Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 40

NATALIE WOOD Hottest film bet for 1958 She's only 19, but teenagers love her and maybe you will, too by LLOYD SHEARER Parade West Coast correspondent The break came in 1954 with Rebel, but the determination was only whetted. When Warners began casting Marjorie Morningstar, Natalie was tested after two dozen other actresses. Says director Irving Rapper: "That was it. Natalie is Marjorie. When Herman Wouk saw the test, he knew our search was over.

"The picture will be out early in 1958. I honestly don't think you-willee-a-rrner performance all year. Natalie wanted this part so frantically that when she finally won it, she gave it every ounce of effort and energy she has." She's an Old Hand Natalie is a child of the motion-picture industry. Born Natasha Gurdin in San Francisco, reared in Hollywood as the daughter of a movie prop man, she has worked in films since the age of 4. In 1945, when she was 7, she won her first Boxofnce Blue Ribbon Award.

In 1947, Parents Magazine named her "the most talented juvenile morion-picture star of the year." Most of her schooling has been done on studio lots, and the steady adult environment has made her precocious, worldly, knowledgeable. She has a delightful sense of humor and is an ace mimic, particularly of Marlon Brando. One morning when she was filming, she noticed that director David Butler was a mite de pressed. She thereupon ran up to him and began recit HOLLYWOOD. Natalie Wood is a buzzing, brown-eyed mosquito of a girl who knew what she wanted and got it.

Since Natalie is only 19 and wanted top-rung screen stardom, this is no small achievement. In addition, this tiny 94 lbs.) teenager will be Hollywood's most wanted young actress in 1958. A few months ago Natalie won the coveted lead opposite Gene Kelly in Marjorie Morningstar, Herman Wouk's best-selling novel, over Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and 22 other actresses. She also zoomed to the top in the Warner Brothers fan-mail sweepstakes. She has been requested by every rival studio in town for loanouts.

Frank Sinatra got her for Kings Go Forth by paying $100,000 and agreeing to star in one Warner Brothers picture, a commitment worth roughly around $350,000. Sinatra was willing to do this because Natalie Wood currently is the most popular movie star in America with teenagers. And teenagers nowadays go to the movies the most. In the words of Gene Kelly: "Natalie is the teenagers' teenager, the one girl they all identify with. In 1958 she will be bigger than ever.

She'll win over the adult audience, too." Hqw did it happen? Hollywood is running over with girls prettier, sexier, even more talented than Natalie. Here is her own answer: "Success in this business depends on three factors: talent, timing and luck. I had all three." James Dean Started It Says a Warner executive: "The truth is that the kid's been extremely lucky. A few years ago we cast her in a picture with James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause. In that picture was another kid, Sal Mineo.

When Jimmy Dean died, the teenagers made him a martyr and latched on to Wood and Mineo. "Both of them also got Academy Award nominations for their work in Rebel. I guess that showed they were persons of substance and talent that other teenagers could look up to. Anyway, the fan mail began coming in. So we signed Natalie.

"Like every other studio. in town, we were desperate for female talent. We put the kid in The Searchers, A Cry in the Night, The Burning Hills. The teenagers loved her. The girls considered her one of them, and the boys regarded her as the kind of cool girl-friend they'd like for a steady." According to her mother, Natalie's success is the result of unshakable willpower.

Although her angelic face belies it, the girl has the tenaciousness of an octopus and the determination of a battering ram. "All my life," she says, "I've wanted to be a great actress. Nothing else has mattered to me. Ever since I was knee-high I've been waiting for my break." i' ing her favorite line from A Streetcar Named Desire: "Young man! Young man! Did anyone ever tell you that you looked like a young prince out of the Arabian Nights?" Since David Butler is in his 50s and weighed 250 pounds at the time, the cast broke into peals of laughter. Literate, studious, enormously proud of her work "I will go to any lengths to give a good performance" Natalie also is friendly, cooperative and well-liked by her colleagues.

Aware of her tremendous teen-age following, she is careful about publicity. Last year she made the feature pages of most newspapers by visiting Elvis Presley at his home in Memphis. Says Natalie smilingly, "Elvis is a very sweet boy. We played ping-pong." About James Dean she is most cautious. "As an actor," she says, "he was great." Natalie now earns $750 a week, which is being revised upwards.

She drives a Cadillac, lives in a $65,000 home with her parents and small sister, who also acts. An older sister, Teddy, is married and the mother of two children. Next week Natalie intends to get married herself, to actor Robert Wagner (if they are not already wed by the time you read this). "Tiger," as Natalie has been nicknamed, sees no reason why she can't mix her burgeoning career with marriage. Other actresses have thought that and been wrong but Natalie may be different.

So far, she's gotten what she wants. y- I A STAR AT 19, Natalie Wood looks to the future with energy and confidence. Her screen name, incidentally, was given her by producer William Goetz in honor of his friend, the late director Sam Wood. 4 Parade Dec. 29, 1957.