Foolish way for both life and fame to end? (5)
I believe the answer is:
inane
'foolish' is the definition.
(inane can mean silly or foolish)
'life and fame to end?' is the wordplay.
'life' becomes 'ina' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and').
'to end?' says to take the final letters (I've seen 'end of' mean this).
The last letter of 'fame' is 'e'.
'ina'+'n'+'e'='INANE'
'way for both' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inane that I've seen before include "Lacking meaning" , "Fatuous, mindless" , "Mindlessly silly" , "Vacuous, silly" , "Lacking sense, silly" .)