:Carole Landis
{{Short description|American actress (1919–1948)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Carole Landis
| image = Carole Landis-publicity.JPG
| image_size =
| caption = Landis in 1941
| birth_name = Frances Lillian Mary Ridste
| birth_date = {{birth date|1919|01|01|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Fairchild, Wisconsin, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|1948|07|05|1919|01|01|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| death_cause =
| resting_place = Forest Lawn Memorial Park
| years_active = 1934–1948
| occupation = Actress, Singer
| other_names = The Ping Girl
The Chest
| spouse = {{Plainlist|
- {{marriage|Irving Wheeler|1934|1934|end=annulled}}
- {{marriage|Irving Wheeler|1934|1939|end=divorced}}
- {{marriage|Willis Hunt Jr.|1940|1940|end=divorced}}
- {{marriage|Thomas C. Wallace|1943|1945|end=divorced}}
- {{marriage|W. Horace Schmidlapp|1945|}}
| website = [http://www.carolelandis.net www.carolelandis.net]
}}
}}
Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. 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. She was known as "The Ping Girl" and "The Chest" because of her curvy figure.{{cite magazine|date=February 19, 1945|title=Metonymy|magazine=Life|volume=18|issue=8|page=115|issn=0024-3019|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JVMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA115}}
Early life
Landis was born on January 1, 1919, in Fairchild, Wisconsin, the youngest of five children of Clara (née Sentek), a Polish farmer's daughter, and Norwegian-American Alfred Ridste, a drifting railroad mechanic who abandoned the family after Landis's birth.{{cite magazine| magazine= Time | title= Casually in Hollywood | url= http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,798846,00.html | archive-url= https://archive.today/20120915070720/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,798846,00.html | url-status= dead | archive-date= September 15, 2012 | date= July 19, 1948 | access-date=2009-12-19}}{{cite book|last=Gans|first=Eric|author-link = Eric Gans |title=Carole Landis: A Most Beautiful Girl|year=2008 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-604-73013-5}}{{rp|205}}{{cite book|last=Fleming|first=E. J.|title=Carole Landis: A Tragic Life in Hollywood|year=2005|publisher=McFarland|isbn=0-786-48265-6|pages=7–8}} According to Landis's biographer E. J. Fleming, circumstantial evidence supports that Landis was likely the biological child of her mother's second husband, Charles Fenner. Fenner left Landis's mother in April 1921 and remarried a few months later.{{harv|Fleming|2005|p=8}}
In 1923, Landis's family moved to San Bernardino, California, where her mother worked menial jobs to support the family.{{harv|Fleming|2005|pp=10, 12}} At the age of 15, Landis dropped out of San Bernardino High School and set forth on a career path to show business.{{harv|Fleming|2005|pp=14}} She started out as a hula dancer in a San Francisco nightclub, where she was described by her boss as a "nervous $35-a-week blonde doing a pathetic hula at her opening night at the old Royal Hawaiian on Bush [Street]...that'll never get her anyplace in show business". He apparently employed her only because he felt sorry for her;Caen, Herb (1950). Baghdad: 1951. Doubleday & Company, Inc. p. 40. she 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.
Career
=Film career=
Landis made her film debut as an extra in the 1937 film A Star Is Born. She also appeared in various horse operas. She posed for hundreds of cheesecake photographs. She continued appearing in bit parts until 1940, when Hal Roach cast her as a cave girl in One Million B.C..{{cite news|title=Carole Landis, State Film Star, Takes Own Life|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5961637/carole_landis_19191948/|newspaper=The Rhinelander Daily News|date=July 6, 1948|page=1|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 22, 2016|archive-date=August 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818231018/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5961637/carole_landis_19191948/|url-status=live}} {{Open access}} The movie was a sensation and turned Landis into a star. A press agent nicknamed her "The Ping Girl" (an awkward contraction of "purring").
File:Carole Landis in Topper Returns.jpg, 1941]]
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 the musical Moon Over Miami and crime drama 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=
She became a popular pin-up with servicemen during World War II.
=Broadway=
In 1945 she starred on Broadway in the musical A Lady Says Yes, with future novelist Jacqueline Susann in a small role.{{cite web |title=A Lady Says Yes |url=https://playbill.com/production/a-lady-says-yes-broadhurst-theatre-vault-0000002109 |website=playbill.com |publisher=Playbill, Inc. |access-date=20 March 2025}} Susann is said to have based the character of Jennifer North, from her best-selling novel Valley of the Dolls, in part on Landis.{{cite web |last1=Collins |first1=Amy Fine |date=January 1, 2000|title=Once Was Never Enough |url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2000/01/jacqueline-susann-valley-of-the-dolls-books |website=vanityfair.com |publisher=Vanity Fair |access-date=20 March 2025}}
=Writing=
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.{{cite web |last1=Laite |first1=Sarah |title=The Scandalous Suicide of Hollywood's Carole Landis |url=https://www.dametown.com/carole-landis/ |website=dametown.com |date=February 13, 2014 |publisher=Dametown |access-date=20 March 2025}}{{cite web |title=Landis, Carole. Four Jills in a Jeep / Harvey, R.C. "Winnie the WAC." |url=https://www.mrtbooksla.com/pages/books/17539/carole-landis/four-jills-in-a-jeep |website=mrtbooksla.com |publisher=Michael R. Thompson Rare Books / The Comics Journal (March 4, 2015) |access-date=20 March 2025}} She also wrote the foreword to Vic Herman's cartoon book Winnie the WAC.{{cite book |title=Winnie the Wac by Victor J Herman (Author), Carole Landis (Foreword) |isbn=978-1258263478 |last1=Herman |first1=Victor J. |date=March 31, 2012 }}
Personal life
File:Three Texas Steers poster.jpg, 1939]]
File:Behind Green Lights (1946) 1.jpg and Landis, 1946)]]
Landis was married four times and had no children (she was unable to conceive owing to endometriosis). 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 persuaded 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.{{harv|Fleming|2005|pp=11–12}} In 1938, Wheeler reappeared and filed a $250,000 alienation of affections lawsuit against director and choreographer Busby Berkeley. Even though Landis and Wheeler were estranged, 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.{{cite book|last=Spivak|first=Jeffrey |title=Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley|year=2011|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-813-12643-2|page=158}} Wheeler's lawsuit was later dismissed, and Landis and Wheeler were divorced in 1939.{{cite book|last=Donnelley|first=Paul|title=Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries|year=2003|publisher=Music Sales Group|isbn=0-711-99512-5}}{{rp|399}}
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.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19420424&id=eAxQAAAAIBAJ&pg=3011,681961|title=Carole Landis Marries Again|date=July 5, 1940|work=The Evening Independent|page=9|access-date=March 6, 2015|location=St. Petersburg, Florida'}} Landis left Hunt after two months of marriage; they were divorced in November 1940.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19420424&id=eAxQAAAAIBAJ&pg=3011,681961|title=Now She's Legally Carole Landis|date=April 24, 1942|work=The Evening Independent|page=1|access-date=March 6, 2015|location=St. Petersburg, Florida'|archive-date=July 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713183944/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19420424&id=eAxQAAAAIBAJ&pg=3011,681961|url-status=live}}
While touring army camps in London in 1942, she met United States Army Air Forces Captain Thomas Wallace.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19450720&id=1_AZAAAAIBAJ&pg=2347,1440877|title=Divorce Granted to Carole Landis|date=July 20, 1945|work=The Milwaukee Journal|page=19|access-date=March 6, 2015|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin}}{{Dead link|date=September 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} They were married in January 1943, and the wedding received a two-page photo spread in Life magazine."Ping Girl" Weds Eagle, Life, February 1, 1943, pages 32-33 The couple separated in May 1945,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19450504&id=1_onAAAAIBAJ&pg=3844,6884978|title=Divorce for Carole|date=May 4, 1945|work=Daytona Beach Morning Journal|page=10|access-date=March 6, 2015|location=Daytona Beach, Florida}} and they divorced in July 1945.
On December 8, 1945, Landis married Broadway producer W. Horace Schmidlapp.{{rp|400}} They separated in 1947 and Landis filed for divorce in May 1948, charging Schmidlapp with "extreme mental cruelty."{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19480323&id=GC4jAAAAIBAJ&pg=4888,7071353|title=Carole Landis Sues Fourth Husband For Divorce|date=March 23, 1948|work=Lewiston Evening Journal|page=9|access-date=March 6, 2015|location=Lewiston, Maine|archive-date=November 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231121044929/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1913&dat=19480323&id=GC4jAAAAIBAJ&pg=4888,7071353|url-status=live}}
During her separation from Schmidlapp, Landis began a relationship with actor Rex Harrison, who was then married to actress Lilli Palmer. The affair became an open secret in Hollywood.{{harv|Fleming|2005|pp=217, 218}} After Landis's death, however, Harrison downplayed their relationship and publicly claimed that she was merely a close friend of himself and Palmer.{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=Michelle|title=The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals|year=2013|publisher=Running Press|isbn=978-0-762-44946-0|pages=253–254}}
Death
Landis was reportedly crushed when Harrison refused to divorce his wife for her. Unable to cope any longer, on July 5, 1948, she committed suicide in her Pacific Palisades home at 1465 Capri Drive by taking an overdose of Seconal.{{cite book|last=Parish|first=James Robert |title=The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More Than 125 American Movie and TV Idols|publisher=Contemporary Books|year=2002|edition=3|pages=315|isbn=0-8092-2227-2}}{{rp|197–199}} Harrison was the last person to see her alive, having had dinner with her the night before she committed suicide.{{cite book|last1=Petrucelli|first1=Alan J.|title=Morbid Curiosity: The Disturbing Demises of the Famous and Infamous|date=2009|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781101140499|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r7csXXH7S9UC&pg=PT103|access-date=November 12, 2014}}
The next afternoon, Harrison and Landis's maid discovered her on the bathroom floor. Harrison waited several hours before he called a doctor and the police.{{cite news|title=Carole Landis Mystery Death Clues Hunted|last=Mosby|first=Aline|date=July 6, 1948|newspaper=Oakland Tribune|page=1}} 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.{{rp|190}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/display.cfm?ms=uclalat_1429_b42_52451G&searchType=subject&subjectID=213460 |title=Actor Rex Harrison answering questions from coroner Ira Nance at inquiry on Carol Landis' suicide |website=UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120728193855/http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/dlib/lat/display.cfm?ms=uclalat_1429_b42_52451G&searchType=subject&subjectID=213460 |archivedate=July 28, 2012}}, a July 1948 Los Angeles Times photograph. Landis's official website, which is owned by her family, has questioned the events of Landis's death and the coroner's ruling of suicide.{{cite web|title=Was Carole Murdered? |last=Powell|first=Tammy|publisher=carolelandisofficial|access-date=13 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708122125/http://www.carolelandisofficial.com/murder.html|archive-date=2011-07-08|url=http://www.carolelandisofficial.com/murder.html}} 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.{{cite news|title=Scores Attend Funeral of Carole Landis|last=Mosby|first=Aline|date=July 11, 1948|newspaper=Oakland Tribune|page=1}} Harrison attended with his wife.
