His promising career was cut short when he was found shot to death, under mysterious circumstances in his home, in early 1937.
[1] Pearson's play, Shoestring, would serve as the basis for Robert Lord's screenplay On With the Show!, which in 1929 became the first color sound film.
It would be the only play written by Pearson produced on Broadway, having a short run at the Theatre Masque, lasting for 24 performances.
[17] In February 1937, after a night of drinking, Pearson was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest at his home in Palm Springs, California.
Initially, it was not clear whether the death was a suicide or at the hand of his wife, Rive King Pearson, but eventually the Palm Springs chief of police ruled it accidental.