Through archival footage and interviews with those closest to Wood, director Laurent Bouzereau traces the actress’s career. He also touches on her personal life, including her three marriages and a desire to focus on family while working. Keep reading the article below to learn more about Natalie Wood.
Despite a few career stalls, she made a comeback in 1969’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a social comedy about marriage swapping. This would be her last film.
Wood’s parents left Harbin in search of better opportunities in the United States. The family settled in Santa Rosa, California. Her mother, Mary, had unfulfilled dreams of becoming a ballet dancer and transferred them to her daughter. She took Natalie to the movies often to study child stars, and she encouraged her daughter’s interest in acting.
After a few minor film roles, Wood won over audiences with her performance as an orphan in the 1946 drama Tomorrow Is Forever, which costarred Claudette Colbert and Orson Welles. Her next role, as the orphaned daughter of a film director in the 1950 drama The Star, was even more successful. Wood’s popularity grew as she appeared in more films, and she began to appear in television shows and stage plays.
Despite her success, Wood was dissatisfied with her career and wanted to become a serious actress who took on adult roles and wasn’t owned by the studios. She was also tired of playing the same kind of child roles in films. According to her biographer Suzanne Finstad, Wood was a frequent user of prescription drugs and often used the barbiturate Seconal to sleep. She told a reporter from Ladies Home Journal that taking the drug was part of her nighttime routine since she was 15.
Wood made an attempt to break away from the child actor image in her movie The Reluctant Redeemer, which was released in 1954. She had a small role in the biblical drama Moses and Sephora, but she was unhappy with her character’s lack of depth. In 1962, she starred in the musical Gypsy Rose Lee, which was based on the life of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. The film starred Rosalind Russell as her domineering stage mother and earned Wood critical praise.
In the 1970s, Wood starred in several television series, including Hart to Hart and Switch. She was a popular guest on talk shows and was a cover girl for movie star magazines. She was also known for her private life, which included numerous relationships. She dated actor Dennis Hopper and hotel dynasty heir Nicky Hilton.
She was raised in Los Angeles
Natalie Wood was a child actress who was a major hit in the 1950s. Her career started off slowly, but she soon got bigger roles in films such as The Pride of the Family and The Ten Commandments. In 1956, she graduated from Van Nuys High School and signed a contract with Warner Bros. The studio kept her busy with a number of new films. However, she was often cast as the girlfriend of a male lead and received roles with little depth.
At age nine, Wood was dubbed “the most exciting juvenile motion picture star of the year.” After this success, she appeared in a number of television shows and films. She made the transition from child to ingenue in 1955 with Rebel Without a Cause. In this film, she starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo. The film was a critical and commercial success. Wood followed this film with a role in The Searchers, starring John Wayne. The role was a huge hit, and it earned her an Academy Award nomination.
She continued to make movies and TV shows until she was 18 years old. She married actor Robert Wagner in 1957, which was a marriage that her mother vehemently opposed. Despite her troubled childhood, Wood enjoyed a prolific career as an actress and found happiness in her marriage to Wagner.
After her marriage to Wagner, Wood took on more mature roles in films such as Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story. She was praised for her witty dialogue and complex characterizations.
Wood’s personal life also suffered from a number of problems. She had a difficult relationship with her mother, Maria Zakharenko, who was an aspiring actress herself. She pushed her daughters into the acting business and was highly controlling. She was also a heavy drinker and had a troubled sexual history.
Throughout her life, Wood struggled to overcome the demons from her past. She was haunted by the fears and obsessions that her mother instilled in her. Despite her successful acting career, she never felt truly secure. In addition, she suffered from depression and a variety of health problems. Ultimately, she drowned in 1981.
She married Robert Wagner
Wood was one of Hollywood’s brightest stars, but her real life was filled with darkness and mystery. She suffered multiple suicide attempts, daily psychoanalysis, and a fear of being alone at night that was so primal that she regressed to childhood. She was also a devoted family woman, raising two children from her first marriage and three more from her second.
Wagner and Wood married in 1972, just a few months after their reconciliation. They had a daughter together, Courtney, and along with Wood’s other children from previous relationships, they created a Hollywood family that was admired by fans. However, the relationship was far from happy. Wood was still haunted by her divorce from Richard Gregson and her feelings for Wagner were complicated.
The filming of The Great Rae took its toll on Wood, who was already struggling with mental health issues, and she attempted suicide soon after the movie wrapped. Her stepdaughter Natasha claims that she didn’t actually mean to die that night, and that her attempt was a cry for help. She also said that Wagner was the only person she could confide in about her problems.
But Duane Rasure, the sheriff’s detective-sergeant who investigated the case, says he still gets questions about the night of Wood’s death. He and his colleague, retired Sheriff’s deputy Jerry McLendon, are reopening the investigation to determine what happened on that fateful evening.
A startling new biography by Suzanne Finstad has alleged that Wagner’s sexual betrayal was the dark cloud over Wood’s remarriage and her mysterious drowning death in 1981. Finstad claims that Wood was never able to recover from her marital betrayal.
Finstad’s book argues that Wood was so damaged by her childhood trauma that she desperately needed to find love. She was also sexually precocious and, according to Finstad, ‘thrown at much older men than herself’. Her father was a drunk, and her ferociously ambitious mother threw her at older men who could help her career. She reportedly had affairs with 38-year-old Frank Sinatra and 43-year-old director Nicholas Ray. The book is based on Finstad’s own interviews with the actress, as well as her handwritten manuscript for an unfinished memoir.
She died in 1981
Natalie Wood was a Hollywood icon who won the hearts of teenagers and adults with her film roles in films like Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers, and Splendor in the Grass. She also received Oscar nominations for her work in the musical films West Side Story and Gypsy. The actress died at the age of 43 in 1981 when she was found dead in the Pacific Ocean off California’s Catalina Island. She had been aboard her husband’s yacht with her co-star Christopher Walken and the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern.
In her later years, Wood struggled with a variety of mental health issues. She had attempted suicide several times and underwent daily psychoanalysis and therapy sessions. She was also heavily dependent on prescription medication. Despite her struggles, she remained active in the acting world, appearing in several made-for-TV movies and a miniseries called From Here to Eternity. She also appeared in a few theatrical films, including the mystery comedy Peeper and the science fiction film Brainstorm.
After a string of relationships, Wood married actor Robert Wagner in 1957 when she was just 18 years old. The couple had one daughter together before divorcing in 1962. Wood then dated and eventually married British producer Richard Gregson in 1969. The couple had a daughter named Natasha, and Gregson later divorced Wood and married Warren Beatty.
Although the death of another young star, James Dean, had a significant impact on Wood’s career, the young actress became a teen idol and attracted enormous publicity for her role in Rebel Without a Cause. The movie was a groundbreaking depiction of teenage rebellion and angst, and Wood won an Academy Award nomination for her performance.
Wood’s later films did not meet with much critical acclaim, and she struggled to find roles that suited her talents. In the late ’70s, she began starring in television shows such as Hart to Hart and Switch. She appeared in four more theatrical films before her death, including the science fiction film Meteor and the sex comedy The Last Married Couple in America.