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Natalie Wood (née Zacharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress. She began acting at age four and co-starred at age eight in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). As a teenager, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), followed by a role in John Ford's The Searchers (1956). Wood starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962) and received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). Her career continued with films such as Sex and the Single Girl (1964), The Great Race (1965), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), This Property Is Condemned (1966), and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).
During the 1970s, Wood began a hiatus from film and had two daughters: one with her second husband Richard Gregson, and one with Robert Wagner, her first husband whom she married again after divorcing Gregson. She acted in only two feature films throughout the decade, but she appeared slightly more often in television productions, including a remake of From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award. Wood's films represented a "coming of age" for her and for Hollywood films in general. Critics have suggested that her cinematic career represents a portrait of modern American womanhood in transition, as she was one of the few to take both child roles and those of middle-aged characters. (2026). 9781118475133, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118475133
On November 29, 1981, at the age of 43, Wood drowned in the Pacific Ocean at Santa Catalina Island during a break from production of her would-be comeback film Brainstorm (1983). She was with her husband Wagner and Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken. The events surrounding her death have been the subject of conflicting witness statements, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, under the instruction of the coroner's office, to list her cause of death as "drowning and other undetermined factors" in 2012. In 2018, Wagner was named as a person of interest in the ongoing investigation into her death.
Wood's father was a carpenter from Ussuriysk.Zavarin, Joyce (February 29, 1936). Petition for Naturalization, no. 39584. U.S. District Court Naturalization Index, 1852–1989. Her paternal grandfather, a chocolate factory employee who joined the anti-Bolsheviks civilian forces during the war, was killed in a street fight between the Red Army and White movement soldiers in Vladivostok. After that, his widow and three sons fled to Shanghai, relocating to Vancouver at the time of Wood's paternal grandmother's remarriage in 1927. By 1933, they moved to the United States. Nicholas met Wood's mother, four years his senior, while she was still married to Tatuloff. They were married in February 1938, five months before Wood was born.
A year after Natalie's birth, her father changed the family's surname to Gurdin. In 1942, they bought a home in Santa Rosa, California, where Wood was noticed by members of a crew during a film shoot downtown. After she started acting as a child, RKO Pictures executives David Lewis and William Goetz changed her surname to "Wood" to make it more appealing to English-speaking audiences and as a tribute to filmmaker Sam Wood. Her only full sibling, sister Svetlana, was born in Santa Monica in 1946 and later became an actress under the name Lana Wood.
Wood, then seven years old, got the part. She played a post-World War II German orphan, opposite Orson Welles as Wood's guardian and Claudette Colbert, in Tomorrow Is Forever (1946). When Wood was unable to cry on cue, her mother tore a butterfly to pieces in front of her to ensure she would sob for a scene. Welles later said that Wood was a born professional, "so good, she was terrifying." He also said "Natalie doesn't act from the script, she acts from the heart." Wood acted in another film directed by Pichel, The Bride Wore Boots, and went on to 20th Century Fox to play Gene Tierney's daughter in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947).
Film historian John C. Tibbetts wrote that for the next few years following her success in Miracle, Wood played roles as a daughter in a series of family films: Driftwood (1947), at Republic;"Natalie Wood", Chicago Daily Tribune, 21 Mar 1948: B20. Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948); Chicken Every Sunday (1949); The Green Promise (1949); Fred MacMurray's daughter in Father Was a Fullback (1949), with O'Hara; Margaret Sullavan's daughter in No Sad Songs for Me (1950); the youngest sister in Our Very Own (1950); Never a Dull Moment (1950); James Stewart's daughter in The Jackpot (1950); Dear Brat (1951); Joan Blondell's neglected daughter in The Blue Veil (1951); The Rose Bowl Story (1952); Just for You (1952); and as the daughter of Bette Davis's character in The Star (1952). In all, Wood appeared in over twenty films as a child. She also appeared on television in episodes of Kraft Theatre and Chevron Theatre.
Because Wood was a minor during her early years as an actress, she received her primary education on the studio lots wherever she was contracted. California law required that until age 18, child actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom, notes Harris. "She was a straight A student", and one of the few child actors to excel at arithmetic. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who directed her in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), said that, "In all my years in the business, I never met a smarter moppet." Wood remembered that period in her life, saying, "I always felt guilty when I knew the crew was sitting around waiting for me to finish my three hours. As soon as the teacher let us go, I ran to the set as fast as I could."
