Peg Entwistle
Encyclopedia
Peg Entwistle was an English
stage
and screen
actress who gained notoriety after her suicide at the age of 24 by leaping off of the Hollywood Sign
.
, Wales
to English parents, Robert Symes and Emily (née
Stevenson) Entwistle, she spent her early life in West Kensington
, London
. Her mother Emily died when she was very young and her father remarried. In March 1916, when she was eight, the family emigrated to America through Liverpool
aboard the SS Philadelphia and settled in New York City. Her father's second wife also died and in 1922 he was killed by a hit-and-run driver. She and her two younger half-brothers were taken in by their uncle, who had come with them to New York and was the manager of Broadway actor Walter Hampden
.
as a student of Henry Jewett's Repertory (now called The Huntington Theatre) and was one of the Henry Jewett Players, who were gaining national attention. Walter Hampden gave Entwistle an uncredited walk-on part in his Broadway production of Hamlet
which starred Ethel Barrymore
. She carried the King's train and brought in the poison-cup.
Entwistle later played the role of "Hedvig" in Henrik Ibsen
's The Wild Duck
. After seeing the play Bette Davis
told her mother "...I want to be exactly like Peg Entwistle." Some years later Broadway director Blanche Yurka
sent a note to Davis asking if she would like to play Hedvig and she sent word back that ever since she had seen Entwistle in The Wild Duck, she knew she would someday play Hedvig. Through the years Davis said Entwistle was her inspiration to take up acting.
By 1926 Entwistle had been recruited by the New York Theatre Guild and her first credited Broadway performance was in June of that year, as "Martha" in The Man from Toronto, which opened at The Selywn Theatre and ran for 28 performances. Entwistle performed in ten Broadway plays as a member of the Theatre Guild between 1926 and 1932, working with noted actors such as George M. Cohan
, William Gillette
, Bob Cummings, Dorothy Gish
, Hugh Sinclair
, Henry Travers
and Laurette Taylor
. Her longest-running play was the 1927 hit Tommy in which she starred with Sidney Toler
, which ran for 232 performances and became the play for which she was most remembered.
In April 1927 Entwistle married actor Robert Keith at the chapel of the New York City Clerk's office. She was granted a divorce in May 1929. Along with charges of cruelty, she claimed her husband did not tell her he had been married before and was the father of a six-year-old boy, Brian Keith
(who later became an actor).
The play The Uninvited Guest closed after only seven performances in September 1927, however New York Times critic J. Brooks Atkinson wrote, "...Peg Entwistle gave a performance considerably better than the play warranted."
She went on tour with the Theater Guild between Broadway productions. Changing characters every week, Entwistle garnered some publicity, such as an article in the Sunday edition of the New York Times in 1927 and another in the Oakland Tribune two years later.
Aside from a part in the suspense drama Sherlock Holmes and The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner and her desire to play more-challenging roles Entwistle was often cast as a comedienne, most often the attractive, good-hearted ingénue
. In 1929 she told a reporter:
In early 1932 Entwistle made her last Broadway appearance in J.M. Barrie's Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, which also starred Laurette Taylor
, whose alcoholism led to two missed evening performances and refunds to ticket-holders. The show was cancelled and in the aftermath Entwistle along with the other players were given only a week's salary, rather than a percentage of the box office gross which had been agreed upon before the show opened.
, Entwistle was in Los Angeles with a role in the Romney Brent
play The Mad Hopes starring Billie Burke
, which ran from May 23 to June 4 at the Belasco theater in downtown Los Angeles. Theatre critic Flo Lawrence commented:
starred Myrna Loy
and Irene Dunne
in a pre-Hays code, high budget thriller produced by David O. Selznick
and drawn from the novel by Tiffany Thayer
. Entwistle played a small supporting role as Hazel Cousins. It premiered on October 14, 1932, a month after her death, at the Roxy Theater
in New York City and was released in Los Angeles on November 11 to neither critical nor commercial success. By the time it was re-released in 1935, 14 minutes had been cut from the movie's original 73 minute running length. In 2008 Variety
magazine cited Thirteen Women as one of the earliest "female ensemble" films.
