RUSS COLUMBO

Russ Columbo was an actor and composer from the 1920s to the 1930s. Some of his movies include: The Wolf Song, Hell Bound, Moulin Rouge, and Wake Up and Dream. He passed away in 1934 at the age of 26 under bizarre and tragic circumstances. Columbo was visiting the studio of a photographer friend when the friend, in lighting a cigarette, lit the match by striking it against the wooden stock of an antique French dueling pistol. The flame set off a long-forgotten charge in the gun, and a lead pistol ball was fired. The pistol ball ricocheted off a nearby table and hit Columbo in the forehead, killing him. He was, at the time dating Carole Lombard, and his family lied to his terminally ill mother about his death, convinced that telling her the truth would kill her. She eventually passed away in 1944.