CAROLE LANDIS ,AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN ON 1919 JANUARY 1

CAROLE LANDIS ,AMERICAN ACTRESS 

BORN ON 1919 JANUARY 1

Carole Landis (January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American film and stage actress, who worked as a contract-player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s.

Carole Landis
Landis in Topper Returns (1941)
Born	Frances Lillian Mary Ridste January 1, 1919 Fairchild, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	July 5, 1948 (aged 29) Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Suicide
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale
Education	San Bernardino High School
Occupation	Actress, Singer
Years active	1937–1948
Spouse(s)	Irving Wheeler (m. 1934; annulled 1934) Irving Wheeler (m. 1934; div. 1939) Willis Hunt Jr. (m. 1940; div. 1940) Thomas C. Wallace (m. 1943; div. 1945) W. Horace Schmidlapp (m. 1945–48)

 Her breakthrough role was as the female lead in the 1940 film One Million B.C., with United Artists. Landis was known as "The Ping Girl" and "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.[1]

Early life[edit]

Landis was born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste in Fairchild, Wisconsin.[2] She was the youngest of five children (two of whom died in childhood) born to Clara Ridste (née Stentek), a Polish farmer's daughter, and Norwegian-American Alfred Ridste, a "drifting railroad mechanic" who abandoned the family after Landis' birth.[3][4][5] According to Landis' biographer E.J. Felming, circumstantial evidence supports that Landis was likely the biological child of her mother's second husband, Charles Fenner. Fenner left Landis' mother in April 1921 and remarried a few months later.[6]

In 1923, Landis' family moved to San Bernardino, California. Landis's mother worked menial jobs to support the family.[7] At the age of 15, Landis dropped out of San Bernardino High School and set forth on a career path to show business.[8] She started out as a hula dancer in a San Francisco nightclub and later sang with a dance band. She bleached her hair blonde and changed her name to "Carole Landis" after her favorite actress, Carole Lombard. After saving $100 she moved to Hollywood.[3]

Career[edit]
Film career[edit]

Landis made her film debut as an extra in the 1937 film A Star Is Born; she also appeared in various horse operas.[3] She posed for hundreds of cheesecake photographs.[3] She continued appearing in bit parts until 1940 when Hal Roach cast her as a cave girl in One Million B.C..[2] The movie was a sensation and turned Landis into a star. A press agent nicknamed her "The Ping Girl" (because "she makes you purr").[3]

Landis appeared in a string of successful films in the early 1940s, usually as the second female lead. In a time when the singing of many actresses was dubbed in, Landis's own voice was considered good enough and was used in her few musical roles. 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.

Her final two films Noose and Brass Monkey were both made in Great Britain.

USO Tours[edit]

In 1942, she toured with comedian Martha Raye, dancer Mitzi Mayfair and actress Kay Francis with a USO troupe in England and North Africa. Two years later, she entertained soldiers in the South Pacific with Jack Benny. Landis traveled more than 100,000 miles during the war and spent more time visiting troops than any other actress. Landis became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II.

Broadway[edit]

In 1945 she starred on Broadway in the musical A Lady Says Yes with Jacqueline Susann, with whom she reportedly had an affair.[9] Susann purportedly based the character Jennifer North in her book Valley of the Dolls on Landis.

Writing[edit]

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. She also wrote the foreword to Victor Herman's cartoon book Winnie the WAC.

Personal life[edit]

Landis was married four times and had no children (she was unable to conceive due to endometriosis).[3] In January 1934, 15-year-old Landis married her first husband, 19-year-old Irving Wheeler. Her mother had the marriage annulled in February 1934. Landis convinced her father Alfred Ridste (who had left the family shortly after Landis was born and who, by coincidence, lived near the family in San Bernardino) to allow her to remarry Wheeler. 

He finally relented, and the two were remarried on August 25, 1934. After three weeks of marriage, Landis and Wheeler got into an argument and Landis walked out. Neither filed for divorce and Landis began pursuing an acting career.[10] In 1938, Wheeler reappeared and filed a $250,000 alienation of affections lawsuit against director and choreographer Busby Berkeley. 

Despite the fact that Landis and Wheeler were married only in the legal sense, he claimed that Berkeley had enticed and otherwise persuaded Landis to transfer her affections. Landis maintained that she had not seen Wheeler in years and heard from him only the previous year when he claimed to want a divorce.[11] Wheeler's lawsuit was later dismissed, and Landis and Wheeler were divorced in 1939.[12] In June 1939, Berkeley proposed to Landis, but later broke it off. On July 4, 1940 she married yacht broker Willis Hunt, Jr. in Las Vegas.[13] Landis left Hunt after two months of marriage.[3] They were divorced in November 1940.[14]

While touring Army camps in London in 1942, she met United States Army Air Forces Captain Thomas Wallace.[15] They were married in January 1943 but separated in May 1945.[16] They divorced in July 1945.[15]

On December 8, 1945, Landis married Broadway producer W. Horace Schmidlapp.[17] They separated in 1947 and Landis filed for divorce in May 1948 charging Schmidlapp with "extreme mental cruelty".[2][18] During her separation from Schmidlapp, Landis entered into a romance with actor Rex Harrison, who was then married to actress Lilli Palmer. The affair became an open secret in Hollywood.[19] After Landis' death however, Harrison downplayed their relationship and publicly claimed that she was merely a close friend of his and Palmer's.[20]

Death[edit]

Grave of Carole Landis at Forest Lawn Glendale.

