The suicide note 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.
The Los Angeles Times published the note, in hopes that someone would be able to identify her. A man soon came forward, saying he thought that the note had been written by Peg Entwistle and that he was her uncle Harold. A positive identification at the morgue confirmed this.
Peg Entwistle was a British-born actress who had come to America at fourteen to pursue an acting career. She landed lead roles in eight consecutive Broadway productions, but all turned out to be flops. Peg saw Hollywood as a fresh start; a way to revive her sinking career. So she headed to California and moved in with her uncle, who lived at 2428 Beachwood Drive. Peg soon won a role in a play called "The Mad Hopes" opposite Billie Burke and Humphrey Bogart. Soon after, RKO studios offered her a contract. She had several walk-on roles, but the first film in which she had a substantial part was "Thirteen Women". However, in the process of editing, Peg ended up mostly on the cutting room floor. The film received negative reviews, and RKO dropped her. Her career went downhill from there, driving her to the top of the Hollywood sign. Ironically, the day after she jumped from the sign, a letter arrived for her from the Beverly Hills Playhouse. They were offering her the lead role in a play about a woman driven to suicide.
There were rumors that Peg had jumped due to an ill-fated romance with an actor named Robert Keith. But since the romance had ended two years before, her uncle ruled it out as a probable cause of her suicide. Interestingly, Robert Keith's young son, Brian, grew up to play the role of "Uncle Bill" on the television show "Family Affair."
Peg Entwistle's funeral was held at the W.M. Strothers Mortuary, which has since been torn down. She was cremated at Hollywood Memorial Park and was buried with her father at Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio. Peg was twenty-four years old at the time of her death. The note on her death certificate actually reads: "This lady was a movie star who committed suicide by jumping from the letter "H" in the Hollywood sign."
