Complex sentence: Her early close friend George Hurrell (1904--1992), then eking out a living as a painter and photographer in Laguna Beach, California, would later become the legendary head of the portrait department of MGM Studios.
Split into simpler sentences: Her early close friend George Hurrell (1904--1992), then eking out a living as a painter and photographer in Laguna Beach, California. He later would become the legendary head of the portrait department of MGM Studios.