Natalie Wood’s Mysterious Drowning

The Tragic Life and Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood was a Hollywood icon, known for her talent and beauty. Her career began as a child actor, and she went on to star in films alongside legendary actors like James Dean, Gregory Peck, and Warren Beatty. But her life was not without its struggles, and in 1981, Wood drowned in the Pacific Ocean under mysterious circumstances.

Early Life and Career

Wood’s parents were Russian immigrants who met in America and married in 1938, five months before she was born. Her birth name was Natalie Zacharenko, but her last name was changed to Wood by RKO executives David Lewis and William Goetz after she began acting in an effort to make her more appealing to English-speaking audiences.

In 1942, Woods’ parents moved to Santa Rosa, California, where 4-year-old Natalie was noticed by crew members working on a film shoot. Before she was even 5, Wood appeared in her first movie, “Happy Land,” in which she had an uncredited, 15-second scene.

Wood acted in two more movies before she landed her best-known childhood role in “Miracle on 34th Street.” The film became a Christmas classic, and the year it was released, Macy’s invited Wood to appear in its annual Thanksgiving Day parade.

Teenage Years and Personal Life

Wood’s fame didn’t end when she became a teenager. She received roles in several TV shows and major films. She was able to cement a successful transition from child to teen actor when she was cast alongside James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,” for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

While her fame was on an upward trajectory, her personal life was not as pleasant. In 1957, at age 19, she married actor Robert Wagner, but the couple divorced in 1962, a year after Wood starred in “West Side Story.” After her divorce, Wood reportedly dated Warren Beatty, Michael Caine, and David Niven Jr. before getting engaged to Venezuelan shoe manufacturer Ladislav Blatnik. The two broke off their engagement in 1965. Four years later, Wood married British producer Richard Gregson after the pair dated for three years. The couple had a daughter in 1970, and divorced two years later.

Prior to her divorce being finalized, Wood and her first husband, Robert Wagner, reconciled and remarried on July 16, 1972. Their daughter was born in 1974.

Tragic Death and Unsolved Mystery

In 1981, Wood began filming “Brainstorm” alongside Christopher Walken. Wood, her husband, Walken, and the captain of Wagner’s yacht, Dennis Davern, went out for a boat ride on the Pacific Ocean to take a break from production on November 28. The next morning — at around 8 a.m. on November 29 — Wood’s body was recovered about a mile away from the boat, along with a small inflatable dinghy on the beach nearby.

Wagner initially told police that Wood wasn’t with him when he went to bed that night. He also initially denied arguing with Wood the night before her death, but eventually admitted to it in his memoir “Pieces of My Heart.”

An autopsy revealed that Wood had bruises on her body and arms, a cut on her left cheek, and a blood alcohol content of 0.14%. She also had traces of a motion-sickness pill and painkiller in her system. Though she had various injuries, it couldn’t be determined when she received them. L.A. County Coroner Thomas Noguchi suggested Wood was drinking and slipped while trying to get back onto the dinghy, but her younger sister Lana dismissed the possibility. Wood had been afraid of water her entire life, Lana said, and would never have gotten onto the dinghy by herself.

The Los Angeles Times reported that two witnesses on a nearby boat told police they heard a woman scream for help on the night Wood died.

Because “Brainstorm” hadn’t completed filming, a stand-in and sound-alikes were used to replace Wood in remaining scenes. The film was released in 1983 with a dedication to Wood in the closing credits.

In November 2011, the investigation into Wood’s death was reopened, after Davern admitted that he had lied to police in 1981. At the time, he said Wood and Wagner had been arguing the night she died. Davern said that Wagner became jealous and angry when he thought Wood was flirting with Walken. Davern at the time also said Wagner hadn’t let him turn on the boat’s search lights or call authorities to report Wood missing.

Walken has never been considered a suspect in Wood’s death.

In 2012, L.A. County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran changed Wood’s official cause of death from accidental drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors,” adding that it was “not clearly established” how Wood ended up in the water.

Eight years later, a former intern under Noguchi, who was now a medical doctor, said that Wood’s bruises were substantial and could be a match for someone who had been thrown from a boat, an observation he said he made to Noguchi.

In 2018, Wagner was named a person of interest in Wood’s death, with police saying he was the last person to see her alive. Police also said it was possible Wood had been assaulted before she went into the water and drowned.

As of May 2023, the story of Wood’s death remains frustratingly incomplete.

• Childhood: Natalie Wood began her Hollywood career as a child actor before going on to star in films alongside legendary actors like James Dean, Gregory Peck, and Warren Beatty.
• Personal Life: Wood had a tumultuous personal life, including multiple marriages and relationships with famous men like Warren Beatty and Michael Caine.
• Tragic Death: Wood drowned in the Pacific Ocean under mysterious circumstances while filming “Brainstorm” in 1981. Her death remains unsolved.

Despite the mystery surrounding her death, Natalie Wood’s legacy as a talented and beloved actress lives on.