Harron's tragic death remains a mystery. Officially classified as an accident, those who follow that theory believe that Harron, who was in New York on September 2, 1920, for the premiere of
D.W. Griffith's
Way Down East (1920), which was scheduled for the next day, purchased a revolver from a man who needed money, put it in his dinner jacket pocket and forgot about it. Later he took the dinner jacket from a trunk, the gun fell to the floor and discharged, striking him in the left lung. Those who maintain
that Bobby's death was a suicide claim that Bobby was extremely despondent when Griffith bypassed him for the lead role in "Way Down East" in favor of his new protégé,
Richard Barthelmess. At the time Bobby was contemplating leaving the Griffith fold and forming his own production company due to concerns that he was or might be replaced.
