KallMeKris

Um, and it,

It just makes my heart very sad for Natalie.

But Natalie, who earned millions for her family before she was old enough to drive, sadly never had the chance to even be a child.

And she got a career instead and a mother who would trade anything to keep it going.

So the hardest thing a child star can do is grow up on screen and survive it.

And most don't, honestly.

And the audience that adored them at eight years old doesn't quite know what to do with them at 16.

And Natalie signed a contract with Warner Brothers hoping for serious work.

But instead, the studio kept handing her the same kind of part.

the pretty girl standing next to the lead, nothing with any real substance.

And Warner Brothers tried matching her on screen with Tab Hunter, the biggest teen heartthrob around.

And the idea was that putting the two of them together would pack theaters, but it didn't.

And one exception to the supporting pretty girl typecast was Marjorie Morningstar in 1958.

And she played a Jewish girl trying to carve out a life on her own terms while her family pushes towards something more conventional.

And critics responded well, and the movie landed at exactly the right moment.

And as the 1950s were full of films about young people pushing back against the world they'd inherited.

But the role that actually changed everything for her came three years before, in 1955, when director, Nicholas Ray, was casting Rebel Without a Cause, and the part of Judy was exactly what Natalie needed, a chance to prove she could do more than just be a pretty face on screen.

And she was 16 at the time, and Ray was 43.

Oh.

The competition for the role was enormous.