Carole Landis : "Pray for Me"

"I know how Lupe Velez felt. You fight just so long and then you begin to worry about being washed up. You fear there's one way to go and that's down." - Carole Landis

Absent from film work most of 1944 because of USO tours in the Pacific, Carol returned to Hollywood weakened by amoebic dysentery, malaria, and near-fatal pneumonia only to find the film dismissed as "self-praise". After Having Wonderful Crime (1945)--perhaps her best comedy--and two B pictures, her Fox contract was dropped. Ostracized in Hollywood due to her ardent feminism and rumors about sexual peccadillos, she made her last two films in England. With a stalled career, poor health, failed marriages, financial problems, and the ending of a torrid affair with married Rex Harrison, Carole Landis committed suicide with Seconal in 1948. Intelligent, generous, talented and gorgeous, she was only 29.


Photo shows Detective Captain Emmett E. Jones as he inspects the scene. Leaving a farewell note to her mother, the actress committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills Sunday night. Investigators were unable to determine a motive. British film star Rex Harrison found the body.

Carole's suicide note was addressed to her mother, Mrs. Clara Landis. The note reads: "Dearest Mommie: I am sorry, really sorry, to put you through this. But there is no way to avoid it. I love you Darling. You have been the most wonderful mom ever. And that applies to all our family. I love each and every one of them dearly. Everything goes to you. Look in the files, and there is a will which decrees everything. Good bye, my angel. Pray for me." and with a pencil she scrawled, not her name, but---"your baby."

Photo of Carole's casket in Forest Lawn Cemetery. The front pallbearer at left is Cesar Romero, motion picture star, while at the right front is Willard Parker. Both were close friends of the lovely actress who took her own life. To the right, Mrs. Clara Landis, mother of Carole, is dazed with grief as the body of her daughter is committed to the earth.

The character of fragile, blonde Jennifer North in "Valley of the Dolls" is partially based on Landis. She became friendly with future author Jacqueline Susann in 1944 when they appeared together in the Broadway revue "The Lady Says Yes".

Carole Landis
January 1st, 1919 - July 5th, 1948
R.I.P.