Landis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1765 Vine Street.{{cite web|url=https://walkoffame.com/carole-landis/|title=Carole Landis|work=Hollywood Walk of Fame|date=October 25, 2019 |access-date=22 October 2021}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1937
| {{sortname|The|King and the Chorus Girl|The King and the Chorus Girl}} | Chorine | Uncredited |
| 1937
| {{sortname|A|Star Is Born|A Star Is Born (1937 film)}} | Girl in beret at Santa Anita bar | Uncredited |
| 1937
| {{sortname|A|Day at the Races|A Day at the Races (film)}} | Dance Extra | |
| 1937
| Blonde at airport | |
| 1937
| {{sortname|The|Emperor's Candlesticks|The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937 film)}} | Bit part | |
| 1937
| Dancer | |
| 1937
| Student | |
| 1937
| | Uncredited |
| 1937
| Co-ed | Uncredited |
| 1937
| | Uncredited |
| 1937
| Hat check girl with coat | |
| 1938
| {{sortname|The|Invisible Menace}} | Woman waiting to go with her Johnnie | |
| 1938
| Carol | |
| 1938
| {{sortname|A|Slight Case of Murder}} | Partygoer leaning on piano during song | |
| 1938
| Wheel watcher at party | Uncredited |
| 1938
| Peggy, girl at beach | Uncredited |
| 1938
| Cocktail party guest | Uncredited |
| 1938
| {{sortname|The|Adventures of Robin Hood|The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)}} | Guest at banquet | Uncredited |
| 1938
| Golddigger | Alternative title: The Gay Impostors |
| 1938
| June Cooper | Uncredited |
| 1938
| Ship passenger | Uncredited |
| 1938
| Girl at fair | Uncredited |
| 1938
| Myrtle, Lansford's 2nd Secretary | |
| 1938
| Commissary cashier | Uncredited |
| 1939
| Nancy Evans | Alternative title: Danger Rides the Range |
| 1939
| Daredevils of the Red Circle | Blanche Granville | |
| 1939
| June Jones | |
| 1939
| Reno | Mrs. Humphrey | Uncredited |
| 1940
| Loana | |
| 1940
| Sally Willows | |
| 1940
| June McCarthy | |
| 1941
| Penguin Moore | |
| 1941
| Ann Carrington | |
| 1941
| Barbara Latimer, aka Miss Sears | |
| 1941
| Lily Brown | |
| 1941
| Vicky Lynn | Alternative title: Hot Spot |
| 1941
| Gene Baxter | |
| 1942
| {{sortname|A|Gentleman at Heart}} | Helen Mason | |
| 1942
| Mae Collins | |
| 1942
| Kathryn Baker | |
| 1942
| Natalie Mercer | |
| 1942
| Edna Fraser | |
| 1943
| Kay Evans | |
| 1943
| Flossie Fouchere | |
| 1943
| Herself | |
| 1944
| Jill McGann | |
| 1944
| Herself | |
| 1945
| Helene Justus | |
| 1946
| Janet Bradley | |
| 1946
| {{sortname|A|Scandal in Paris}} | Loretta de Richet | Alternative title: Thieves' Holiday |
| 1946
| It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog | Julia Andrews | |
| 1947
| Mae Earthleigh | |
| 1948
| Noose | Linda Medbury | Alternative title: The Silk Noose; released posthumously |
| 1948
| Kay Sheldon | Alternative title: Lucky Mascot; released posthumously (final role) |
Radio appearances
| class="wikitable" | ||
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Warner Brothers Academy Theater | Special Agent{{cite journal|title=Those Were the Days|journal=Nostalgia Digest|date=Winter 2013|volume=39|issue=1|pages=32–41}} |
| 1942 | Command Performance | June 11 |
Theater
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Year | Theater genre | Play | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Broadway | A Lady Says Yes | Ghisella |
References
{{reflist|2}}
Further reading
- {{cite book |last= Alistair |first= Rupert |title= The Name Below the Title: 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age |chapter= Carole Landis |pages= 146–150 |date= 2018 |edition= First |publisher= Independently published |location= Great Britain |isbn = 978-1-7200-3837-5}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb name|484808}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20110510110628/http://www.carolelandisonline.com/ Carole Landis Online] (archived)
- [http://www.carolelandis.net/ Official website] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120301192523/http://www.carolelandisofficial.com/ archived version])
- {{IBDB name}}
- {{TCMDb name|107997%7C27800}}
- {{Rotten Tomatoes|celebrity/carole_landis}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Landis, Carole}}
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th Century Studios contract players
Category:Actresses from Wisconsin
Category:American film actresses
Category:American people of Norwegian descent
Category:American people of Polish descent
Category:American stage actresses
Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)
Category:Drug-related suicides in California
Category:Barbiturates-related deaths