Biography
Born to Russian-immigrant parents, Natalie Wood made her first film appearance at age four as an extra in
Happy Land (1943). When she was promoted to supporting roles, the young Wood was well prepared for the artistic discipline expected of her: She'd been taking dancing lessons since infancy. By 1947, she earned up to a thousand dollars per week for such films as
Miracle on 34th Street. She made a reasonably smooth transition to grown-up roles, most notably as
James Dean's girlfriend in
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and
Warren Beatty's steady in
Splendor in the Grass (1961). She was also a regular on the 1953 sitcom Pride of the Family, playing the teenaged daughter of
Paul Hartman and
Fay Wray. Despite being romantically linked with several of her leading men, Wood settled down to marriage relatively early, wedding film star
Robert Wagner in 1957. The union didn't last, and she and Wagner were divorced in 1962. Continuing to star in such important films as
West Side Story (1961),
Gypsy (1963),
Inside Daisy Clover (1967), and Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969), Wood always managed to bounce back from her numerous career setbacks, and in 1971, after an interim marriage to screenwriter Richard Gregson, Wood remarried
Robert Wagner, this time for keeps. Opinions of her acting ability varied: Her adherents felt that she was one of Hollywood's most versatile stars, while her detractors considered her to be more fortunate than talented. The Oscar people thought enough of Wood to nominate her three times, for
Rebel Without a Cause,
West Side Story, and
Love With the Proper Stranger (1963). In the midst of filming the 1981 sci-fier
Brainstorm, 43-year-old Natalie Wood drowned in a yachting accident just off Catalina Island. Among her survivors was her sister, actress
Lana Wood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide