Natalie Wood

About Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, also billed as Natasha Gurdin (July 20, 1938, San Francisco, California – November 29, 1981, Santa Catalina Island, California) was a three-time Academy Award nominated American film actress. Wood began appearing in movies when she was 5 years old, had parts in successful Hollywood films and unlike many child actors made the difficult transition to adult roles, most notably in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and West Side Story (1961). By age 25 she was a three-time Oscar nominee for Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass and Love With the Proper Stranger. After her untimely death Time magazine noted that although critical praise for Wood had been sparse throughout her career, "she always had work."

Wood's parents Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko were Russian immigrants, but they grew up far from their homeland: her father lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, while her mother grew up in a Chinese province. Shortly after her birth in San Francisco they moved north to Sonoma County and lived in Santa Rosa, California where Wood was noticed during a film shoot in downtown Santa Rosa. Her mother soon moved the family to Los Angeles and pursued a career for her daughter. By age four Natalia was being billed as Natasha Gurdin, Gurdin being the family's surname by this point. Like many parents of child actors her mother tightly managed and controlled the young girl's career and personal life. Her father has been described by Wood's biographers as a passive alcoholic. At the studio's suggestion, Natasha's name was changed to Natalie Wood during her period as a child actor for Warner Bros.

As a seven year old, Wood played a German orphan opposite Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert in Tomorrow Is Forever. Welles later said that Wood was a born professional, "so good, she was terrifying". Her performance in the 1947 Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street made Wood one of the top child stars in Hollywood. She would appear on over 20 films as a child, appearing opposite such stars as James Stewart, Bette Davis and Bing Crosby. Her sister Lana Wood also became an actress and later, notably, a Bond girl. They had a half-sister, Olga. (Gavin Lambert's biography strongly suggests that Wood's biological father was Captain George Zepaloff, Maria's longtime lover, and not Nikolai Gurdin as Wood believed.)