Biography
Date of Birth
20 July 1938, San Francisco, California, USA
Date of Death
29 November 1981, Santa Catalina Island, California, USA (drowning)
Birth Name
Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
Nickname Natalia Natasha
Height
5' (1.52 m)
Spouse
Robert Wagner (16 July 1972 - 29 November 1981) (remarried) (her death); 1 child
Richard Gregson (30 May 1969 - 1 April 1972) (divorced) 1 child
Robert Wagner (28 December 1957 - 27 April 1962) (divorced)
Facts:
-Her real name was Natasha Gurdin, and she was born in San Francisco on Wednesday, July 20th, 1938, to Russian émigrés Maria and Nicholas Zakharenko.
-Wood, then seven years old, got the part and 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." After Wood acted in another film directed by Pichel, her mother signed her up with 20th Century Fox studio for her first major role, the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street; the film made her one of the top child stars in Hollywood. Within a few months after the film's release, Wood was so popular that Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
-Because she was a minor, Wood's formal education took place on the studio lots wherever she was contracted. California law required that until age 18, 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:
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 successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 16 when she co-starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray's film about teenage rebellion. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's western The Searchers which starred John Wayne and also featured Wood's sister, Lana, who played a younger version of her character in the film's earlier scenes.
-Wood's characters in Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers and Marjorie Morningstar began to show her range of acting style widening considerably, observes Tibbetts.[3] Her former "childlike sweetness" was now being combined with a noticeable "restlessness that was characteristic of the youth of the 1950s." After Wood appeared in the box office flop All the Fine Young Cannibals, her career was salvaged by her casting in director Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961) opposite Warren Beatty, which earned Wood Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.
-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.
-Although many of Wood's films were commercially profitable, her acting was criticized at times. 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." Conversely, director Sydney Pollack said, "When she was right for the part, there was no one better. She was a damn good actress." Other notable films she starred in were Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property Is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford and brought subsequent Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In both films, which were set during the Great Depression, Wood played small-town teens with big dreams. After the release of the films, Wood suffered emotionally and sought professional therapy.
-After becoming pregnant with her first child, Natasha Gregson, in 1970, Wood went into semi-retirement and acted in only four more theatrical films during the remainder of her life. She made a very brief cameo appearance as herself in The Candidate (1972), reuniting her for a third time with Robert Redford. She also reunited on the screen with Robert Wagner in the television movie of the week The Affair (1973) and with Sir Laurence Olivier and husband Wagner in an adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) broadcast as a special by NBC. She made cameo appearances on Wagner's prime-time detective series Switch in 1978 as "Bubble Bath Girl" and Hart to Hart in 1979 as "Movie Star." During the last two years of her life, Wood began to work more frequently as her daughters reached school age.
-At the time of her death, Wood was filming the science fiction film Brainstorm (1983), co-starring Christopher Walken and directed by Douglas Trumbull.She was also scheduled to star in a theatrical production of Anastasia with Wendy Hiller and in a film called Country of the Heart, playing a terminally ill writer who has an affair with a teenager, to be played by Timothy Hutton.[22] Due to her untimely death, both of the latter projects were canceled and the ending of Brainstorm had to be re-written. A stand-in and sound-alikes were used to replace Wood for some of her critical scenes. The film was released posthumously on September 30, 1983, and was dedicated to her in the closing credits.
-On Saturday, November 28, 1981, the Wagners' yacht, Splendour, was anchored in Isthmus Cove off Catalina Island with Wagner, Wood, and Wood's Brainstorm co-star, Christopher Walken, on board. Also on board was the boat's captain, Dennis Davern, who had worked a number of years for the Wagners before Wood's death.[31]
According to Wagner in his 2008 book, Pieces of My Heart, he had been jealous of Wood's friendship with Walken and there had been a fight between him, Walken, and Wood, during which Wagner smashed a wine bottle on a table. Also according to Wagner, it was at this time that Wood left for her stateroom and Walken retired to his, with Wagner behind Wood. According to Davern, the yacht's captain, it was at this time that he heard the couple fighting; he reports that he turned up his stereo to drown out the argument. Looking out the pilot house window, he saw both Wood and Wagner arguing at the aft deck of the yacht. Shortly after this, Davern claims, Wagner sought him out, saying he couldn't find Wood. Davern unsuccessfully searched the boat for her, also noticing that the yacht's dinghy was missing. According to Davern, Wagner seemed unconcerned about Wood's disappearance and poured drinks for both himself and Davern.
