Natalie Wood | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Natalie Wood in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, 1969. |
|||||||
Born | Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko July 20, 1938 San Francisco, California, United States |
||||||
Died | November 29, 1981 (aged 43) Santa Catalina Island, California, United States |
||||||
Occupation | actress | ||||||
Years active | 1943 - 1981 | ||||||
Spouse(s) | Robert Wagner (1957-1962, 1972-1981) Richard Gregson (1969-1971) |
||||||
|
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was a American actress.
Following her film debut at the age of five, Wood became a successful child actor in such films as Miracle on 34th Street (1947). A well received performance opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), brought her a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising New Star, and helped her to make the transition from a child performer. She portrayed Maria, the lead female character in the successful film musical West Side Story (1961), and appeared as Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy (1962). She received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love With the Proper Stranger (1963).
Her career continued successfully into the late 1960s with roles in films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969); after this she worked less frequently so that she could spend more time with her family. She appeared in several television productions, including a remake of the film From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she received a Golden Globe Award.
Her personal life included two marriages to the actor Robert Wagner. She was with Wagner and Christopher Walken, when she drowned near Santa Catalina Island, California in 1981. Her final film, Brainstorm was released posthumously in 1983.
Contents |
Wood's parents Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko were Russian immigrants, but they grew up far from their homeland: her father lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, while her mother grew up in a Chinese province. Shortly after her birth in San Francisco they moved north to Sonoma County and lived in Santa Rosa, California where Wood was noticed during a film shoot in downtown Santa Rosa. Her mother soon moved the family to Los Angeles and pursued a career for her daughter. By age four Natalia was being billed as Natasha Gurdin, Gurdin being the family's surname by this point. Like many parents of child actors her mother tightly managed and controlled the young girl's career and personal life. Her father has been described by Wood's biographers as a passive alcoholic. At the studio's suggestion, Natasha's name was changed to Natalie Wood during her period as a child actor for Warner Bros.
As a seven year old, Wood played a German orphan opposite Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow Is Forever. Welles later said that Wood was a born professional, "so good, she was terrifying".[1] Her performance in the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street made Wood one of the top child stars in Hollywood. She would appear on over 20 films as a child, appearing opposite such stars as Gene Tierney, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Bette Davis and Bing Crosby. Her sister Lana Wood also became an actress and later, notably, a Bond girl. They had a half-sister, Olga. (Gavin Lambert's biography strongly suggests that Wood's biological father was Captain George Zepaloff, Maria's longtime lover, and not Nikolai Gurdin as Wood believed.)
Wood successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 16 when she co-starred in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean and Sal Mineo. Her performance won her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's The Searchers opposite John Wayne. Her sister, Lana played her as a child in the film's earlier scenes. She graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1955.
Signed to Warner Brothers, Wood was kept busy during the remainder of the 1950's in many 'girlfriend' roles that she found unsatisfying. The studio cast her in two films opposite Tab Hunter, hoping to turn the duo into a box office draw that never eventuated. Among the other films made at this time were Kings Go Forth with Frank Sinatra and the title role in Marjorie Morningstar.
After appearing in the box office flop, All the Fine Young Cannibals with her husband, Robert Wagner, Wood's career was salvaged by her casting in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass in 1961 which earned her Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.
Also in 1961 Wood played Maria in the Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise musical West Side Story which was a major box office and critical success. She had been signed to do her own singing but was later dubbed by session singer Marni Nixon. Wood's own singing voice was used when she starred in the 1962 film Gypsy and she also sang in the slapstick comedy The Great Race (1965) co-starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk. Wood received her third Academy Award nomination (and another Golden Globe nod) in 1963 for Love with the Proper Stranger opposite Steve McQueen.
Although many of Wood's films were commercially profitable her acting was often criticized. In 1966 she won the Harvard Lampoon Worst Actress of the Year Award. She was the first performer in the award's history to accept it in person and the Harvard Crimson wrote she was "quite a good sport."[2]
Other notable films Wood made during this period were Inside Daisy Clover and This Property Is Condemned, both of which co-starred Robert Redford and both bringing subsequent Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. After appearing in the hit film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) Wood worked less so she could have more time with her family.
Wood appeared in occasional theatrical films during the 1970s, but worked mostly in television. She reunited on the screen with husband Robert Wagner in the TV movies The Affair (1973) and a remake of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) and starred opposite Sean Connery in the disaster film Meteor. She achieved success in 1980 when she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for her performance in the miniseries film From Here to Eternity, which co-starred Kim Basinger, William Devane, and Don Johnson. At the time of her death, Wood was filming the sci-fi film Brainstorm (1983) with Christopher Walken. Due to her untimely death, the ending of the film had to be re-written, and an stand-in was used to replace Wood for some of her critical scenes. She made 56 films for television and the big screen.
