Natalie Wood, the daughter of Russian Immigrants, was born Natalia Zakharenko on July 20, 1938. Natalie got her first role at the age of 4 in a movie called Happy Land. She continued playing the roles of young girls until the age of 17, where she landed the role of Judy in the legendary film Rebel Without a Cause. This role showed Hollywood and the world that she had grown up into a beautiful and very talented young woman. For this role, she was nominated for her first Academy Award. Natalie dated many big names in the entertainment business: James Dean Elvis Presley, Raymond Burr, and Dennis Hopper.

However, on December 28th, 1957, Natalie married the love of her life Robert Wagner (R.J. as Natalie called him). They divorced in 1962, later to remarry. Natalie once commented about their divorce saying they were both scared, insecure, and listened to others that their marriage wouldn't work. In the 1960s, Natalie's career boomed, and she was nominated for two more Academy Awards, (Splendor in the Grass and Love with the Proper Stranger. In 1969, Natalie married producer Richard Gregson and had a daughter, Natasha. She divorced Gregson after finding out he was having an affair. R.J. and Natalie remarried on June 16, 1972. In 1974, R.J. and Natalie had a daughter Courtney Brooke. They lived happily as husband and wife until tragically, while sailing on their yacht Splendour, Natalie had an accident trying to board the dinghy belonging to the boat, fell into the water, and, while trying to recover, drowned.
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969): $250,000 + 10% of the net profits.
Penelope (1966): $750,000
Sex and the Single Girl (1964): $750,000
West Side Story (1961): $250,000
All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960): $150,000
Just for You (1952): $6,500
Dear Brat (1951): $2,333
Sister of Lana Wood and Olga Wood. Mother of Natasha Gregson Wagner. Named after director Sam Wood. Favorite actress was Vivien Leigh. In the 1950s she was known as a "Hollywood Badgirl" along with Janet Leigh & Debbie Reynolds. Suffering from a deep fear of drowning after having barely survived an accident during the filming of The Green Promise, her fear was so great that Elia Kazan had to lie -- promising a double -- and trick her into doing the scenes at the water reservoir in Splendor in the Grass. Interred at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA, Section D, #60. Was commonly listed as 5' 3" wearing heels in movie magazines, though her actual height was 5' 0". On April 23, 1966, she made Harvard history when she became the first performer voted the year's worst by the Harvard Lampoon to show up and accept her citation. Reportedly turned down Warren Beatty's offer to play opposite him in Bonnie and Clyde because she didn't want to be separated from her analyst while the film was on location in the Midwest. Splendour, the name of the yacht Wood was on the night she died, was named after her 1961 movie Splendor in the Grass. She co-starred in the film with former love Warren Beatty. An accident on a movie set when she was 9 years old left her with a permanently weakened left wrist and a slight bone protrusion, which, for the rest of her life, she hid with large bracelets. Regardless of the movie role, or anytime that she was out in public, she always wore a large bracelet on the left wrist. The rubber dinghy 'Prince Valiant' she'd been trying to board after falling from husband Robert Wagner's yacht that fateful Thanksgiving weekend in 1981, was named after Wagner's 1954 movie, a film the actor considered among his worst Had planned to produce as well as star in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, but the leading role of Deborah went to Kathleen Quinlan by the time the film was made. Director Sydney Pollack credits her with his big break. Attended ballet classes with two time husband Robert Wagner's third wife Jill St. John and Wagner's Hart to Hart co-star Stefanie Powers. Pallbearers at her funeral were Rock Hudson, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, Elia Kazan, Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Fred Astaire. By the early 1960s, Natalie Wood was considered one of Hollywood's most valuable and wanted actresses. However, her career lost steam and never recovered from the box office failure of the highly-touted Inside Daisy Clover despite the fact that film critics had blamed the production's failure on a poor script that included stilted dialog written for Wood's character by screenwriter Gavin Lambert. Daughter with Robert Wagner: Courtney Brooke (b. 9 March 1974). Daughter with Richard Gregson: Natasha (b. 29 September 1970). Her death was kismet, as she always cited a fear of water. Dated Elvis Presley in the 1950s; Elvis wanted to marry her, but his mother did not like Natalie. Her and co-star Richard Beymer's singing voices were both dubbed in West Side Story. The woman who dubbed Natalie, Marni Nixon, also dubbed Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Deborah Kerr in The King and I. The daughter of a Russian architect and a French ballerina could do a proper plié before she could barely walk. Her mother, Maria, claimed that the family was closely related to the Romanov dynasty. Spoke Russian and English. Though some people cite her mother as being French, her mother was Russian. The source of this misconception comes from the studio that Natalie worked at when she was young -- people noticed her mother's accent and when asked if she was French, Maria replied: "Oh yes", a white lie that would contribute to this confusion. Younger sister Lana Wood made a ABC TV special on Natalie's life, The Mystery of Natalie Wood. Wore dress size 5. Measurements: 32-20 1/2-32 (at age 18), 32B-22-33 ("Parade" magazine December 1962), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine). Portrayed by Rebecca Budig in James Dean: Race with Destiny, by Justine Waddell in The Mystery of Natalie Wood and by Abi Young in Elvis. Turned down the role of Judith Anderson in The Devil's Disciple because she didn't want to work with Kirk Douglas for "personal" reasons. Turned down the films Bonnie and Clyde, Barefoot in the Park, and Goodbye, Columbus. She was cast as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof quite unexpectedly, without campaigning for the role. Wood explained that when Laurence Olivier would come to Hollywood, she would often be seated with him at the table at formal sit-down dinners. When Olivier decided to make a version of the Tennessee Williams play, he thought of casting Wood, his dinner companion, and her husband, Robert Wagner, in the husband-wife roles of Brick and Maggie. Naturally, they accepted. Wood knew screenwriter Gavin Lambert as both were intimates of director Randy Suhr. In the early 1960s, he wrote a novel about a Hollywood child star in the 1930s, Inside Daisy Clover. After reading the book, Wood telephoned Lambert and said, "I'd kill for that part." He assured her she was his first choice for the movie, for which he was writing the screenplay. She got the part and Ruth Gordon got her first Oscar nomination as an actress for portraying Daisy's mother. Both she and her sister Lana Wood have played the love interest of Richard Beymer in 2 separate films: she as Maria opposite Richard's Tony in West Side Story, and Lana as Karen opposite Richard's Dean in Scream Free! (aka Free Grass). She is the inspiration of High School Musical star, Vanessa Anne Hudgens. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 889-890. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. Barbara Rush replaced her in "The Young Philadelphians" (1962) after she had been put on studio suspension for refusing the role.