Barbara Bates committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 43.
She had a successful acting and modelling career that spanned over 20 years, yet she suffered from chronic depression for most of her adult life. After the death of her first husband her mental health declined dramatically. In the two years leading up to her death, she retired from public life and moved back to her birth place - Denver, Colorado - where she worked as secretary, dental assistant, and hospital aide. She took her own life by carbon monoxide poisoning. It was her second suicide attempt.
Bella Darvi (born Bajla Węgier) attempted suicide several times before her death by gas in Monte Carlo in 1971. She was 42.
The Polish actress was jailed by Nazis during World War II. She was released in 1943 and moved to Monaco in 1950 where she married. She was later discovered in Paris by the wife of an American film producer, and she soon divorced her first husband to move in with the producer and his wife. The producer ultimately left his wife for Bella, but later divorced her when he discovered she was openly bisexual. She starred in only three American and a handful of French and Italian films.
Carole Landis committed suicide by a Seconal overdose in 1948; she was only 29.
She starred in a series of successful films in the 40s, and began having an affair with a producer (the same producer who went on to marry and later leave Bella Darvi). She toured more than 100 000 miles entertaining troops during WWII, starred on Broadway, wrote several newspaper and magazine articles on her experiences during the war, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was married four times, yet her biggest love was for a married actor she met months before her death. He refused to leave his wife, and Carole was unable to cope with the heartache. The actor was the last person to see her alive (the night before her suicide), and was the one to find her body.
Peg Entwistle took her own life in 1932 at the age of 24. She jumped off the "H" of the Hollywood sign.
The English actress moved to America when she was a child, and starred in several Broadway productions but only one film. In 1926, a young Bette Davis saw the play The Wild Duck, in which Peg played the role of Hedvig. Davis told her mother, "I want to be exactly like Peg Entwistle", and maintained that Peg was her inspiration for taking up acting.
Phyllis Haver overdosed on Barbiturates in 1960 at the age of 61.
Born in 1899, she and her family moved to Los Angeles when it was a city of just half a million inhabitants. She was a prominent silent film actress, and in 1927 played Roxie Hart in the first (silent) film adaptation of Chicago.