Wood's mother continued to play a significant role in her daughter's early career, coaching her and micromanaging aspects of her career even after Wood acquired agents. As a child actress, Wood received significant media attention. By age nine, she had been named the "most exciting juvenile motion picture star of the year" by Parents magazine.
Warner Bros. tried teaming her with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in Bombers B-52 (1957). Then she was given the lead in a prestigious project, Marjorie Morningstar (1958). As Marjorie Morningstar, Wood played the role of a young Jewish girl in New York City who has to deal with the social and religious expectations of her family as she tries to forge her own path and separate identity.Natalie Wood Still Up for Plum Dorothy Kilgallen:. The Washington Post and Times-Herald April 13, 1957: D11.
She was leading lady to Frank Sinatra in Kings Go Forth (1958), then refused roles and was put on suspension by Warners. This lasted for a year until February 1959.. She returned to be leading lady to James Garner in Cash McCall (1960). After Wood appeared in the box office flop All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), she lost momentum. Wood's career was in a transition period, having until then consisted of roles as a child or as a teenager.
After a "series of bad films, her career was already in decline," according to author Douglas Rathgeb. She was then cast in Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961) with Warren Beatty. Kazan wrote in his 1997 memoir that the "sages" of the film community declared her "washed up" as an actress, but he still wanted to interview her for his next film:
Kazan cast Wood as the female lead in Splendor, and her career rebounded. He felt that despite her earlier innocent roles, she had the talent and maturity to go beyond them. In the film, Beatty's character was deprived of sexual love with Wood's character, and as a result turns to another, "looser" girl. Wood's character could not handle the betrayal and after a breakdown was committed to a mental institution. Kazan writes that he cast her in the role partly because he saw in Wood's personality a "true-blue quality with a wanton side that is held down by social pressure," adding that "she clings to things with her eyes," a quality he found especially "appealing."
Finstad felt that although Wood had never trained in method acting techniques, "working with Kazan brought her to the greatest emotional heights of her career. The experience was exhilarating, but wrenching for Natalie, who faced her demons on Splendor." She adds that a scene in the film, as a result of "Kazan's wizardry... produced a hysteria in Natalie that may be her most powerful moment as an actress."
Actor Gary Lockwood, who also performed in the film, felt that "Kazan and Natalie were a terrific marriage, because you had this beautiful girl, and you had somebody that could get things out of her." Kazan's favorite scene in the film was the last one, when Wood goes back to see her lost first love, Bud (Beatty). "It's terribly touching to me. I still like it when I see it," wrote Kazan. He added, "I didn't have to give her any direction for that final scene; she knew exactly how to play it."
For her performance in Splendor, Wood received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
At the age of 25, Wood received her third Academy Award nomination for Love with the Proper Stranger (1963), making Wood, along with Teresa Wright, the youngest person to score three Oscar nominations. This record was later broken by Jennifer Lawrence in 2013 and Saoirse Ronan in 2017, both of whom scored their third nominations at the age of 23.
Wood made two comedies with Tony Curtis: Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and The Great Race (1965), the latter with Jack Lemmon, and Peter Falk. In The Great Race, her ability to speak Russian was an asset given to her character Maggie DuBois, justifying the character's recording the progress of the race across Siberia and entering the race at the beginning as a contestant.
Director Sydney Pollack was quoted as saying about Wood, "When she was right for the part, there was no one better. She was a damn good actress." For Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property Is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford, Wood received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In the mid 1960s she was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood along with Elizabeth Taylor and Audrey Hepburn..
Although many of Wood's films were commercially successful, at times her acting was criticized. In 1966, Wood was given the Harvard Lampoon award for being the "Worst Actress of Last Year, This Year, and Next". She was the first person to attend and accept the award in person. The Harvard Crimson wrote she was "quite a good sport."
By 1966, Wood suffered emotionally and in an attempt to overcome her emotional problems, she sought professional therapy. She paid Warner Bros. $175,000 to cancel her contract and fired her entire support team: agents, managers, publicist, accountant, and attorneys. In the following years, Wood focused on her mental health, and began a relationship with Richard Gregson, whom she married in 1969.