Natalie Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were highly publicized. On her 18th birthday, she went on her first date with a 26-year old Wagner in 1956. They were married on December 28, 1957. As newlyweds, they were asked to hand out Oscar trophies at that year's Academy Awards ceremony. Four years later Wood sought a divorce telling the judge Wagner spent a lot of time playing golf and regularly criticized her friends, who did not play golf. The breakup may have had more to do with the stress of financial worries and Wagner's lagging career.
On May 30, 1969, Wood married British producer Richard Gregson, with whom she had a daughter, Natasha (born September 29, 1970). However, the couple separated in late 1971, when Wood discovered he was having an affair. She then reconciled with first husband Robert Wagner, who had since remarried and divorced Marion Marshall and had a daughter, Katie. Wood and Wagner remarried on July 16, 1972. Their daughter, Courtney Wagner, was born on March 9, 1974. They remained married until Wood's death in 1981.
Biographer Suzanne Finstad claimed Wood slept with director Nicholas Ray while she was trying to land the lead role in what became her breakthrough picture, Ray's Rebel Without a Cause.[3][4] Meanwhile Dennis Hopper was publicly involved with Wood and reportedly made an unannounced visit only to discover her in bed with Ray.[5] Biographer Gavin Lambert claimed both Ray and James Dean helped renew Wood's passion for acting after roles in lackluster movies like Chicken Every Sunday, Dear Brat and Father Was a Fullback. Wood also had highly publicized relationships with actors Raymond Burr, Warren Beatty, Nick Adams, Tab Hunter, Michael Caine and Scott Marlowe, along with singer Elvis Presley.
However, Lambert writes that contrary to popular belief, Wood's casting in Rebel Without a Cause did not lead to a romance with co-star James Dean: "Like many people," she was only "fascinated by his charm."[6] In fact, the teenaged Wood went on studio-arranged dates, often with closeted gay actors. In 1956, one of these was Tab Hunter who was seven years older than her and with whom she developed a lasting friendship. They attended parties to promote films they co-starred in that year, The Burning Hills and The Girl He Left Behind. In his autobiography, Hunter tells how highly publicized, sham Hollywood romances were a marketing strategy meant to stir up interest in forthcoming films among the newly influential teenaged girl market.[7] Wood's long relationship with Nick Adams, according to Lambert another "gay or bisexual actor," also began with such a "studio-arranged date."[6][8] In his biography of gay Hollywood agent Henry Willson, Robert Hofler deals with the rise of the studio star system, in which several gay actors dated girls in order to cover their homosexuality. "In the Henry Willson date pool, Nick Adams was one client, among many, who glommed on to Natalie Wood to get his picture taken."[9] According to Lambert and his reviewer David Ehrenstein, Wood also financially supported homosexual playwright Mart Crowley in a manner that made it possible for him to write his play, The Boys in the Band.[10] Concerning a possible relationship between Wood and homosexual actor Raymond Burr, 21 years her senior, Wood's biographer, Suzanne Finstad, cites Dennis Hopper as saying, "I just can't wrap my mind around that one. But you know, I saw them together. They were definitely a couple. Who knows what was going on there." However, "the studio pressured Wood and Raymond to break up their romance", Burr biographer Ona L. Hill writes, "because they wanted to keep Wood's sweet, all-American girl image. ... Deeply hurt by this command, they parted as friends..."[11]
In September and October 1981, Wood and Wagner stayed in Raleigh, North Carolina while Wood did location work for the science-fiction film Brainstorm.[12] Wood then spent most of November in California shooting interior scenes with Christopher Walken and other cast members on the MGM lot in Culver City.[12]
After Thanksgiving, Wood, Wagner and Walken went on to Catalina Island for the weekend and on Saturday night their yacht (Splendor) was anchored in Isthmus Cove. Also on board was the boat's skipper, Dennis Davern, who had worked for the couple for many years. Wood apparently tried to either leave the yacht or secure a dinghy from banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. A woman on a nearby yacht said she heard calls for help at around midnight. The cries lasted for about 15 minutes and were answered by someone else who said, "Take it easy. We'll be over to get you".[13] "It was laid back," the witness recalled. "There was no urgency or immediacy in their shouts".[13] An investigation by Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi resulted in an official verdict of accidental drowning. Noguchi concluded Wood had drunk "seven or eight" glasses of wine and was intoxicated when she died. There were marks and bruises on her body which could have been received as a result of her fall.[13] Noguchi later wrote had Wood not been intoxicated she likely would have realized her heavy down-filled coat and wool sweater were pulling her underwater and would have removed them.[14] Noguchi also wrote that he found Wood's fingernails embedded in the rubber boat's side.