(which then read Hollywoodland) and then, according to a police transcript of the call, "wrapped a jacket, shoes and purse in a bundle and laid them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station." A detective and two radio car officers found the body of a moderately well-dressed, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman in the 100-foot ravine below the sign. Entwistle remained unidentified until her uncle connected her two-day absence with the description and initials P.E. on a suicide note which had been found in the purse and published by the newspapers. He said that on Friday the 16th she had told him she was going for a walk to a drugstore and see some friends. The police surmised that instead, she made her way from his Beachwood Drive home up the nearby southern slope of Mount Lee
to the foot of the Hollywoodland sign, climbed a workman's ladder to the top of the "H" and jumped. The cause of death was listed by the coroner as "multiple fractures of the pelvis."
The suicide note as published read:
Entwistle's death brought wide and often sensationalized publicity. Her funeral was held in Hollywood and the body was cremated, with the ashes later sent to Glendale, Ohio
, for burial next to her father in Oak Hill Cemetery, where they were interred on January 5, 1933. The burial site was unmarked until 2010 when, following a donation drive carried out on the social networking site Facebook
, an engraved granite marker was installed on September 16, widely believed to be the 78th anniversary of her death.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
and screen
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actress who gained notoriety after her suicide at the age of 24 by leaping off of the Hollywood Sign
Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is a landmark and American cultural icon in the Hollywood Hills area of Mount Lee, Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, California. The sign spells out the name of the area in and white letters. It was created as an advertisement in 1923, but garnered increasing recognition...
.
Early life
Born Millicent Lilian Entwistle in Port TalbotPort Talbot
Port Talbot is a town in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. It had a population of 35,633 in 2001.-History:Port Talbot grew out of the original small port and market town of Aberafan , which belonged to the medieval Lords of Afan. The area of the parish of Margam lying on the west bank of the lower Afan...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
to English parents, Robert Symes and Emily (née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...
Stevenson) Entwistle, she spent her early life in West Kensington
West Kensington
- Commercial/education :Local business consists of small shops, offices and restaurants, with the Olympia Exhibition Centre nearby. Indeed, it is the mix of local shops that give the area its character....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Her mother Emily died when she was very young and her father remarried. In March 1916, when she was eight, the family emigrated to America through Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
aboard the SS Philadelphia and settled in New York City. Her father's second wife also died and in 1922 he was killed by a hit-and-run driver. She and her two younger half-brothers were taken in by their uncle, who had come with them to New York and was the manager of Broadway actor Walter Hampden
Walter Hampden
Walter Hampden is the artist name of Walter Hampden Dougherty was a U.S. actor and theatre manager. He was the younger brother of the American painter Paul Dougherty ....
.
Broadway
In 1925 Entwistle was living in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
as a student of Henry Jewett's Repertory (now called The Huntington Theatre) and was one of the Henry Jewett Players, who were gaining national attention. Walter Hampden gave Entwistle an uncredited walk-on part in his Broadway production of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
which starred Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors.-Early life:Ethel Barrymore was born Ethel Mae Blythe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second child of the actors Maurice Barrymore and Georgiana Drew...
. She carried the King's train and brought in the poison-cup.
Entwistle later played the role of "Hedvig" in Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck
The Wild Duck is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.-Plot:The first act opens with a dinner party hosted by Håkon Werle, a wealthy merchant and industrialist. The gathering is attended by his son, Gregers Werle, who has just returned to his father's home following a self-imposed...
. After seeing the play Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
told her mother "...I want to be exactly like Peg Entwistle." Some years later Broadway director Blanche Yurka
Blanche Yurka
Blanche Yurka was an American theatre and film actress.Born in St Paul, Minnesota, Yurka was an opera star before she became an actress. She made her Broadway debut in 1910 and established herself as a character actor, also appearing in several films...
sent a note to Davis asking if she would like to play Hedvig and she sent word back that ever since she had seen Entwistle in The Wild Duck, she knew she would someday play Hedvig. Through the years Davis said Entwistle was her inspiration to take up acting.
