Revisiting the Death of Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko; July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981)

 was an American actress, born in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents. She began her career in film as a child and became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25. She began acting in films at age 4 and was given a co-starring role at age 8 in Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

As a teenager, she earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and she received nominations for the 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 children with husband Robert Wagner, whom she married twice. She appeared in only three films throughout the decade, but did act in several television productions, including a remake of the film From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she received a Golden Globe Award. Her films represented a "coming of age" for her and Hollywood films in general. Critics have suggested that Wood's cinematic career represents a portrait of modern American womanhood in transition, as she was one of the few to include both child roles and roles of middle-aged characters.

Personal Life

Natalie was Married three times and had two children. She Married Actor Robert Wagner in 1957 and they divorced in 1962 allegedly after she found him having sex with their male butler. In 1969 She married Richard Gregson and had a daughter actress Natasha Gregson Wagner. They Divorced in 1972 when it was revealed Gregson was having an affair behind Natalie's back. 

Natalie re-married Robert Wagner that same year and remained married to him until her death. 

Death

Wood drowned on November 29, 1981, at age 43. The events surrounding her death have been controversial due to conflicting witness statements, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to list her cause of death as "drowning and other undetermined factors" in 2012.In 2018, Wagner was named a person of interest in the ongoing investigation into her death.

Wood drowned at age 43 during the making of Brainstorm while on a weekend boat trip to Catalina Island on board Wagner's yacht Splendour. Many of the circumstances are unknown surrounding her drowning; it was never determined how she entered the water. She was with her husband Robert Wagner, Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, and Splendour's captain Dennis Davern on the evening of November 28, 1981. Authorities recovered her body at 8 a.m. on November 29 one mile away from the boat, with a small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby. Wagner said that she was not with him when he went to bed.

The autopsy report revealed that she had bruises on her body and arms, as well as an abrasion on her left cheek.

Wagner acknowledged in his memoir Pieces of My Heart that he had an argument with her before she disappeared.The autopsy found that her blood alcohol content was 0.14% (the limit for driving a car legally was 0.10% in California at the time), and that there were traces of a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller in her bloodstream, both of which increase the effects of alcohol. Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death to be accidental drowning and hypothermia. According to Noguchi, Wood had been drinking and she may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy.Her sister Lana expressed doubts, alleging that Wood could not swim and had been "terrified" of water all her life, and that she would never have left the yacht on her own by dinghy. Two witnesses had been on a boat nearby, and they stated that they had heard a woman scream for help during the night. Police detectives found a broken wine bottle on board the yacht that night, after the Investigation was re-opened Robert Wagner refused to cooperate with investigators, was rude and even hung up on the L.A. County Coroner.  

Wood was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Representatives of international media, photographers, and members of the public tried to attend her funeral, but all were required to remain outside the cemetery walls. Among the celebrities were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Elia Kazan, and Laurence Olivier. Olivier flew in from London in order to attend the service.

The case was reopened in November 2011 after Davern publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and that Wood and Wagner had an argument that evening. He alleged that Wood had been flirting with Walken, that Wagner was jealous and enraged, and that Wagner had prevented Davern from turning on the search lights and notifying authorities after her disappearance. Davern alleged that Wagner was responsible for her death. Walken hired a lawyer, cooperated with the investigation, and was not considered a suspect by authorities.

In 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of her death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors". The amended document included a statement that the circumstances are "not clearly established" concerning how Wood ended up in the water. Detectives instructed the coroner's office not to discuss or comment on the case.  On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office offered a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report. The addendum stated that she might have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water, but that could not be definitively determined. Forensic pathologist Michael Hunter speculated that Wood was particularly susceptible to bruising due to the drug Synthroid which she had taken.

In February 2018, Wagner was named a person of interest in the investigation into Wood's death. He has denied any involvement.