Clark Gable & Carole Lombard

The pair met in 1932 while filming their only project together, "No Man of Her Own.Later met again at the night of the glamorous “White Mayfair” ball in Beverly Hills is part of Hollywood lore. Hosted by Carole Lombard on a January evening in 1936, it featured a who’s-who of the entertainment industry, including the undisputed King himself: Clark Gable.That night, Lombard was reintroduced to Gable—and soused sparks flew.Clark was a very self-involved person, but Carole recognized that, and she adjusted her life to fit his.He needed someone good-looking on his arm, someone who would challenge him but also someone who could adapt to his lifestyle.Carole was a tomboy. She became a capable camper and hunter to please him.

Gable and Lombard married soon after on March 12, 1939. Gable was given a break in the midst of filming "Gone with the Wind." The Saturday Evening Post writes that the couple took advantage of this time off and eloped in Kingman, Arizona. They settled into domestic life at a ranch in Encino, California, where they had a slew of farm animals. Gable and Lombard were said to have loved the outdoors and spent their time hiking and camping. They rarely spent time apart. And when they did, they sent each other goofy gifts.However, their marriage was not all sunshine and rainbows. Lombard was determined to start a family with Gable but she struggled to become pregnant and Gable's unfaithful behaviour.

When Carole departed for a tour selling war bonds in 1942. On an LA-bound flight from Las Vegas, she was tragically killed in a plane crash.Lombard was doing her part to support the war effort abroad; the purpose of her trip back home to Indianapolis, Indiana was to sell defense bonds for what she called, according to Photoplay, "the best damned land there is." Before leaving Hollywood, she and her mother, Elizabeth Peters, visited a psychic they occasionally saw for fun. The woman shook her head when she read Lombard's fortune: "Keep out of planes in 1942," she allegedly warned. "There is danger in them for you."

On the Indianapolis trip, Lombard was accompanied by her mother and Otto Winkler, Gable's press agent and longtime friend, who'd been with the couple when they eloped. Gable had asked him to assist Lombard on the journey. On the day they were to return to California, both Otto and Lombard's mother tried to talk her out of flying. Winkler had experienced a premonition of a plane crash just days before, according to the Post, and was concerned about flying in winter conditions. Peters had the psychic's words on her mind.But Lombard had scored last-minute seats on TWA Flight 3, desperate to get back and fix things with the man she called "Pappy" and "Mr. G." They decided on a coin toss to settle the dispute, and Lombard won. After a stop in Las Vegas to refuel, she, her mother, and Winkler lost their lives later that day en route to Los Angeles when their plane crash landed on Nevada's Potosi Mountain.

Her death left Clark devastated. When he learned of the news, he flew out to Nevada with Winkler's wife and a few others, and demanded that he be allowed to visit the wreckage himself. When locals tried to dissuade him from climbing the 7,800-foot-steep peak, a hike so treacherous and studded with cacti and boulders that even "experienced Indian guides and hardened trackers" found it challenging, he reportedly snapped, "If those Indians can go on horseback and on foot, I can go on horseback and on foot."Gable and his guides hiked until they began to see "pitiful bits of wreckage of the plane scattered about them. At that point an official stopped them, indicating that the bodies of the passengers-including Lombard, her mother, Winkler, and 15 young pilots who'd been headed West to serve in the war-were just ahead.He search and rescue found a hair clip that Gable had given her for Christmas, with a few strands of her blonde hair still attached.

It’s like Clark aged 10 years in one weekend,he lost his drive to be a movie star and started drinking a lot more.He eventually joined the Army Air Force. People said he had a death wish.He felt guilty about Carole’s death. They’d had a huge fight before she left.After his passing at age 59, Clark was buried beside Carole — his one true love.