Profile of Natalie Wood on Famous Like Me

Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981), better known as Natalie Wood, was an American film actress. She was the sister of actor and producer Lana Wood.

Child and adult actor

She was born in San Francisco, California to Russian Orthodox immigrants, Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko. Her parents changed their surname to the less cumbersome and ethnic-sounding Gurdin, and by the age of 4 she was billed as Natasha Gurdin. A well-known child actor, her mother tightly managed and controlled the young girl's career and personal life from her start in films at the age of five. Her father is described by Wood biographers as a passive alcoholic who went along with whatever his wife demanded. At the age of 16 Natalie celebrated her release from child-star status by winning the role of Judy in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause, co-starring James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Dennis Hopper. She was one of the relative few who made a successful transition to adult stardom. By the time she was 28, she was already a three-time Oscar nominee, with nominations for Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass and Love With the Proper Stranger. Another of her widely noted films was the Leonard Bernstein musical West Side Story, in which she played Maria. Wood was initially signed to do her own singing but in the end she was dubbed by professional singer Marni Nixon, which is said to have disappointed her. Nonetheless she enjoyed worldwide celebrity and was compared favorably with Elizabeth Taylor. As a restless on-screen companion of James Dean and an off-screen date of Elvis Presley, she was much admired and envied by young girls.

Drowning at Catalina Island

Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were publicized and stormy, but they were reconciled once more at the time of her death. In 1981, at the age of forty-three, Wood drowned while their yacht The Splendor was anchored at Catalina Island. An investigation by Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi resulted in an official verdict of accidental drowning, although speculation about the circumstances continued. Wood was on board the yacht with Wagner and actor Christopher Walken. There were reports Wagner and Walken had a loud argument and Wood apparently tried to either leave the yacht or tie up a small boat that was banging against the hull keeping her awake when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. A woman on shore said she had heard cries for help in the water that night along with voices replying "they were coming." Wagner, Walken and the pilot of the Splendor said they never heard any cries. Noguchi pointed out that Wood was legally intoxicated when she died and there were marks and bruises on her body, which could have been received as a result of her fall.

At the time of her death Wood was filming Brainstorm and preparing to make her stage debut in a Los Angeles production of Anastasia, opposite Dame Wendy Hiller.

She is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. She was survived by her husband Robert Wagner and daughters Katie Wagner (from Wagner's previous marriage to Marion Marshall), Natasha Gregson Wagner (from her marriage to Richard Gregson), and Courtney Wagner, as well as her sister Lana Wood, and her mother.

Trivia

• When she was nine she had an accident on a movie set which left a slight but permanent bone protrusion on her left wrist. For the rest of her life, on camera or in public, she wore a bracelet to cover it.

• Among the men she dated were singer Elvis Presley and actors Raymond Burr, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty and Nick Adams.

• In her book Elvis and Gladys, author and film insider Elaine Dundy wrote that actress Shelley Winters (usually considered a reliable source for Hollywood goings-on and who portrayed Gladys Presley in the 1979 made-for-TV movie Elvis) claimed the relationship between Presley and Natalie Wood developed into something much more serious than what was generally reported in the media.

• Contrary to popular notions, Wood biographer Gavin Lambert wrote that Wood's casting in Rebel Without a Cause did not lead to a romance with co-star James Dean: "Like many people, she was fascinated by his charm; he had this magnetic quality on the screen and in life... They got on very well, they liked each other a lot." He added that both Dean and "Rebel" director Nicholas Ray (with whom Wood reportedly had an affair) helped renew her passion for acting after a diet of unchallenging roles in movies like Chicken Every Sunday, Dear Brat and Father Was a Fullback.

• She is reported to have had lifelong fears of dark water and drowning.

Awards and Nominations

Successful nominations in bold.

