Carole Lombard

It was a testament to Carole Lombard's unique talents that her star shone brightest during some of the darkest days in U.S. history. Throughout the 1930s, while millions of Americans struggled to survive under the crushing weight of the Great Depression, Lombard reigned as Hollywood's premier comedic actress - anointed by LIFE magazine as "America's Screwball Queen." Elegant but accessible, beautiful but unpretentious, Lombard was a study in contrasts who nevertheless fostered a strong sense of identification with her audience who knew her every quirk both on- and off-screen. Her fans recognized in her a small-town girl who had made good, and their embrace of her bordered on the worshipful. Lombard's celebrated union to Clark Gable, the "King of Hollywood," only cemented her status as a beloved icon in her own time and one-half of the most fabled coupling in Tinseltown history. In comedy classics like "Twentieth Century" (1934), "My Man Godfrey" (1936), and "Nothing Sacred" (1937), she stole every scene she was in, ensuring her place in film history. Sadly, it was a history cut short when, after selling war bonds for a country recently attacked at Pearl Harbor, the patriotic actress died in an airplane crash in 1942, leaving behind a devastated nation and even more devastated husband. For fans, her posthumously released final film, the brilliant and timeless Ernst Lubitsch Nazi satire "To Be or Not to Be" (1942) was her final gift to the world, containing perhaps her best performance in a career unlike any other.