Grave of Carole Landis at Forest Lawn Glendale.

Landis was reportedly crushed when Harrison refused to divorce his wife for her; unable to cope any longer, she committed suicide in her Pacific Palisades home at 1465 Capri Drive by taking an overdose of Seconal.[21][22] Harrison was the last person to see her alive, having had dinner with Landis the night before she committed suicide.[23]

The next afternoon, Harrison and the maid discovered her on the bathroom floor. Harrison waited several hours before he called a doctor and the police.[24] According to some sources, Landis left two suicide notes, one for her mother and the second for Harrison who instructed his lawyers to destroy it.[25] During a coroner's inquest, Harrison denied knowing any motive for her suicide and told the coroner he did not know of the existence of a second suicide note.[26] Landis' official web site, which is owned by her family, has questioned the events of Landis' death and the coroner's ruling of suicide.[27] She is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California in plot 814 of the "Everlasting Love" section. Among the celebrities at her funeral were Cesar Romero, Van Johnson, and Pat O'Brien.[28] Harrison attended with his wife.[3]

Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,[29] at 1765 Vine Street.

Landis died of a drug overdose at the age of 29 in July 1948.[2

Filmography[edit]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	The King and the Chorus Girl	Chorine	Uncredited
1937	A Star Is Born	Girl in beret at Santa Anita bar	Uncredited
1937	A Day at the Races	Dance Extra
1937	Fly Away Baby	Blonde at airport
1937	The Emperor's Candlesticks	Bit part
1937	Broadway Melody of 1938	Dancer
1937	Varsity Show	Student
1937	Alcatraz Island		Uncredited
1937	Over the Goal	Co-ed	Uncredited
1937	The Adventurous Blonde		Uncredited
1937	Hollywood Hotel	Hat check girl with coat
1938	The Invisible Menace	Woman waiting to go with her Johnnie
1938	Blondes at Work	Carol
1938	A Slight Case of Murder	Partygoer leaning on piano during song
1938	Love, Honor and Behave	Wheel watcher at party	Uncredited
1938	Over the Wall	Peggy, girl at beach	Uncredited
1938	Women Are Like That	Cocktail party guest	Uncredited
1938	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Guest at banquet	Uncredited
1938	Gold Diggers in Paris	Golddigger	Alternative title: The Gay Impostors
1938	Men Are Such Fools	June Cooper
1938	When You Were Born	Ship passenger	Uncredited
1938	Penrod's Double Trouble	Girl at fair	Uncredited
1938	Four's a Crowd	Myrtle, Lansford's 2nd Secretary
1938	Boy Meets Girl	Commissary cashier	Uncredited
1939	Three Texas Steers	Nancy Evans	Alternative title: Danger Rides the Range
1939	Daredevils of the Red Circle	Blanche Granville
1939	Cowboys from Texas	June Jones
1939	Reno	Mrs. Humphrey	Uncredited
1940	One Million B.C.	Loana
1940	Turnabout	Sally Willows
1940	Mystery Sea Raider	June McCarthy
1941	Road Show	Penguin Moore
1941	Topper Returns	Ann Carrington
1941	Moon Over Miami	Barbara Latimer, aka Miss Sears
1941	Dance Hall	Lily Brown
1941	I Wake Up Screaming	Vicky Lynn	Alternative title: Hot Spot
1941	Cadet Girl	Gene Baxter
1942	A Gentleman at Heart	Helen Mason
1942	My Gal Sal	Mae Collins
1942	It Happened in Flatbush	Kathryn Baker
1942	Orchestra Wives	Natalie Mercer
1942	Manila Calling	Edna Fraser
1943	The Powers Girl	Kay Evans
1943	Wintertime	Flossie Fouchere
1943	Show Business at War	Herself
1944	Secret Command	Jill McGann
1944	Four Jills in a Jeep	Herself
1945	Having Wonderful Crime	Helene Justus
1946	Behind Green Lights	Janet Bradley
1946	A Scandal in Paris	Loretta de Richet	Alternative title: Thieves' Holiday
1946	It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog	Julia Andrews
1947	Out of the Blue	Mae Earthleigh
1948	Noose	Linda Medbury	Alternative title: The Silk Noose
1948	Brass Monkey	Kay Sheldon	Alternative title: Lucky Mascot