Read the biography of Hollywood actress Natalie Wood, who was nominated for three Golden Globes and three Oscars for her outstanding acting, in today's Unheard Tales. Known as one of Hollywood's most attractive actresses, Natalie rose to prominence, fortune, and status quickly, but her personal life was marred by numerous traumatic mishaps.
Natalie was sexually assaulted by a well-known Hollywood actor when she was just 16 years old. After years of silence, Natalie abruptly passed away in 1981, revealing a great deal of previously unknown information.
Natalie was filming Brainstorm, a Hollywood production, in 1981. While taking a break from filming, Natalie threw a boat party. The following day, she vanished out of sight, and her body was discovered in the Pacific Ocean.
Numerous facets of Natalie Wood's demise became apparent. Although her co-star and husband were occasionally questioned on suspicion of murder, the truth would never come to light.
Natalie Wood's death was declared an accident in 2011 due to a lack of evidence, but 30 years after her death, the investigation was reviewed by police after they discovered new information. Natalie's cries had been heard by several individuals. Natalie's husband was deemed a suspect in 2018, but 43 years after her passing, the police are still unable to piece together the full story.
Read the four chapters that tell the unresolved narrative of Natalie Wood's death and her journey into movies today.-
planning a boat party despite not knowing how to swim, per her husband's recommendation.
In 1981, Natalie Wood, a well-known Hollywood actress with three Oscar nominations and three Golden Globes, was filming the science fiction picture Brain Storm. In Southern California, the movie was being filmed close to Santa Catalina Island. Robert Wagner, the spouse of Natalie Wood, also visited her during a lull in the movie's production.
Natalie's marriage was the subject of news coverage at one point. In reality, she married actor Robert Wegnar, who was eight years her older, at the young age of 19. Natalie left her spouse after discovering him having an extramarital affair in her own home. Natalie married Richard Grayson after divorcing her previous husband, and the two had a daughter named Natasha. Natalie Wegnar remarried Robert Wegnar in 1974 after divorcing Richard when Natasha was barely a year old. The couple had a daughter named Courtney.
Natalie arranges a boat party to greet Robert as he shows up on the Brainstorm movie set. Natalie extended invitations to a large number of guests, but only Christopher Walken, Natalie's co-star, was able to attend. Along with her spouse Robert Wegnar, co-star Christopher, and boat captain Dennis Devern, Natalie reserved a yacht on November 28, 1981.
After arriving at the yacht inebriated, Natalie vanished out of nowhere.
All three went to dine at Catalina's Dog's Harbor Reef restaurant during the yacht party, where they all consumed copious amounts of champagne. When Natalie wasn't there, there was also a fight in the restaurant between Christopher and Robert. Don Whiting, the manager of the restaurant, dispatched a staff person after the three since they were so inebriated when they departed for the yacht at 10:30 p.m. The staff member verified that all three of them had arrived at the yacht via dinghy (boat carried to the yacht).
After several hours, the Coast Guard was declared missing; the cause of the delay is still unknown. Natalie Wood was not on the yacht when the Coast Guard was notified at three in the evening. During the chat, Robert revealed that Natalie had gone to sleep in the room at the back of the yacht after they had left the restaurant, while he had stayed to speak with Christopher. Upon entering the room, he noticed that Natalie was missing, so he set out to find her. The reason the occupants of the yacht had notified the Coast Guard four hours later was the first suspicion the police had.
Following an investigation, Natalie Wood's body was found a mile from the yacht on November 29, 1981, around 8 a.m. His body and cheeks were covered in scratches, but there was no sign of where they had come from. According to the postmortem report, Natalie took motion sickness medication just hours before she passed away and had high levels of alcohol in her system.
The case's investigator, Thomas Noguchi, declared Natalie Wood's death to be an accident. He speculated that Natalie may have had cuts and bruises from falling as she was getting on the boat while intoxicated. Lana, Natalie's younger sister, questioned the investigation's findings, nevertheless. He claimed that because Natalie couldn't swim, she never went near water by herself. Despite being cleared of any wrongdoing because of insufficient evidence, Robert Wegnar, Natalie's husband, was viewed as a suspect by many investigators.
Thirty years later, the case was reopened.
The Natalie Wood death case captivated Hollywood, but the police were unable to come to a resolution for years. Police in Los Angeles eventually declared his death to be an accident. Thirty-one years later, in 2012, the case was revived after Dennis Davern, a yacht skipper, told the authorities anything.
Before Natalie vanished, she said she had an argument with her husband, Robert Wegnar. Robert became enraged with Natalie's co-star Christopher since he was flirting with her all the time. When Natalie vanished, Robert was so furious that he activated the search lights to prevent Christopher from discovering her and even alerting the police. Dennis, the yacht captain, thought Robert was the reason Natalie died. The police reopened their investigation into the case after considering Robert as a suspect.
Natalie's screams were heard by others.
Every location was reexamined when the investigation was reopened. During questioning, other residents claimed to have heard a girl cry at that location. A girl was yelling and pleading for assistance. The next day, Natalie's body was discovered there. Upon close examination of the postmortem report, it became evident that Natalie had scratches on her hands, face, and neck. Natalie may have been raped before to her death, according to police belief. But 43 years later, the mystery surrounding his death is still unresolved.
A year prior to her passing, Natalie drew up a will in which she bequeathed the majority of her assets to her spouse Robert Wegnar, her daughters, her mother, and her sister Lana. It is now Robert's 94th birthday.
On July 20, 1938, Natalie Wood was born in San Francisco. Although Maria, Natalie's mother, was married to a mechanic at first, she developed feelings for Nicholas, a carpenter, and they began dating. Maria married Nicholas after divorcing her first husband after learning she was pregnant. Natalie was born to Maria five months after their marriage.
Natalie Wood's father Nicholas was an alcoholic who used to mistreat her, according to Natalie Wood's biography Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography. Natalie's childhood was impacted by her parents' bad relationship, as was that of her younger sister Lana.
Natalie's parents purchased a home in Santa Rosa, California, in 1942. Natalie was hired as a young artist in movies when a crew member observed her one day while filming was taking place in front of the house. Natalie Zakharenka was renamed Natalie Wood by producers David Lewis and William Goates when she joined Hollywood's RKO studios. The Wood surname was his homage to director Sam Wood, and he thought it would sound more appealing.
Despite playing a minor part in the first movie Happy Land, Natalie managed to draw a lot of attention. Director Irving Pichel got in touch with Natalie's mother to ask her to bring her to Los Angeles for a screen test because of this movie.
Upon learning about this, Natalie's father grew opposed to it; nonetheless, the mother got into a fight with him and moved to Los Angeles with the kids. After Natalie passed her screen test, director Irving decided to cast her in the 1946 movie Tomorrow is Forever. Lana Wood, Natalie's sister, had informed
