Peg Entwistle
Peg Entwistle (February 6, 1908 – September 18, 1932) was an aspiring Hollywood actress, famous for her suicide.
Early Life
Born Lillian Millicent Entwistle in Port Talbot, on Swansea Bay in Wales, she emigrated with her widowed father to New York City in 1922. After her father was killed in a traffic accident, she began to suffer from depression. Despite this, dreams of becoming a famous entertainer kept her determined and striving for success at a very young age. Entwistle had begun to pursue a career in theatre and made her stage debut in Hamlet with the Boston repertory company at age 17. She then obtained two co-starring roles in prestigious Broadway productions -- Getting Married (with Dorothy Gish) and Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire (with Laurette Taylor). But by the early 1930s, with the onslaught of The Great Depression, a majority of the public could no longer afford the expensive tickets to Broadway shows. Because of this, Peg's last seven New York plays flopped. Entwistle took the failures personally and began drinking alcohol. With both her parents dead, life had been stressful for the young actress, and the financial troubles of Broadway only added to this. She was further stressed by a brief, but very difficult, marriage to divorceé Robert Keith, an actor and playwright.
Hollywood Career
With work on the New York stage no longer reliable, Entwistle decided to move to California in hopes of finding work as a motion picture actress. While Broadway may have been suffering, Hollywood was booming with prosperity. She arrived in Los Angeles in April 1932 and moved into a rooming house for aspiring young actresses. After her money ran out, she went to live at the home of her Uncle Harold at 2428 Beachwood Canyon Drive. Entwistle's theatre experience helped land her an acting job in a stage production starring Billie Burke, but the play closed after only a short run. Her luck soon changed when movie studio RKO signed her to a small role in the David O. Selznick production, Thirteen Women. The film, however, was panned by critics and the ticket sales were disappointing. After this small role, her contract with RKO wasn't renewed. Saddened, but still determined to make a name for herself in the movies, Peg went on numerous casting calls and auditions. She wasn't offered any work and began to feel she wasn't a good actress. Only five months after arriving in Hollywood, Peg felt rejected, was left with no self-esteem and very little money. Desperate for any opportunity, she posed topless for a small fee.
Death
The depression that Entwistle had been battling with for years reached its zenith, and on the night of September 16, 1932, she told her uncle she was going to walk to a nearby drugstore. But instead of walking to the drugstore as promised, Peg made her way up the southern slope of a high hill known as Mount Lee -- which was just down the street from her uncle's home -- to the foot of the giant Hollywood sign. Originally constructed in 1923, the sign was made up of 50-foot-high white letters spelling "HOLLYWOODLAND" (the last four letters were removed in 1949). It was used as a publicity ploy to encourage the sales of homes in the Hollywoodland subdivision, which was located along Beachwood Canyon. When Peg reached the sign, she took off her coat, folded it into a neat bundle, and placed it on the ground next to her purse. She then climbed the maintenance ladder to the top of the letter "H" and jumped to her death.
Her bloody and broken body was discovered on September 18, 1932, in the brush at the base of the hill. When police examined the girl's belongings, in her purse they found a note that read:
- I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E.
Two days later, in an ironic twist, Entwistle's uncle opened a letter addressed to Peg from the Beverly Hills Playhouse. It was mailed the day before she jumped. In it was an offer for her to play the lead role in a stage production, in which her character would commit suicide in the final act. [1]
On January 5, 1933, the body of twenty-four-year-old Peg Entwistle was shipped to Glendale, Ohio for burial next to her father in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Trivia
Entwistle's stepson through her marriage to Robert Keith, Robert Keith Richey, Jr., would take the name Brian Keith and become an actor. Most famous for his role as "Uncle Bill" on the television series Family Affair, he commited suicide in 1997.
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