On Celluloid Heroes

What kind of wood doesn’t float? was a joke that was going around in the early 80s. The answer was Natalie Wood. Now depending on your age or your long-term memory, the punch line may or may not make any sense. However, after reading this post, you might come away with a slight smile or a shake of your head.

In 1938, Natalie Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenk in San Francisco. She was a highly successful child actor and starred in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Natalie Wood had several other huge roles such as James Dean’s love interest in Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and in 1961 two hits, Maria (though she didn’t sing) in West Side Story and the critically acclaimed Splendor in the Grass with Warren Beatty. Wood married Robert Wagner in 1957 and then divorced in 1962 only to remarry in 1972. To say that they had a tumultuous relationship would be an understatement.

Wood’s movie career was on the decline in the late 70s and she had the opportunity to work with special-effects guru Douglas Trumbull and the acclaimed actor, Christopher Walken. It turns out that Wood may have had a thing for Walken and Robert Wagner was a bit jealous. Here’s where it starts to get weird: Wagner invites Walken to accompany Natalie Wood and himself on an extended sailing weekend aboard Splendor. There’s a bit of drinking going on and tempers flared during a late-night dinner. Wagner and Walken go up to the deck to cool off. Wood, apparently still upset and drunk, may have decided to make a run for it back to land on a dinghy or as Wagner puts it, she must have heard the dinghy banging on the side of the boat and went to fix it. Wagner says that he didn’t know she was missing till around midnight, but some nearby witnesses say they heard her yelling for help and someone responded with “Take it easy. We’ll be over to get you.” Odd circumstances, no? But Natalie Wood’s death on November 29th, 1981 was ruled an accidental drowning.

A couple of interesting tidbits I learned when researching this story: Bond girl Lana Wood was her sister and Raymond Burr (Ironsides and Perry Mason) was gay.