By 1926 Entwistle had been recruited by the New York Theatre Guild and her first credited Broadway performance was in June of that year, as "Martha" in The Man from Toronto, which opened at The Selywn Theatre and ran for 28 performances. Entwistle performed in ten Broadway plays as a member of the Theatre Guild between 1926 and 1932, working with noted actors such as George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
, William Gillette
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who is best remembered today for portraying Sherlock Holmes....
, Bob Cummings, Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Gish
Dorothy Elizabeth Gish was an American actress, and the younger sister of actress Lillian Gish.-Early life:...
, Hugh Sinclair
Hugh Sinclair
Admiral Sir Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair KCB , nicknamed "Quex", was a British intelligence officer. Between 1919 and 1921, he was Director of British Naval Intelligence, and helped to set up the Secret Intelligence Service before the Second World War.-Career:Sinclair joined the Royal Navy in the...
, Henry Travers
Henry Travers
Henry Travers was an English actor. His most memorable role was that of the angel, Clarence, in the 1946 motion picture It's A Wonderful Life.-Early life:...
and Laurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film actress.-Personal life:Laurette Taylor was born in New York City of Irish extraction as Loretta Helen Cooney.-Personal life:...
. Her longest-running play was the 1927 hit Tommy in which she starred with Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler
Sidney Hooper Toler was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. Of primarily Scottish ancestry, he was the second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan.-Early life and career:...
, which ran for 232 performances and became the play for which she was most remembered.
In April 1927 Entwistle married actor Robert Keith at the chapel of the New York City Clerk's office. She was granted a divorce in May 1929. Along with charges of cruelty, she claimed her husband did not tell her he had been married before and was the father of a six-year-old boy, Brian Keith
Brian Keith
Brian Keith was an American film, television, and stage actor who in his four decade-long career gained recognition for his work in movies such as the 1961 Disney family film The Parent Trap, the 1966 comedy The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and the 1975 adventure saga The Wind and...
(who later became an actor).
The play The Uninvited Guest closed after only seven performances in September 1927, however New York Times critic J. Brooks Atkinson wrote, "...Peg Entwistle gave a performance considerably better than the play warranted."
She went on tour with the Theater Guild between Broadway productions. Changing characters every week, Entwistle garnered some publicity, such as an article in the Sunday edition of the New York Times in 1927 and another in the Oakland Tribune two years later.
Aside from a part in the suspense drama Sherlock Holmes and The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner and her desire to play more-challenging roles Entwistle was often cast as a comedienne, most often the attractive, good-hearted ingénue
Ingenue (stock character)
See also Disingenuous, which is not quite the antonym that it may seem!The ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Ingenue may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in...
. In 1929 she told a reporter:
"I would rather play roles that carry conviction. Maybe it is because they are the easiest and yet the hardest things for me to do. To play any kind of an emotional scene I must work up to a certain pitch. If I reach this in my first word, the rest of the words and lines take care of themselves. But if I fail I have to build up the balance of the speeches, and in doing this the whole characterization falls flat. I feel that I am cheating myself. I don't know whether other actresses get this same reaction or not, but it does worry me."
In early 1932 Entwistle made her last Broadway appearance in J.M. Barrie's Alice Sit-by-the-Fire, which also starred Laurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor
Laurette Taylor was an American stage and silent film actress.-Personal life:Laurette Taylor was born in New York City of Irish extraction as Loretta Helen Cooney.-Personal life:...
, whose alcoholism led to two missed evening performances and refunds to ticket-holders. The show was cancelled and in the aftermath Entwistle along with the other players were given only a week's salary, rather than a percentage of the box office gross which had been agreed upon before the show opened.
