Eric Linden
Eric Linden was an American actor, primarily active during the 1930s.
Early years
Eric Linden was born in New York City to Phillip and Elvira Linden, both of Swedish descent. His father was a professional pianist and an actor on stage with the Royal Dramatic Theatre when he lived in Stockholm, Sweden. When Eric was six, Phillip Linden deserted his family in New York City.To help support his mother, sister and two brothers, he began washing dishes at a cafe after school when he was 7 years old. He also sold newspapers on Tenth Avenue. Linden attended and participated in school plays at DeWitt Clinton High School. After graduation, he worked his way through Columbia University. His first job after graduating from Columbia was being a runner for a bank.
Writing
Linden had ambitions of becoming a writer rather than an actor. By the time he was 22 years old, he had written three plays and 40 short stories, but none had been published. He had hoped to have saved enough money by age 30 to retire from acting and spend his time writing.Stage
Linden trained with the Theatre Guild for two years and went on to appear on Broadway in addition to acting in stock theater in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and acting in Paris, France, with the Paris-American Company. He appeared in an adaption of Faust on Broadway in 1928. Other stage credits included The Silver Cord, The Age of Consent, Life Begins, Sweepings, and Big City Blues.Film career
Linden made his film debut during the Great Depression in RKO Radio Pictures' 1931 crime film, Are These Our Children?, in which he played a young murderer who gets executed. He afterwards appeared in 33 films until 1941, mostly playing boyish second leads with occasional leading roles in smaller pictures.Linden frequently portrayed "sensitive, intellectual, slightly weak-willed juveniles", sometimes with tragic destinies. His notable films include Big City Blues with Joan Blondell, Old Hutch opposite Wallace Beery, Ah, Wilderness! and A Family Affair, both with Lionel Barrymore and Mickey Rooney, and The Good Old Soak, again with Wallace Beery.
In 1939, Linden had a small but memorable role in the hospital in Gone with the Wind as the desperate soldier whose leg has to be amputated without chloroform; Linden's role was originally planned to be more extensive, but his screen time was reduced to less than a minute in post-production. His career petered out and he left Hollywood after his final role, a leading part in the low-budget-picture Criminals Within.
After Hollywood, Linden returned to stage acting, going on to appear in such plays as The Philadelphia Story, My Sister Eileen, and Brighton Rock.