JACK LUDEN - Paramount Studios Original and similar items

Authentic, vintage Paramount Studios promotional photograph of actor Jack Luden with printed signature. Measures 5" x 7" on textured stock. Condition: This is an original photograph, not a reproduction. It is in very good condition. Additional Information: Jack Luden's story is one of the saddest in Hollywood. He was born as Jacob Benson Luden in Reading, Pennsylvania, with a silver spoon in his mouth; his uncle was the millionaire founder of Luden's Cough Drops. He won a contest to attend the Paramount Pictures' School of Acting and the studio ordered him to Hollywood the following year and he acted in various films both there and on loan to FBO during the sound transition period. Possessing good looks, passable voice and a degree of acting talent, he should have been on the fast track toward stardom but his studio faced hard times after 1930 and somehow Luden was lost in the shuffle. More seriously, he acquired a heroin habit (possibly as early as 1929) and found it impossible to keep it hidden. He was released from his Paramount contract, and some accounts claim he simply walked out. Having never achieved stardom, Luden found himself adrift and was known to commit wholesale shoplifting to support his drug habit. Several years later following a brief comeback he was arrested for possession and writing bad checks and was sent to San Quentin State Pennitentiary. Luden, ultimately his own worst enemy, died there 9 months into his sentence from a heart attack at age 49 in 1951.