Natalie Wood

Birthday

1938-07-20

Place of Birth

San Francisco, California, USA

Biography

Natalie Wood (born Natalie Zacharenko, July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles. She was the recipient of four Golden Globes and three Academy Award nominations. Born in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents, Wood started acting at age four and was given a co-starring role at age 8 in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). As a teenager, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), followed by a role in John Ford's The Searchers (1956). Wood starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). Her career continued with films such as Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Inside Daisy Clover (1964), and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). During the 1970s, Wood began a hiatus from film and had two daughters by different men; one with her second husband Richard Gregson, and one with Robert Wagner, her first husband whom she married again after divorcing Gregson. She acted in only two feature films throughout the decade, but appeared slightly more often in television productions, including a remake of From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award. Wood's films represented a "coming of age" for her and for Hollywood films in general. Critics have suggested that her cinematic career represents a portrait of modern American womanhood in transition, as she was one of the few to take both child roles and those of middle-aged characters. Wood died off of the coast of Santa Catalina Island on November 29, 1981, at age 43, during a holiday break from the production of her would-be comeback film Brainstorm (1983) with Christopher Walken. The events surrounding her death have been the subject of conflicting witness statements, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, under the instruction of the coroner's office, to list her cause of death as "drowning and other undetermined factors" in 2012.
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Brainstorm

Brainstorm

1983 6.4
Brainstorm

as Karen Brace

1983
Meteor

Meteor

1979 5.1
Meteor

as Tatiana Donskaya

1979
Peeper

Peeper

1975 5.6
Peeper

as Ellen Prendergast

1975
The Affair

The Affair

1973 5
The Affair

as Courtney Patterson

1973
Penelope

Penelope

1966 6.2
Penelope

as Penelope

1966
Gypsy

Gypsy

1962 7.1
Gypsy

as Louise 'Gypsy Rose Lee' Hovick

1962
The Searchers

The Searchers

1956 7.8
The Searchers

as Deborah "Debbie" Edwards

1956
The Burning Hills

The Burning Hills

1956 5.8
The Burning Hills

as Maria-Christina Colton

1956
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