Hollywood
By May 1932, at the height of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, Entwistle was in Los Angeles with a role in the Romney Brent
Romney Brent
Romney Brent was a Mexican-born actor, director and dramatist. Most of his career was on stage in North America, but in the 1930s he was frequently seen on the London stage, on television and in films.-Biography:...
play The Mad Hopes starring Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
, which ran from May 23 to June 4 at the Belasco theater in downtown Los Angeles. Theatre critic Flo Lawrence commented:
"...Belasco and Curran have staged the new play most effectively and have endowed this Romney Brent opus with every distinction of cast and direction. (producer) Bela Blau ... has developed the comedy to its highest points. Costumes and settings are of delightful quality, and every detail makes the production one entirely fit for its translation to the New York stage. In the cast Peg Entwistle and Humphrey BogartHumphrey BogartHumphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
hold first place in supporting the star (Billie Burke) and both give fine, serious performances. Miss Entwistle as the earnest, young daughter (Geneva Hope) of a vague mother and presents a charming picture of youth..."
Thirteen Women
After The Mad Hopes closed Entwistle found her first and only credited film role, for Radio Pictures' (later RKO). Thirteen WomenThirteen Women
Thirteen Women is a psychological thriller film, produced by David O. Selznick and directed by George Archainbaud. It starred Myrna Loy, Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Florence Eldridge and Jill Esmond...
starred Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
and Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
in a pre-Hays code, high budget thriller produced by David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick was an American film producer. He is best known for having produced Gone with the Wind and Rebecca , both of which earned him an Oscar for Best Picture.-Early years:...
and drawn from the novel by Tiffany Thayer
Tiffany Thayer
Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer was an American actor, author and founder of the Fortean Society.-Biography:Born in Freeport, Illinois, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. Aged 16, he toured as the teenaged hero in the...
. Entwistle played a small supporting role as Hazel Cousins. It premiered on October 14, 1932, a month after her death, at the Roxy Theater
Roxy Theater
The Roxy Theatre was a 5,920 seat movie theater located at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City. It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film The Love of Sunya, produced by and starring Gloria Swanson. The huge movie palace was a leading...
in New York City and was released in Los Angeles on November 11 to neither critical nor commercial success. By the time it was re-released in 1935, 14 minutes had been cut from the movie's original 73 minute running length. In 2008 Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine cited Thirteen Women as one of the earliest "female ensemble" films.
Death
On Sunday, September 18, 1932, an anonymous woman telephoned the police and said that while hiking she had found a body below the Hollywood signHollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is a landmark and American cultural icon in the Hollywood Hills area of Mount Lee, Santa Monica Mountains, in Los Angeles, California. The sign spells out the name of the area in and white letters. It was created as an advertisement in 1923, but garnered increasing recognition...
(which then read Hollywoodland) and then, according to a police transcript of the call, "wrapped a jacket, shoes and purse in a bundle and laid them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station." A detective and two radio car officers found the body of a moderately well-dressed, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman in the 100-foot ravine below the sign. Entwistle remained unidentified until her uncle connected her two-day absence with the description and initials P.E. on a suicide note which had been found in the purse and published by the newspapers. He said that on Friday the 16th she had told him she was going for a walk to a drugstore and see some friends. The police surmised that instead, she made her way from his Beachwood Drive home up the nearby southern slope of Mount Lee
Mount Lee
Mount Lee is a peak in the Santa Monica Mountains, in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, USA. The famous Hollywood Sign is located on its southern slope. The sign is visible north of the Mulholland Highway. A good view of it can be had by driving north up Gower Street from Hollywood...
to the foot of the Hollywoodland sign, climbed a workman's ladder to the top of the "H" and jumped. The cause of death was listed by the coroner as "multiple fractures of the pelvis."
The suicide note as published 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."
Entwistle's death brought wide and often sensationalized publicity. Her funeral was held in Hollywood and the body was cremated, with the ashes later sent to Glendale, Ohio
Glendale, Ohio
Glendale is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,188 at the 2000 census. It is site of the Glendale Historic District.-Geography:Glendale is located at ....
, for burial next to her father in Oak Hill Cemetery, where they were interred on January 5, 1933. The burial site was unmarked until 2010 when, following a donation drive carried out on the social networking site Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, an engraved granite marker was installed on September 16, widely believed to be the 78th anniversary of her death.