Natalie Wood: Part 3 of 3.

After performing in, the movie flop, Fine Young Cannibals. Wood's career was saved by her wonderful performance in one of my favorite movies, Splendor in the Grass (1961)with Warren Beatty. The story is about a teen-aged girl living in a small town in Kansas in 1928, who tries follows her mother's wishes to resist the advances of her boyfriend, Bud Stamper. Bud follows the advice of his father, who suggests that he find another kind of girl.

Bud's parents are heartbroken, with his older sister Ginny, who is promiscuous, smokes and drinks. Pressuring Bud to attend Yale University.

Bud does find a girl and when Deanie finds out, she is driven out of her mind and institutionalized. Bud's family loses its fortune in the Great Depression, which is the down fall of the family. Natalie's performance in this film earned her, Best Actress Nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.


Next, Natalie performed in the musical, West Side Story(1961) which was a major box office success. The singing parts were dubbed in by Marni Nixon. Natalie did sing when she performed in the film, Gypsy(1962). She co-starred in the film, The Great Race (1965), with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk. Natalie, then received her third Academy Award nomination and another Golden Globe award in the film, Love with the Proper Stranger(1964), opposite Steve McQueen.

Natalie, found her acting was criticized at times. In 1966 she won the Harvard Lampoon Worst Actress of the Year Award. She was the first performer in the awards history to accept it in person. Other notable films she performed in were, Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property Is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford which brought her the Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In both films, which were set during the Great Depression, Wood played teens with big dreams. After a much needed rest from acting, Wood played a swinger in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). The film was one of the top ten box office hits of the year. After becoming pregnant with her first child, in 1970, she went into semi-retirement and only acted in four more theatrical films. She performed as herself in The Candidate (1972), reuniting her for a third time with Robert Redford.

She also reunited on the screen with Robert Wagner in The Affair (1973), a television adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) and made cameo appearances on his shows Switch in 1978 as "Bubble Bath Girl" and Hart to Hart in 1979 as "Movie Star". During the last two years of her life, Wood began to work more frequently as her daughters reached school age.

Natalie Wood : Part 2 of 3.

Natalie Wood, made the transition from child star to teen star when she performed in the film, Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean. she recieved an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Natalie's next performance and one of my favorite western movies, The Searchers(1956) with John Wayne, which also featured Wood's sister, Lana(pictured above), who played the younger version of her character. Directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is the story of Ethan Edwards, a Civil War veteran, who spends years looking for his abducted niece.

Signed to Warner Brothers, Wood performed in many 'girlfriend' roles. The studio cast her in two films opposite Tab Hunter, hoping to turn the duo into a box office draw. Some of the other films she performed in were, 1958's Kings Go Forth and Marjorie Morningstar, with Gene Kelly.

Natalie Wood: Part 1 of 3 parts.

Natalie Wood's, mother had big dreams of Natalie becoming a famous actress or ballet dancer. Her mother would take Natalie to the movies and this is where she learned her acting style by watching other Hollywood child stars on the big screen.

Her mother used to tell her that when the cameraman pointed his lens out at the audience at the end of the film he was taking her picture. She would then pose and smile like he was going to make her famous. As most little girls do, she believed everything her mother told her.

When her family moved to Santa Rosa, California, Natalie was noticed during a film shoot in downtown. Her mother moved the whole family to Los Angeles and pursued a career for her daughter. Natalie, had a sister, Svetlana Zacharenko (better known as Lana Wood one of the "Bond girls"). She and Lana also have a half sister, Olga Viriapaeff.

Natalie made her first on screen performance a few weeks before turning five, in a very small scene in the film, Happy Land (1943). Where she caught the eye of director, Irving Pichel. He stayed in touch with her family until another role popped up. The director phoned Natalie's mother and asked to her bring her, down to Los Angeles for a screen test. Her mother packed up the whole family and headed off to Los Angeles to live.




Natalie, seven years old at the time, landed the part in a film opposite Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert in, Tomorrow Is Forever(1946), directed by Irving Pichel. The movie is about Elizabeth and John, a married couple separated when John goes off to fight in World War I. When Elizabeth learns of John's death, she marries another man. John, is still alive and returns, but after being disfigured in the war he has undergone plastic surgery, making him unrecognizable. He has also adopted a daughter. When he finds out that he has a son with Elizabeth, he has to make up his mind whether or not to tell his family his true identity.

After doing another film directed by Pichel, her mother signed her with 20th Century Fox studio for her first major performance in, Miracle on 34th Street (1947).

Natalie, performed in over 20 films as a child, performing opposite stars as: Gene Tierney, James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Bette Davis and Bing Crosby.



One of my favorite Natalie Wood movies is: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.(1947) This is a wonderful romantic fantasy that tells the story of young widow (Gene Tierney), who moves into what turns out to be haunted seaside cottage of the late Captain Gregg ( Rex Harrison), with her young daughter (played as a child by Natalie Wood, by Vanessa Brown as an adult). The captain first tries to scare the widow away, but soon they team up to write a novel so that she can stay at the cottage. They talk about everything except their feelings for each other. When Miles Fairley, a ladies man, enters Lucy's life offering her a chance for happiness in the real world, the Captain loves her enough to leave her. Unfortunately, Miles is found out for what he is and for the next thirty years Lucy lives in the Cottage alone, waiting.... Will she ever see her Captain again?