KallMeKris

So while the family lived in Santa Rosa, a production company happened to be filming at the area, where someone on the crew noticed the four-year-old Natalie.

And her first movie was then The Moon is Dawn, a John Steinbeck adaptation that hit theaters in spring of 1943.

And she popped up again that same year in Happyland, receiving 15 seconds of screen time.

And both were directed by Irving Pichelle.

And he took a liking to the girl immediately.

And for the next two years, Pichelle kept up a relationship with the Gurdons, Natalie's family.

And eventually a part opened up and Pichelle reached out and he wanted Natalie in Los Angeles to test for it.

Maria didn't just bring Natalie, Maria uprooted their entire family.

The whole family moved to Los Angeles for good.

And Nicholas didn't really want to go and he made that pretty clear, but...

Maria didn't care.

Her mind was made up and nothing he said was going to change it.

So biographer Suzanne Finstead wrote that Maria had been desperately pushing her daughter into the business from the very start.

Classic show mom living vicariously through her daughter, even if it means putting her into situations she shouldn't be in, you know?

But in 1946, Pichelle got her in the door for Tomorrow is Forever, a romance film.

And she tested for the part of a European war orphan opposite Orson Welles and won it.

And allegedly on set, she couldn't cry on cue.

So Maria grabbed a live butterfly and ripped its wings off right in front of her

And the tears came instantly.

It worked.