Comprehensive information and links about Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko) (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981), was an American film actress.

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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 . As a 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. She starred in multiple films as a child including in 1947. Her father is described by Wood biographers as a passive alcoholic who went along with his wife's demands.

At the age of 16 Natalie celebrated her release from child-star status by winning the role of Judy in Nicholas Ray's , 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 , 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, comparable to that of 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 the young girls of the day.

Drowning at Catalina Island

Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were publicized and stormy, but they were reconciled at the time of her death. In 1981, at the age of forty-three, Wood drowned while their yacht 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 to secure a dinghy that was banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. A woman on shore said she heard cries for help from the water that night, along with voices replying "we're coming." Wagner, Walken and the pilot of the said they heard nothing. Noguchi revealed that Wood was legally intoxicated when she died and there were marks and bruises on her , which could have been received as a result of her fall.

At the time of her death Wood was filming , 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.

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. 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 director Nicholas Ray (with whom Wood reportedly had an affair) helped renew her passion for acting after a diet of lackluster movies like