3. Carole Lombard - To Be Or Not To Be
United ArtistsThe Queen of Screwball Comedy, Carole Lombard had a short but impressive career in Hollywood. Her star skyrocketed during the 1930s, when she was known for her work in the kind of witty, farcical genre of comedies that became popular during the Great Depression. She starred alongside many of the leading men of the day, including William Powell, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant. In 1941, she began work on what was to be one of her most enduring films, To Be or Not to Be, an Ernst Lubitsch movie about an acting troupe that got caught up in a Polish soldier's attempts to catch a German spy. She played Maria, the leading actress of the company, and although the film was initially not well-received, it has grown in acclaim over the years. Unfortunately, Lombard did not live long enough to see it. While the film was in post-production, she was flying home to California from a War Bond tour when her plane crashed, killing the actress at the age of 33. Ironically, her final film originally featured her quipping, "What can happen in a plane?", which was subsequently removed after her untimely demise.