Moving to Hollywood at the age of 20, Maxwell won the actress Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her role in the Shirley Temple drama "That Hagen Girl" (1947). In 1949, she participated in a "Life" magazine photo layout, in which she posed with another up-and-coming actress, Marilyn Monroe. It was at this time that she changed her surname from Hooker to Maxwell, a name borrowed from a ballet dancer friend. The rest of her family also took this name.