Natalie Wood, an American actor who began her career in movies as a kid and successfully transitioned to young adult roles, was born on July 20, 1938, in New York City. She was nominated for three Academy Awards and received four Golden Globe nominations.
Wood, who was born in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents, began acting at the age of four and received a co-starring role in Miracle on 34th Street at the age of eight (1947). She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as a teenager, followed by a role in John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) as an adult.
Wood was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1962). She also acted in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962). Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Inside Daisy Clover (1964), and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) were among her later features.
Wood died on November 29, 1981, off the shore of Santa Catalina Island, at the age of 43, while on a holiday break from filming her would-be comeback film Brainstorm (1983) with Christopher Walken. The events surrounding her death have been the subject of contradicting witness testimony, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to designate her cause of death as ‘drowning and other uncertain reasons’ in 2012, under the direction of the coroner’s office. Robert Wagner was identified as a person of interest in the inquiry of Wood’s death in 2018.
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