Carole Landis — Biography

Frances Lillian Mary Ridste, known professionally as Carole Landis, was an American talent who graced both screen and song. Her career saw her as a featured performer at Twentieth Century-Fox throughout the 1940s. A pivotal moment arrived when she secured the principal female role in the 1940 United Artists production, One Million B.C., which catapulted her to greater recognition. Her striking physique earned her the notable nicknames "The Ping Girl" and "The Chest." Landis, who privately battled depression throughout her life, tragically ended her life in 1948 in Pacific Palisades, California, by ingesting an excessive amount of secobarbital. Her marital history includes unions with William Horace Schmidlapp Jr. from December 8, 1945, until her passing on July 5, 1948; Capt. Thomas C. Wallace, from January 5, 1943, to July 19, 1945, which concluded in divorce; Willis Hunt Jr., from July 4, 1940, to November 13, 1940, also ending in divorce; and Jack Robbins, with whom she was married from August 25, 1934, to May 9, 1939, and again briefly from January 14, 1934, to February 1934, a second marriage that was annulled.