Born in Montréal, Québec, Canada, Norma Shearer was known as an actress with a determined will, common sense and beauty, who easily spanned both the silent and talkie eras. She left the comforts of her middle class upbringing to endure the struggles of an often unemployed actress in her early career, taking jobs as extras or in silly bit roles solely to make a living. Although he had noticed her years earlier, Irving Thalberg, when he became production head at M-G-M, took Norma on the road to becoming a star with her first long term studio contract.