opposite fellow pin-up girl Betty Grable in Moon Over Miami and I Wake Up Screaming, both in 1941. When Landis ended her relationship with Zanuck, her career suffered and she was assigned roles in B-movies. | Carole protested strongly and publicly against the nonsensical nickname "The Ping Girl" (apparently short for "purring") coined by Hal Roach publicist Frank N. Seltzer in April 1940. | Landis wrote several newspaper and magazine articles about her experiences during the war, including the 1944 book "Four Jills in a Jeep", which was later made into a movie costarring Kay Francis, Martha Raye, and Mitzi Mayfair. | In her musicals, Carole usually sang in her own voice. | She initiated divorce proceedings against her last husband in March 1948 but the divorce was not final when she died. | Rex Harrison, who had dined with her the previous night, discovered her body the day she committed suicide. | Became friendly with future author Jacqueline Susann in 1944 when they appeared together in the Broadway revue "The Lady Says Yes". The character of fragile, blonde Jennifer North in "Valley of the Dolls" is partially based on Landis. | A feminist at a young age, she once tried to start a girls football team at school but got into trouble because it was considered "un-lady like". | Spent more time visiting troops during World War II than any other Hollywood star. She nearly died from malaria she contracted while traveling overseas. | She chose the name Carole because she was a huge fan of Carole Lombard. | Had appeared with Cesar Romero in four films: Dance Hall (1941), A Gentleman at Heart (1942), Orchestra Wives (1942) and Wintertime (1943).
AVAILABLE FILMS:
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THE (1938)
ALCATRAZ ISLAND (1937)
BEHIND GREEN LIGHTS (1946)
DAY AT THE RACES (1937)
HAVING WONDERFUL CRIME (1945)
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
INVISIBLE MENACE, THE (1938)
MYSTERY SEA RAIDER (1940)
OUT OF THE BLUE (1947)
RENO (1940)
SCANDAL IN PARIS, A (1946)
SECRET COMMAND (1944)
SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, A (1938)
WHEN WERE YOU BORN? (1938)
ALCATRAZ ISLAND (1937)
BEHIND GREEN LIGHTS (1946)
DAY AT THE RACES (1937)
HAVING WONDERFUL CRIME (1945)
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
INVISIBLE MENACE, THE (1938)
MYSTERY SEA RAIDER (1940)
OUT OF THE BLUE (1947)
RENO (1940)
SCANDAL IN PARIS, A (1946)
SECRET COMMAND (1944)
SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER, A (1938)
WHEN WERE YOU BORN? (1938)
VIDEO TRIBUTE:
Carole Landis
Active - 1937 - 1948 | Born - Jan 1, 1919 in Fairchild, WI | Died - Jul 5, 1948 in Hollywood, CA | Genres - Comedy, Musical, Drama, Romance, Mystery | Height: 5’ 7”
Carole Landis was born on New Year's Day in 1919 in Fairchild, Wisconsin, as Frances Lillian Mary Ridste. Her father, a railroad mechanic, was of Norwegian descent and her mother was Polish. Her father walked out, leaving Carole, her mother and an older brother and sister to fend for themselves.
After graduating from high school, she married Jack Robbins (Irving Wheeler), but the union lasted a month (the marriage was annulled because Carole was only 15 at the time). The couple remarried in August 1934, and the two headed to California to start a new life. For a while she worked as a dancer and singer, but before long the glitter of show business drew her to Los Angeles.
She won a studio contract with Warner Brothers but was a bit player for the most part in such films as A Star Is Born (1937), A Day at the Races (1937), and The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937). The following year started out much the same way, with more bit roles. By 1939, she was getting a few speaking roles, although mostly one-liners, and that year ended much as had the previous two years, with more bit roles; also, she and Wheeler were divorced.
In 1940 she was cast as Loana in the Hal Roach production of One Million B.C. (1940); she finally got noticed (the skimpy outfit helped), and her career began moving. She began getting parts in B pictures but didn't star in big productions -- although she had talent, the really good roles were given to the established stars of the day.
Her busiest year was 1942, with roles in Manila Calling (1942), The Powers Girl (1943), A Gentleman at Heart (1942), and three other movies. Unfortunately, critics took little notice of her films, and and when they did, reviewers tended to focus on her breathtaking beauty. By the middle 1940s, Carole's career was beginning to short-circuit. Her contract with 20th Century-Fox had been canceled, her marriages to Willis Hunt Jr. and Thomas Wallace had failed, and her current marriage to Horace Schmidlapp was on the skids; all of that plus health problems spelled disaster for her professionally and personally.
Her final two films, Brass Monkey (1948) and The Silk Noose (1948) were released in 1948. On July 5, 1948, Carole committed suicide by taking an overdose of Seconal in her Brentwood Heights, California, home. She was only 29 and had made 49 pictures, most of which were, unfortunately, forgettable. If Hollywood moguls had given Carole a chance, she could have been one of the brightest stars in its history.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson
"I want to be as good an actress as Bette Davis, and I'd like to be a great singer. But more than that, I'd like to be happily married and have some children."
"I think sex is definitely here to stay so I don't see any necessity for throwing it in people's faces. I don't think a girl has to wear dresses cut down to her tummy to exhibit what is known as feminine allure. She can exhibit it in a high neck dress but subtly. Heaven knows I want people to think I have sex appeal. But I also want to think I have something besides sex appeal."
- Carole Landis