Who was Natalie Wood, Elvis Presley’s actress ex-girlfriend? She dated the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and Frank Sinatra before marrying Robert Wagner twice – but why is her death still controversial?
- The former child actress rose to stardom in Miracle on 34th Street before landing gigs with James Dean, Robert Redford, Dennis Hopper and as the lead in West Side Story
- Elvis Presley bought out a cinema for their first date, and they were spotted in New York riding his Harley-Davidson – but his mum Gladys didn’t approve of the Hollywood icon
The untimely death of Natalie Wood in 1981 remains one of Hollywood’s most enduring and unfortunate mysteries. She was only 43 years old when she drowned off the coast of California’s Catalina Island, and although authorities classified the case as an accident, it’s been a source of media speculation for years over the “conflicting statements” about the events surrounding her death.
Today, most news reports about Wood focus on her controversial death as investigators attempt to uncover what really happened that day … but what was she like as a person?
The American-born starlet – full name Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko – was born in San Francisco on July 20, 1938, to Russian/Ukrainian immigrant parents. She had a half-sister, Olga Viripaeff, from her mother’s first marriage, and a sister, Lana Wood, who also became an actress.
Wood began her showbiz career as a child, getting her first film credit, for Tomorrow is Forever, aged seven.
A child star