-At this point, Wagner's story as told in his book differs from Davern's: he claims when he went to their stateroom to talk to Wood, she wasn't there. Wagner further states that while he and Davern searched the boat for his wife he also noticed the dinghy to be missing. Wagner further wrote that he had assumed Wood had used the dinghy to go to shore as a result of the argument. Davern claims that Wagner not only seemed unconcerned, but that he told Davern not to alert anyone about Wood's absence. According to Davern, Wagner said, "We're not going to look too hard, we’re not going to turn on the search light, we’re not going to notify anybody right at the moment."
-Wagner's theory is that Wood tried either to leave the yacht or to secure a dinghy from banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. When her body was found a mile from the dinghy on Sunday afternoon, she was wearing a down jacket, a nightgown, and socks. A woman on a nearby yacht reported she had heard a woman calling for help at around midnight. She further reported that 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." According to the witness, "It was laid back, there was no urgency or immediacy in their shouts."
-On November 17, 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department office announced that it had officially reopened the case, based on new information from the yacht's skipper Dennis Davern. Sheriff's Office homicide bureau Detective Lieutenant John Corina stated at a press conference, "We recently received information that we deemed to be credible. We're going to follow up on the leads we have." Corina declined to divulge any specific information regarding the new leads but did state that Wood's husband, Robert Wagner, is not considered a suspect.
20 July 1938, San Francisco, California, USA
Date of Death
29 November 1981, Santa Catalina Island, California, USA (drowning)
Birth Name
Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
Nickname Natalia Natasha
Height
5' (1.52 m)
Spouse
Robert Wagner (16 July 1972 - 29 November 1981) (remarried) (her death); 1 child
Richard Gregson (30 May 1969 - 1 April 1972) (divorced) 1 child
Robert Wagner (28 December 1957 - 27 April 1962) (divorced)
Facts:
-Her real name was Natasha Gurdin, and she was born in San Francisco on Wednesday, July 20th, 1938, to Russian émigrés Maria and Nicholas Zakharenko.
-Wood, then seven years old, got the part and 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." After Wood acted in another film directed by Pichel, her mother signed her up with 20th Century Fox studio for her first major role, the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street; the film made her one of the top child stars in Hollywood. Within a few months after the film's release, Wood was so popular that Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
-Because she was a minor, Wood's formal education took place on the studio lots wherever she was contracted. California law required that until age 18, 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:
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 successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 16 when she co-starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray's film about teenage rebellion. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's western The Searchers which starred John Wayne and also featured Wood's sister, Lana, who played a younger version of her character in the film's earlier scenes.
-Wood's characters in Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers and Marjorie Morningstar began to show her range of acting style widening considerably, observes Tibbetts.[3] Her former "childlike sweetness" was now being combined with a noticeable "restlessness that was characteristic of the youth of the 1950s." After Wood appeared in the box office flop All the Fine Young Cannibals, her career was salvaged by her casting in director Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961) opposite Warren Beatty, which earned Wood Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.
-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.
-Although many of Wood's films were commercially profitable, her acting was criticized at times. 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." Conversely, director Sydney Pollack said, "When she was right for the part, there was no one better. She was a damn good actress." Other notable films she starred in were Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property Is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford and brought subsequent Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In both films, which were set during the Great Depression, Wood played small-town teens with big dreams. After the release of the films, Wood suffered emotionally and sought professional therapy.
-After becoming pregnant with her first child, Natasha Gregson, in 1970, Wood went into semi-retirement and acted in only four more theatrical films during the remainder of her life. She made a very brief cameo appearance as herself in The Candidate (1972), reuniting her for a third time with Robert Redford. She also reunited on the screen with Robert Wagner in the television movie of the week The Affair (1973) and with Sir Laurence Olivier and husband Wagner in an adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) broadcast as a special by NBC. She made cameo appearances on Wagner's prime-time detective series Switch in 1978 as "Bubble Bath Girl" and Hart to Hart in 1979 as "Movie Star." During the last two years of her life, Wood began to work more frequently as her daughters reached school age.
