Actor Found Dead at Spector Home 'was Depressed'

Witnesses at the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector yesterday painted a bleak portrait of the actor who was found dead at his Los Angeles mansion. Lana Clarkson, 40, was depicted as a fame-hungry performer who had grown depressed over her lack of film roles and had joked about committing suicide.

Spector is charged with the murder of Clarkson, who died from a gunshot wound to the face on February 3 2003. His defence attorneys contend that the actor killed herself at the producer's home.

Clarkson made an auspicious film debut in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, appearing opposite such other rising young actors as Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Forest Whitaker. She later went on to become a protégé of the legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman. But by the late 1990s the work had dried up.

On the night she met Spector, Clarkson was earning $9 (£4.40) an hour as a hostess at the House of Blues. Taking the witness stand, her friend Jennifer Hayes-Riedl said that she felt "depressed" and "humiliated" by the job. "She was pulling out chairs for people she had beaten out in auditions," Hayes-Riedl said.

Playwright John Barons, who worked with Clarkson shortly before her death, described her as a fame-hungry performer who was desperate for success. "The most important thing for her was her career and becoming famous," he said. Barons recalled that Clarkson once told him, "If you turn 40 in this town and you haven't made it you might as well find a bridge." However, under cross-examination, Barons said that he had never actually considered Clarkson to have exhibited suicidal tendencies.

Barons had hired Clarkson to impersonate Marilyn Monroe in his play Brentwood Blondes. He said that he cast her not for her acting talent but because he hoped that her presence might convince Roger Corman to see the show. "It was shallow of me," he admitted. However, Barons said that he found Clarkson difficult to work with and fired her before the play opened.

If convicted of murder, Spector faces between 15 years and life in prison. The case continues.