Hollywood & Crime: Peg Entwistle and the H on the Hollywood Sign
A struggling actress's tragic end became the ultimate symbol of the Hollywood dream gone awry.
In 1925, a 17-year-old named Ruth Elizabeth Davis went to see a production of Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. She was so taken by the actress playing the role of Hedvig that she turned to her mother and said, “I want to be exactly like Peg Entwistle.” This is the origin story of one of Hollywood’s most indelible icons, Bette Davis. She shared this story multiple times over the course of her career, heralding Peg Entwistle’s stage work as the impetus for one of the greatest actors in cinematic history. This would be a pretty stellar legacy for any actor, to be the spark that ignited the ambition of a genuine legend. But Peg Entwistle’s work as an actress has never been heralded by history. Instead, her name is synonymous with tragedy, with her death becoming tied to the enduring lore of Hollywood as a place of sin and misery.
Millicent Lilian Entwistle was born in Wales in 1908 and moved to America when she was a child. Her father, Robert, was an actor who found work on the New York stage but died in 1922 in a hit-and-run incident. Millicent, who shortened her name to Peg, and her two younger half-brothers were taken in by their uncle, who was the manager of Broadway actor Walter Hampden. In the ‘20s, Hampden was a big deal on Broadway, although you might recognise him for playing Humphrey Bogart’s dad in Sabrina. He gave Peg an uncredited walk-on part in his Broadway production of Hamlet when she was still a teenager.
Soon, Peg was taking on major theatrical roles, like The Wild Duck. In 1926, she joined the New York Theatre Guild, a prestigious group whose members included Dorothy Gish and George M. Cohan. Touring with the Theatre Guild took her across the country with an intense workload. The ensemble was putting on different shows every week, requiring Peg to memorise several plays at once. It was gruelling. It was also inconsistent. As is still the case with theatre, there’s no guarantee of reliable work. Peg starred in plays that ran for only a few weeks.