At the time of her death at the age of 43, Wood was scheduled to make her stage debut in an Ahmanson Theatre production of Anastasia with Dame Wendy Hiller. Rehearsals were planned to begin in December. Brainstorm was released in theaters two years later (missing at least one unfilmed scene meant for Wood) and was neither a critical nor a commercial success. She is buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Following her death Time magazine noted that although critical praise for Wood had been sparse throughout her career, "she always had work."[13]
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1943 | Happy Land | Bit Part | |
1946 | The Bride Wore Boots | Carol Warren | |
Tomorrow Is Forever | Margaret Ludwig | ||
1947 | Driftwood | Jenny Hollingsworth | |
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | Anna Muir as a child | ||
Miracle on 34th Street | Susan Walker | ||
1948 | Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! | Bean McGill | |
1949 | Father Was a Fullback | Ellen Cooper | |
The Green Promise | Susan Anastasia Matthews | ||
Chicken Every Sunday | Ruth Hefferan | ||
1950 | Never a Dull Moment | Nancy 'Nan' Howard | |
The Jackpot | Phyllis Lawrence | ||
Our Very Own | Penny Macaulay | ||
No Sad Songs for Me | Polly Scott | ||
1951 | The Blue Veil | Stephanie Rawlins | |
Dear Brat | Pauline | ||
1952 | The Star | Gretchen | |
Just for You | Barbara Blake | ||
The Rose Bowl Story | Sally Burke | ||
1954 | The Silver Chalice | Helena as a child | |
1955 | Rebel Without a Cause | Judy | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress |
One Desire | Seely Dowder | ||
1956 | The Girl He Left Behind | Susan Daniels | |
The Burning Hills | Maria Christina Colton | ||
A Cry in the Night | Liz Taggert | ||
The Searchers | Debbie Edwards (older) | ||
1957 | Bombers B-52 | Lois Brennan | |
1958 | Kings Go Forth | Monique Blair | |
Marjorie Morningstar | Marjorie Morgenstern | ||
1960 | All the Fine Young Cannibals | Sarah 'Salome' Davis | |
Cash McCall | Lory Austen | ||
1961 | West Side Story | Maria | |
Splendor in the Grass | Wilma Dean Loomis | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama Nominated - BAFTA Award Best Foreign Actress |
|
1962 | Gypsy | Gypsy Rose Lee | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
1963 | Love with the Proper Stranger | Angie Rossini | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama |
1964 | Sex and the Single Girl | Helen Gurley Brown | |
1965 | Inside Daisy Clover | Daisy Clover | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
The Great Race | Maggie DuBois | ||
1966 | Penelope | Penelope Elcott | |
This Property Is Condemned | Alva Starr | Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama | |
1969 | Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice | Carol Sanders | |
1972 | The Candidate | Herself | |
1975 | Peeper | Ellen Prendergast | |
1979 | Meteor | Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya | |
1980 | The Last Married Couple in America | Mari Thompson | |
1983 | Brainstorm | Karen Brace |
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1953 | Pride of the Family | Ann Morrison | Television series (one season) |
1973 | The Affair | Courtney Patterson | Released theatrically outside of the U.S. |
1976 | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Maggie | |
1979 | From Here to Eternity | Karen Holmes | Miniseries, Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama |
The Cracker Factory | Cassie Barrett | ||
Hart to Hart | Cameo | Pilot episode, as Natasha Gurdin | |
1980 | The Memory of Eva Ryker | Eva/Claire Ryker |
Year | Group | Award | Film | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1946 | Box Office Magazine | Most Talented Young Actress of 1946 | Tomorrow is Forever | Won |
1956 | National Association of Theatre Owners | Star of Tomorrow Award | Won | |
1957 | Golden Globe Award | New Star Of The Year - Actress | Rebel Without A Cause | Won |
1958 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Dramatic Performance | Marjorie Morningstar | Nominated |
Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (13th place) | ||
1959 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (7th place) | |
1960 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (9th place) | |
1961 | Grauman's Chinese Theatre | Handprint Ceremony | Inducted | |
1961 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (14th place) | |
1962 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Dramatic Performance | Splendor in the Grass | Nominated |
Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (5th place) | ||
1963 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Musical Performance | Gypsy | Nominated |
Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (2nd place) | ||
1964 | Mar del Plata Film Festival | Best Actress | Love with the Proper Stranger | Won |
New York Film Critics Award | Best Actress | Love with the Proper Stranger | Nominated | |
Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Dramatic Performance | Love with the Proper Stranger | Nominated | |
Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (3rd place) | ||
1965 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (6th place) | |
1966 | Golden Globe Award | World Film Favorite | Won | |
Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (8th place) | ||
1967 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (3th place) | |
1968 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (12th place) | |
1970 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (9th place) | |
1971 | Golden Laurel Awards | Top Female Star | Nominated (9th place) | |
1984 | Saturn Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Brainstorm | Nominated |
1987 | Hollywood Chamber of Commerce | Hollywood Walk of Fame | - | Inducted |
Persondata | |
---|---|
NAME | Wood, Natalie |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Zakharenko, Natalia Nikolaevna; Gurdin, Natasha Gurdin |
SHORT DESCRIPTION | Actress |
DATE OF BIRTH | July 20, 1938 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | San Francisco, California, United States |
DATE OF DEATH | November 29, 1981 |
PLACE OF DEATH | Isthmus Cove, Santa Catalina Island, California, United States |