Marta Kristen, 18-year-old, blue-eyed blonde who comes to Holly-
wood via Oslo, Norway and Detroit, Michigan, is a likely candidate to
join the ranks of Walt Disney discoveries like Hayley Mills, Tommy
Kirk, Annette and Kevin Corcoran |
A willowy, young-Ingrid Berg
man-type, Marta is currently star
ring with Brian Keith, Dewey Mari
tin, Tommy Kirk and Kevin Cor-
coran in Disney's feature motion
picture, "Savage Sam," a sequel
to "Old Yeller." She is pretty, in-
telligent, long-legged, pug-nosed,
effervescent and refreshingly can-
did.
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The bizarre set of circumstances
that landed her in Hollywood con-
stitute a fantastic, modern-day
Cinderella story. Born in Oslo, Nor-
way on February 26, 1945, Marta
was left in an orphanage by her
parents when she was two weeks
old.
For four-and-a-half years she
was an unwanted Norwegian war
waif. 1n 1948, Marta's picture was
sent to Professor and Mrs. Harold
Soderquist of Detroit, Michigan by
an Oslo social worker, Marta Bent-
zen. Soderquist, a teacher of Phil-
osophy at Wayne University in
Detroit, had been unable to adopt
the girl of his choice and was
offered Martn as a replacement.
Delighted with Marta's apparent
vivacity, the Soderquists scaled a
mountain of international red tape
to adopt the little girl.
Marta quickly adjusted to the
language and customs of the United
States. She entered Farmington
Elementary School, and as a ten-
year-old fourth grader starred in
an original comedy which she andi
two other 10-year-olds had written.
A piano-playing colleague of her
father's, Professor Henry Herman,
recommended Marta to the famous
Will-O-Way Theatre in Birming-
ham, Michigan on the strength of
her singing and dancing to ballads
he played on frequent visits to the
Soderquist home. Marta was ac-
cepted and cast in "Taming of the
Shrew" and "Little Women" at
Will-O-Way in summer stock when
she was fourteen. She later took
a course in drama at the Detroit
Civic Theatre.
In 1959, Professor Soderquist
took his family to California on
sabbatical leave. Marta studied at
Santa Monica High School for a
year, then remaining in California
with a guardian while her parents
went back to Detroit, finished her
high school education at Holly-
wood Professional School at 16.
Her future plans for higher edu-
cation are to graduate from "a
good college, even if I have to go
to night school." An avid reader,
Marta has consumed a good deal
of the world's great literature. Her
favorite author is Erich Maria Re-
marque, but she reads and enjoys
any book that is recommended by
her erudite father.
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The lovely young actress was
"discovered" while eating a ham-
burger with a boyfriend at a
drive-in restaurant in Santa
Monica. Producer Jimmy Harris
approached her and asked if she
would like to try out for "Lolita."
At first she thought he was kid-
ding, but after checking Harris'
background, she read for the part.
"My mother thought the role
was not for me, so I withdrew,"
she says.
Producer Harris, however, can
be credited with starting Marta on
a Hollywood career. He placed her
in the hands of an actor's agent
who immediately got her a fea-
ture role in "The Loretta Young
Show." During the next eighteen
months, Marta co-starred in two
"Alfred Hitchcock" shows, two seg-
ments of the "My Three Sons"
series with Fred MacMurray, a
"Leave it to Beaver" segment and
a "Shirley Temple" show.
Fortunately, Marta is an excel-
lent rider. In "Savage Sam," she
is captured by a band of renegade
Apaches and driven on hoseback
halfway across the Texas Pan-
handle.
Although Marta's temporary
abode is in West Los Angeles, she
considers her dad's five-acre spread
in Farmington, Michigan, her real
home. The oversized estate has a
swimmming pool and four acres of
woods in which she "loves to walk
or camp alone." |