Natalie Wood

Actor

Born: 20 July 1938

Died: 29 November 1981

Birthplace: San Francisco, California

Best known as: The girl who doubts Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street

Name at birth: Natalia Zakharenko

Natalie Wood became a child movie star when she played Susan Walker, the little girl who doubts Santa Claus in 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. In her teens she remained a star thanks to movies such as Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955, with James Dean) and The Searchers (1956, with John Wayne). On the screen her limpid brown eyes gave her the look of a troubled girl next door, mixing subtle intelligence with sex appeal. In her adult roles she was adept at comedy as well as serious drama; she was critically acclaimed in Splendor in the Grass (1961, with Warren Beatty), as Maria in West Side Story (1961) and in Inside Daisy Clover (1965). She drowned in 1981 off California's Catalina Island while vacationing with her husband Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken.

Extra credit: Wood was married twice to Wagner -- from 1957-62 and from 1974 until her death... She is the mother of actress Natasha Gregson Wagner, her daughter with producer Richard Gregson... Wood was 5'2" tall... Peter Bogdanovich directed the 2004 TV movie The Mystery of Natalie Wood, with actress Justine Waddell as Wood... According to a 2001 biography of Wood by Suzanne Finstad, Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko; her father changed the family surname to Gurdin a few years later, and Natalia was given her stage name of Natalie Wood by Bill Goetz, producer of her 1946 film Tomorrow Is Forever... Wood's birth name is sometimes given as Natasha, the Russian nickname for Natalia.