1956:

• Academy Award: Rebel Without a Cause (1955) — Best Actress in a Supporting Role

1957:

• Golden Globe Award — Most Promising Newcomer

1958:

• Golden Laurel Awards: Marjorie Morningstar (1958) — Top Female Dramatic Performance
• Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (thirteenth place)

1959:

• Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (seventh place)

1960:

• Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (ninth place)

1961:

• Golden Apple Awards: Sour Apple — Least Cooperative Actress
• Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (fourteenth place)

1962:

• Academy Award: Splendor in the Grass (1961) — Best Actress in a Leading Role
• Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (fifth place)
• Golden Laurel Awards: Splendor in the Grass (1961) — Top Female Dramatic Performance (third place)

1963:

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Splendor in the Grass (1961) — Best Foreign Actress
• Golden Globes Awards: Gypsy (1962) — Best Motion Picture Actress: Musical/Comedy
• Golden Laurel Awards: Gypsy (1962) — Top Female Musical Performance (second place)

1964:

• Academy Award: Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) — Best Actress in a Leading Role
• Golden Globe Award: Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) — Best Motion Picture Actress: Drama
• Golden Laurel Awards — Top Female Star (third place)
• Golden Laurel Awards: Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) (second place)
• Mar del Plata Film Festival: Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) — Best Actress

1965:

• Golden Laurel Awards — Female Star (sixth place)
• Golden Laurel Awards: Sex and the Single Girl (1964) — Comedy Performance (fifth place)

1966:

• Golden Apple Awards: Sour Apple — Least Cooperative Actress
• Golden Globe Award: Inside Daisy Clover (1965) — Best Motion Picture Actress: Musical/Comedy
• Golden Globe Award — World Film Favorite: Female
• Golden Laurel Awards — Female Star (eighth place)

1967:

• Golden Globe Award: This Property Is Condemned (1966) — Best Motion Picture Actress: Drama
• Golden Laurel Awards — Female Star (third place)
• Golden Laurel Awards: This Property is Condemned (1966) — Female Dramatic Performance (third place)

1968:

• Golden Laurel Awards — Female Star (twelfth place)

1970:

• Golden Laurel Awards — Female Star (ninth place)

1971:

• Golden Laurel Awards — Female Star (ninth place)

1980:

• Golden Globe Award: From Here to Eternity (1979) (mini) — Best TV Actress: Drama

Filmography

• Happy Land (1943)
• Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
• The Bride Wore Boots (1946)
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
• The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
• Driftwood (1947)
• Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948)
• Chicken Every Sunday (1948)
• The Green Promise (1949)
• Father Was a Fullback (1949)
• No Sad Songs for Me (1950)
• Our Very Own (1950)
• The Jackpot (1950)
• Never a Dull Moment (1950)
• Dear Brat (1951)
• The Blue Veil (1951)
• The Rose Bowl Story (1952)
• Just for You (1952)
• The Star (1952)
• The Silver Chalice (1954)
• One Desire (1955)
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
• The Searchers (1956)
• A Cry in the Night (1956)
• The Burning Hills (1956)
• The Girl He Left Behind (1956)
• Bombers B-52 (1957)
• Marjorie Morningstar (1958)
• Kings Go Forth (1958)
• Cash McCall (1960)
• All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
• Splendor in the Grass (1961)
• West Side Story (1961)
• Gypsy (1962)
• Love with the Proper Stranger (1963)
• Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
• The Great Race (1965)
• Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
• Penelope's Fashion Show (1966) (short subject)
• This Property Is Condemned (1966)
• Penelope (1966)
• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
• The Candidate (1972)
• I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1974) (documentary)
• Peeper (1975)
• Meteor (1979)
• The Last Married Couple in America (1980)
• Willie and Phil (1980)
• Brainstorm (1983) (released after Wood's death in 1981)

Bibliography

• Gavin Lambert, Natalie Wood: A Life. London: Faber and Faber, 2004. ISBN 0571221971
• Suzanne Finstad, Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood. Three Rivers Press, 2001. ISBN 0609809571
• Warren G. Harris, Hollywood's Star-Crossed Lovers "Natalie and R.J.". Doubleday, 1988. ISBN 0385236913
• Christopher Nickens, Natalie Wood: A Biography in Photographs. Doubleday, 1986. ISBN 0385233078
• Lana Wood, Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister. Putnam Pub Group, 1984. ISBN 0399129030

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