Wood did not capitalize on the success of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. After becoming pregnant in 1970 with her first child, Natasha Gregson, she went into semiretirement and acted in only four more theatrical films during the remainder of her life. She made a brief cameo appearance as herself in The Candidate (1972), working once more with Robert Redford.
She made cameo appearances on Wagner's prime-time detective series Switch in 1978 as Bubble Bath Girl, and his series Hart to Hart in 1979 as Movie Star.
In 1979, Wood received high ratings and critical acclaim for the made-for-TV movie The Cracker Factory and especially the miniseries remake of From Here to Eternity, with Kim Basinger and William Devane. Wood's performance in the latter won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.
After another lengthy break from features, she appeared in the ensemble disaster film Meteor (1979) with Sean Connery, in which she demonstrated her fluency in Russian, and the sex comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980) with George Segal and Valerie Harper. Her performance in the latter was praised and considered reminiscent of her performance in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. In Last Married Couple, Wood broke ground: although an actress with a clean, middle-class image, she used the word fuck in a frank marital discussion with her husband (Segal.) She starred in The Memory of Eva Ryker, released in May 1980, which was her last completed production.Natalie Wood in 'The Cracker Factory' Los Angeles Times December 5, 1978: f17.
She was scheduled to make her stage debut on February 12, 1982, in Anastasia at Ahmanson Theatre with Wendy Hiller. Wood had also purchased film rights to the Barbara Wersba book, Country of the Heart, and was planning to star with Timothy Hutton in the drama about the professional-romantic relationship between a tough-minded poet and her much younger student. The material was eventually adapted into a 1990 television film starring Jane Seymour. She expected to follow her performance as Anastasia on the stage with a starring stint in a film adaptation of the work.
Wood appeared in 56 films for cinema and television. In one of her last interviews before her death, she was defined as "our sexual conscience on the silver screen." Following her death, Time magazine noted that although critical praise for Wood had been sparse throughout her career, "she always had work."
Wood's subsequent boyfriends included Warren Beatty, Michael Caine, and David Niven Jr. She also had a broken engagement in 1965 with Venezuelan shoe manufacturer Ladislav Blatnik.
On May 30, 1969, Wood married British producer Richard Gregson after dating for nearly three years. They had a daughter, Natasha, born September 29, 1970. Wood filed for divorce from Gregson on August 4, 1971. It was finalized on April 12, 1972. "Actress Ends Marriage". United Press International. April 14, 1972.
After a short-lived romance with future California governor Jerry Brown, Wood resumed her relationship with Wagner at the end of January 1972. They remarried on July 16 aboard the Ramblin' Rose, anchored off Paradise Cove in Malibu. Their daughter Courtney was born on March 9, 1974.
In 2015, after a third-party source had repeatedly published the claim, former FBI agent Donald Goodwin Wilson openly stated that he and Wood had had a four-year affair, from 1973 to 1977, that began when she was pregnant with Courtney Wagner. In 2016, Wilson spoke on camera about his alleged affair with Wood in a documentary for the cable network Reelz."Natalie Wood." National Enquirer Investigates. S1, E4. Reelz, June 18, 2016. Television.
During a 12-part podcast about Wood's life in July 2018, Wood's sister Lana Wood stated that Wood was raped as a teenager, and she also stated that the attack had occurred inside the Chateau Marmont during an audition and it went on "for hours." According to Professor Cynthia Lucia, who studied the claim, Wood's rape was brutal and violent. In 2021, a year after the death of Kirk Douglas, Lana published the memoir Little Sister: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood and identified Douglas as Wood's alleged assailant.
Authorities recovered her body at 8 a.m. on November 29, from the boat, with a small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby. Wagner said that she was not with him when he went to bed. The autopsy report revealed that she had bruises on her body and arms and an abrasion on her left cheek, but did not indicate how or when the injuries occurred.
Davern had previously stated that Wood and Wagner argued that evening, which Wagner denied at the time. In his memoir Pieces of My Heart, Wagner admitted that he had an argument with Wood before she disappeared. The autopsy found that Wood's blood alcohol content was 0.14% and that there were traces of a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller in her bloodstream, both of which increase the effects of alcohol.
The Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled the cause of her death to be accidental drowning and hypothermia. According to Noguchi, Wood had been drinking and she may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy. Her sister Lana expressed doubts, alleging that Wood could not swim and had been "terrified" of water all her life, and that she would never have left the yacht on her own by dinghy. Two witnesses who were on a nearby boat stated that they had heard a woman scream for help during the night.
On December 2, Wood was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Three days later, a coroner's office spokesman pronounced the case closed.
In November 2011, the case was reopened after Davern publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and that Wood and Wagner had had an argument that evening. He alleged that Wood had been flirting with Walken, that Wagner was jealous and enraged, and that Wagner had prevented Davern from turning on the search lights and notifying authorities after Wood's disappearance. Davern alleged that Wagner was responsible for her death. Wood's sister, Lana Wood, speaking to CBS News, said that Davern called her over a decade after the incident to explain the events, though she did not know why, as he was "not a close friend."
Wood claimed Davern “said it appeared to him as though RJ Wagner shoved her away and she went overboard. Dennis panicked and RJ said, 'Leave her there. Teach her a lesson.' Dennis said he was very panicky that he was sitting and RJ kept drinking and kept drinking. And he'd say, 'Come on, let's get her.' And he said RJ was in such a foul mood, at that point, that he then shut up and was waiting for when, when are they gonna go to her rescue, until all the sound stopped." Walken hired a lawyer, cooperated with the investigation, and was not considered a suspect by authorities.
In 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors." The amended document included a statement that it is "not clearly established" how Wood ended up in the water. Detectives instructed the coroner's office not to discuss or comment on the case.
In January 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office offered a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report. The addendum stated that Wood might have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water, but that this could not be definitively determined. Forensic pathologist Michael Hunter speculated that Wood was particularly susceptible to bruising because she had taken the drug levothyroxine."Autopsy: The Last Hours of Natalie Wood." Autopsy: The Last Hours of.... Nar. Eric Meyers. Exec. Prod. Ed Taylor and Michael Kelpie. Reelz, January 30, 2016. Television. In 2020, a medical doctor and former intern of Noguchi at the time of Wood's death stated that the bruises were substantial and consistent with someone being thrown out of a boat. He claimed that he made those observations to Noguchi.
In February 2018, Wagner was named a person of interest by the police in the investigation. The police stated that they know that Wagner was the last person to be with Wood before she disappeared. In a 2018 article, the Los Angeles Times, citing the coroner's report from 2013, reported that Wood had unexplained fresh bruising on her right forearm, her left wrist, and her right knee, a scratch on her neck, and a superficial scrape on her forehead. Officials said that it is possible that she was assaulted before she drowned.
However, Wood's professional legacy has, to a degree, been overshadowed by the enormous attention which has been given to her personal life. Her professional life has especially been overshadowed by the circumstances surrounding her death, as well as by her highly publicized marriage, her divorce and her remarriage to Robert Wagner, her relationships with several actors whom she dated in the 1960s, her mental health struggles, and her often troubled relationship with her mother. According to her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, the focus on her death and the speculation about it "overshadowed her life's work and who she was as a person."
| 1946 | Box Office Magazine | Most Talented Young Actress of 1946 | ||
| 1956 | Academy Awards | Best Supporting Actress | ||
| 1956 | National Association of Theatre Owners | Star of Tomorrow Award | ||
| 1957 | Golden Globe Award | New Star of the Year – Actress | ||
| 1961 | Grauman's Chinese Theatre | Handprint Ceremony | Inducted | |
| 1962 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | ||
| 1962 | Golden Globe Award | |||
| 1963 | BAFTA Awards | |||
| 1963 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical | ||
| 1964 | Academy Awards | Best Actress | ||
| 1964 | Golden Globe Award | |||
| 1964 | Mar del Plata International Film Festival | |||
| 1966 | Golden Globe Award | Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical | ||
| 1966 | World Film Favorite | |||
| 1967 | Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama | |||
| 1980 | Best Actress – Television Series Drama | |||
| 1983 | Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actress | ||
| 1986 | Hollywood Chamber of Commerce | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Inducted | |
| 2011 | Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars | Golden Palm Star | Inducted | |
| 2016 | Online Film & Television Association | OFTA Film Hall of Fame | Inducted |
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