-At the time of her death, Wood was filming the science fiction film Brainstorm (1983), co-starring Christopher Walken and directed by Douglas Trumbull.She was also scheduled to star in a theatrical production of Anastasia with Wendy Hiller and in a film called Country of the Heart, playing a terminally ill writer who has an affair with a teenager, to be played by Timothy Hutton.[22] Due to her untimely death, both of the latter projects were canceled and the ending of Brainstorm had to be re-written. A stand-in and sound-alikes were used to replace Wood for some of her critical scenes. The film was released posthumously on September 30, 1983, and was dedicated to her in the closing credits.
-On Saturday, November 28, 1981, the Wagners' yacht, Splendour, was anchored in Isthmus Cove off Catalina Island with Wagner, Wood, and Wood's Brainstorm co-star, Christopher Walken, on board. Also on board was the boat's captain, Dennis Davern, who had worked a number of years for the Wagners before Wood's death.[31]
According to Wagner in his 2008 book, Pieces of My Heart, he had been jealous of Wood's friendship with Walken and there had been a fight between him, Walken, and Wood, during which Wagner smashed a wine bottle on a table. Also according to Wagner, it was at this time that Wood left for her stateroom and Walken retired to his, with Wagner behind Wood. According to Davern, the yacht's captain, it was at this time that he heard the couple fighting; he reports that he turned up his stereo to drown out the argument. Looking out the pilot house window, he saw both Wood and Wagner arguing at the aft deck of the yacht. Shortly after this, Davern claims, Wagner sought him out, saying he couldn't find Wood. Davern unsuccessfully searched the boat for her, also noticing that the yacht's dinghy was missing. According to Davern, Wagner seemed unconcerned about Wood's disappearance and poured drinks for both himself and Davern.
-At this point, Wagner's story as told in his book differs from Davern's: he claims when he went to their stateroom to talk to Wood, she wasn't there. Wagner further states that while he and Davern searched the boat for his wife he also noticed the dinghy to be missing. Wagner further wrote that he had assumed Wood had used the dinghy to go to shore as a result of the argument. Davern claims that Wagner not only seemed unconcerned, but that he told Davern not to alert anyone about Wood's absence. According to Davern, Wagner said, "We're not going to look too hard, we’re not going to turn on the search light, we’re not going to notify anybody right at the moment."
-Wagner's theory is that Wood tried either to leave the yacht or to secure a dinghy from banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. When her body was found a mile from the dinghy on Sunday afternoon, she was wearing a down jacket, a nightgown, and socks. A woman on a nearby yacht reported she had heard a woman calling for help at around midnight. She further reported that 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." According to the witness, "It was laid back, there was no urgency or immediacy in their shouts."
-On November 17, 2011, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department office announced that it had officially reopened the case, based on new information from the yacht's skipper Dennis Davern. Sheriff's Office homicide bureau Detective Lieutenant John Corina stated at a press conference, "We recently received information that we deemed to be credible. We're going to follow up on the leads we have." Corina declined to divulge any specific information regarding the new leads but did state that Wood's husband, Robert Wagner, is not considered a suspect.
