Natalie Wood

Maria Gurdin's Family Business

Natalie Wood started working because her mother decided her daughter would be the family's financial salvation. She was barely four years old when she first appeared on screen in the film Happy Land in 1943. That shoot lasted only a few seconds, but it set the pattern for a childhood managed under constant pressure.

In 1947, the role that pulled her out of complete obscurity arrived.

She played Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street, and American audiences immediately embraced the little girl who didn't believe in Santa Claus. Behind the cameras, though, Wood lived a very different reality, where filming schedules replaced playtime. Her mother forbade her from socializing with other children so she wouldn't lose her concentration on the set.

So she grew up surrounded by adults and spotlights, while her paycheck covered the bills of a household that depended entirely on her ability to memorize dialogue. By age nine, she was already one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood, and her name guaranteed the profitability of any B-movie production.

Breaking Away from Children's Films

Many young actors fade away once they turn fifteen, but Wood managed to break that pattern with Rebel Without a Cause in 1955. Director Nicholas Ray did not trust her ability to handle such a complex, dramatic role. She had to work hard to prove that she was no longer the sweet girl from the Christmas comedies of the 1940s.

And she did, and then some.

She earned her first Oscar nomination at seventeen. On that shoot, she worked alongside James Dean and Dennis Hopper (two names that defined a new style of acting within the studio system). Wood quickly understood that the industry rewarded real suffering on screen, and she began seeking scripts that explored youthful anguish and inner conflict.

In 1961, she starred in Splendor in the Grass under the direction of Elia Kazan. Filming was an emotional ordeal because of Kazan's directing techniques, which aggressively sought to unsettle the actors. Wood suffered several anxiety attacks while shooting the bathtub scenes. That performance earned her another Academy Award nomination and placed her in an unprecedented position of power for a woman her age.

Because she didn't just want to act; she wanted to decide which stories were worth telling.

Controlling Her Career and the End in the Pacific

Unlike other stars, she tried to take control of her career by negotiating contracts that let her choose her own projects. In 1961, she also shot West Side Story, although her singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon in all of the film's songs. It was a massive box office hit that grossed more than 44 million dollars during its original U.S. release.

But Wood preferred intimate dramas to big, choreographed musicals.

She married Robert Wagner twice, and her personal life dominated entertainment magazine covers for much of the 1970s. Her career slowed down because she chose to prioritize raising her daughters away from the studio. In 1979, she agreed to take on the miniseries From Here to Eternity, for which she won a Golden Globe.

The final chapter of her career was cut short during the filming of Brainstorm in 1981. Wood disappeared from the yacht Splendour while sailing near Santa Catalina Island with her husband and actor Christopher Walken. Her body was found the next morning floating in the Pacific Ocean.

The autopsy determined that Natalie Wood died from drowning and other factors that investigators were unable to fully clarify. Production on Brainstorm had to be completed using body doubles and structural changes to the script in order to release in 1983. The film's final budget reached 18 million dollars after accumulated delays caused by the actress's death.