Miss Nude Universe twice in a row, in 1970 and 1971, got her a topless
non-speaking part in
The New Centurions (1972). Started working as a maid for fellow nude
model and actress
Stella Stevens, went on tour as a strip-dancer for three
years. Then she met talent-finder
Russ Meyer, with whom she lived
on-and-off for 15 years, and who apparently paid for her breast enhancement
in 1979. They didn't marry because her first husband, 25 years her
senior, wouldn't grant her a divorce (eventually he did, and she
subsequently married, and divorced, three times). She appeared in many
hardcore productions in the 1980s and 1990s, where she would not
perform in explicit sex scenes; she would only say a line or be
photographed topless. Her wild beauty, personal charm and sex appeal
left her image imprinted on the viewer's mind, often more indelible
than the film stars. In her later films she appeared plump, but still
attractive.
Chris Penn remembered her 44-25-35 dimensions from his earlier
film
The Wild Life (1984), in which Kitten also danced, and he presented his brother
Sean Penn with an eye-popping, erotic performance by Kitten Natividad on
the eve of his marriage to
Madonna. She underwent a double
mastectomy for treatment of breast cancer in October
1999.