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Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood

Birthday: 1938-07-20 | Place of Birth: San Francisco, California, USA

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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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2020
Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind

as    Self (archive footage)

1983
Brainstorm

as    Karen Brace

1980
From Here to Eternity

as    Karen Holmes

1979
The Cracker Factory

as    Cassie Barrett

1979
Meteor

as    Tatiana Donskaya

1975
Peeper

as    Ellen Prendergast

1975
1973
The Affair

as    Courtney Patterson

1969
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

as    Carol Sanders

1966
This Property Is Condemned

as    Alva Starr

1966
Penelope

as    Penelope

1965
Inside Daisy Clover

as    Daisy Clover

1965
The Great Race

as    Maggie Dubois

1964
Sex and the Single Girl

as    Helen Gurley Brown

1963
Love with the Proper Stranger

as    Angie Rossini

1962
Gypsy

as    Louise 'Gypsy Rose Lee' Hovick

1961
West Side Story

as    Maria

1961
Splendor in the Grass

as    Wilma “Deanie” Loomis

1960
Cash McCall

as    Lory Austen

1960
All the Fine Young Cannibals

as    Sarah "Salome" Davis

1958
Marjorie Morningstar

as    Marjorie Morgenstern

1957
Bombers B-52

as    Lois Brennan

1956
The Searchers

as    Debbie Edwards

1956
The Burning Hills

as    Maria-Christina Colton

1956
The Girl He Left Behind

as    Susan Daniels

1953
The Pride of the Family

as    Ann Morrison