Appearances

Title	Role	Year	Approx. Age
The Red Hand Gang	unknown	1977	14
Devil Times Five	Moe	1974	11
Walking Tall	Dwana	1973	10
Shoot Out	Decky Ortega	1971	8

Dawn Lyn Nervik made her acting debut at four years old in the low-budget, independent Cry Blood, Apache (1970). It wasn't until she was 12 that she discovered she had played a Native American boy in the movie. She was the original Prudence in pilot for Nanny and the Professor (1970) TV series. By the time the pilot sold at the last minute, Dawn had already been released from her contract and had been cast as Dodie in My Three Sons (1969-1972). The producers of "Nanny and the Professor" unsuccessfully sued in an attempt to get her back.

Dawn is the younger sister of singer/actor Leif Garrett. She co-starred with him in an episode of The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1975) playing a girl with a crush on the singer. The two also starred as brother and sister in all three original Walking Tall Films (1973 - 1976). (Her mother Carolyn Stellar appeared as a nurse in Walking Tall Part II (1975)).

Dawn had a German Shepherd, named Thor, as a child. They got the dog because of a kidnap threat. A prison escapee claimed to be Dawn's father and said he was going to kidnap her and flee the country. Dawn's mom was notified by a relative who knew the man; he was caught soon after.

During the filming of Shoot Out (1971), when Dawn was 7, Gregory Peck saved her from a fall and potential serious injury. The incident occured while they were rehearsing the scene where Decky jumps onto the caboose of a moving train.

She worked steadily, financially supporting her family, until her mid-teens. She says her petite stature began to work against her instead of for her, as it had when she was a child. She curently lives in Hawaii with her family.