Natalie Wood Biography

Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (July 20, 1938 � November 29, 1981), better known as Natalie Wood, was an American film actress. She was the sister of actor and producer Lana Wood. She was born in San Francisco, California to Russian Orthodox immigrants, Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko.

Her parents changed their surname to the less cumbersome and ethnic-sounding Gurdin, and by the age of 4 she was billed as Natasha Gurdin. She was a well-known child actor. At the age of 16 Natalie celebrated her release from child-star status by winning the role of Judy in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause. By age 28, she was already a three-time Oscar nominee, with nominations for Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass and Love With the Proper Stranger.

Another of her widely noted films was the Leonard Bernstein musical West Side Story, in which she played Maria. She enjoyed worldwide celebrity status and was compared favorably with Elizabeth Taylor.

As a restless on-screen companion of James Dean and an off-screen date of Elvis Presley, she was much admired and envied by young girls. Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were publicized and stormy, but they were reconciled once more at the time of her death. In 1981, at the age of forty-three, Wood drowned while their yacht was anchored at Catalina Island.

When she was nine she had an accident on a movie set which left a slight but permanent bone protrusion on her left wrist. For the rest of her life, on camera or in public, she wore a bracelet to cover it. She is reported to have had lifelong fears of dark water and drowning.

Natalie Wood Image Gallery
Natalie Wood Picture Gallery	Natalie Wood Picture Gallery	Natalie Wood Picture Gallery
Natalie Wood Picture Gallery