The Girl Who Jumped from the Hollywood Sign Peg Entwistle

A young actor jumped off the Hollywood sign to her death after a movie studio declined to renew her contract and much of her film debut ended up on the cutting room floor. Peg Entwistle was a successful Broadway actor who came to Hollywood in 1932 to try to make it on the big screen. She soon was signed by RKO Studios and made her film debut in the thriller Thirteen Women. Unfortunately, much of her performance was cut from the final film, and, adding insult to injury, RKO declined to renew her contract. So, on the night of Sept. 16, 1932, Peg left her uncle’s home, climbed to the top of Hollywood sign, and leapt to her death. Peg’s story has become Hollywood legend — a perfect embodiment of the disappointment and struggle so many who have come to Hollywood have experienced. But according to the biography Peg Entwistle and the Hollywood Sign Suicide, she had endured career disappointments before and it’s unlikely she killed herself over these recent ones in Hollywood. The reasons for her suicide wer