From the January 28, 1957 feature: "THE STRANGE DOINGS OF ACTRESS AT PRACTICE—Fr...

From the January 28, 1957 feature: "THE STRANGE DOINGS OF ACTRESS AT PRACTICE—Friends Help Natalie Wood Polish Dramatic." According to LIFE, "No one in Hollywood works at it more devotedly than Natalie Wood, who at 18 is a veteran of 14 years in the movies...Together with two other talented young performers, Nick Adams, 23, and Dennis Hopper, 20, Natalie studies as many as 10 movies a week. Evenings the trio meets in each other's homes and reads from the classics." Pictured here are Adams and Hopper swinging Wood from the rafters spoofing the movie Trapeze. (Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #LIFElegends #NatalieWood #DennisHopper