Filmography and Tribute
1943 Happy Land- Little girl who drops ice cream cone uncredited; film debut
1946 The Bride Wore Boots- Carol Warren
1946 Tomorrow Is Forever- Margaret Ludwig First credited role
1947 Driftwood- Jenny Hollingsworth
1947 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir- Anna Muir as a child
1947 Miracle on 34th Street- Susan Walker First starring role
1948 Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!- Bean McGill
1949 Father Was a Fullback- Ellen Cooper
1949 The Green Promise- Susan Anastasia Matthews
1949 Chicken Every Sunday- Ruth Hefferan
1950 Never a Dull Moment- Nancy 'Nan' Howard
1950 The Jackpot- Phyllis Lawrence
1950 Our Very Own- Penny Macaulay
1950 No Sad Songs for Me- Polly Scott
1951 The Blue Veil- Stephanie Rawlins
1951 Dear Brat- Pauline Jones
1952 The Star- Gretchen Drew
1952 Just for You'- Barbara Blake
1952 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
1955 One Desire- Seely Dowder
1956 The Girl He Left Behind- Susan Daniels
1956 The Burning Hills- Maria Christina Colton
1956 A Cry in the Night- Liz Taggert
1956 The Searchers- Debbie Edwards (older)
1957 Bombers B-52- Lois Brennan
1958 Kings Go Forth- Monique Blair
1958 Marjorie Morningstar- Marjorie Morgenstern
1960 All the Fine Young Cannibals- Sarah 'Salome' Davis
1960 Cash McCall- Lory Austen
1961 West Side Story- Maria
1961 Splendor in the Grass- Wilma Dean Loomis Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1962 Gypsy- Louise Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1963 Love with the Proper Stranger- Angie Rossini 1st Runner Up — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
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
Won—World Film Favorite – Female
1965 The Great Race- Maggie DuBois
1966 Penelope- Penelope Elcott
1966 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 cameo
1973 The Affair- Courtney Patterson TV movie
1975 Peeper- Ellen Prendergast
1976 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- Maggie TV movie
1979 From Here to Eternity- Karen Holmes Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Television Series Drama
1979 The Cracker Factory- Cassie Barrett TV movie
1979 Meteor- Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya
1980 The Last Married Couple in America- Mari Thompson
1980 The Memory of Eva Ryker- Eva/Claire Ryker TV movie
1980 Willie & Phil Herself (cameo)
1983 Brainstorm- Karen Brace Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
1946 The Bride Wore Boots- Carol Warren
1946 Tomorrow Is Forever- Margaret Ludwig First credited role
1947 Driftwood- Jenny Hollingsworth
1947 The Ghost and Mrs. Muir- Anna Muir as a child
1947 Miracle on 34th Street- Susan Walker First starring role
1948 Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!- Bean McGill
1949 Father Was a Fullback- Ellen Cooper
1949 The Green Promise- Susan Anastasia Matthews
1949 Chicken Every Sunday- Ruth Hefferan
1950 Never a Dull Moment- Nancy 'Nan' Howard
1950 The Jackpot- Phyllis Lawrence
1950 Our Very Own- Penny Macaulay
1950 No Sad Songs for Me- Polly Scott
1951 The Blue Veil- Stephanie Rawlins
1951 Dear Brat- Pauline Jones
1952 The Star- Gretchen Drew
1952 Just for You'- Barbara Blake
1952 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
1955 One Desire- Seely Dowder
1956 The Girl He Left Behind- Susan Daniels
1956 The Burning Hills- Maria Christina Colton
1956 A Cry in the Night- Liz Taggert
1956 The Searchers- Debbie Edwards (older)
1957 Bombers B-52- Lois Brennan
1958 Kings Go Forth- Monique Blair
1958 Marjorie Morningstar- Marjorie Morgenstern
1960 All the Fine Young Cannibals- Sarah 'Salome' Davis
1960 Cash McCall- Lory Austen
1961 West Side Story- Maria
1961 Splendor in the Grass- Wilma Dean Loomis Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress
Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress
Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1962 Gypsy- Louise Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1963 Love with the Proper Stranger- Angie Rossini 1st Runner Up — New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress
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
Won—World Film Favorite – Female
1965 The Great Race- Maggie DuBois
1966 Penelope- Penelope Elcott
1966 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 cameo
1973 The Affair- Courtney Patterson TV movie
1975 Peeper- Ellen Prendergast
1976 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof- Maggie TV movie
1979 From Here to Eternity- Karen Holmes Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Television Series Drama
1979 The Cracker Factory- Cassie Barrett TV movie
1979 Meteor- Tatiana Nikolaevna Donskaya
1980 The Last Married Couple in America- Mari Thompson
1980 The Memory of Eva Ryker- Eva/Claire Ryker TV movie
1980 Willie & Phil Herself (cameo)
1983 Brainstorm- Karen Brace Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress
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