Natalie Wood née Zacharenko July 20 1938 November 29 1981 was an American actress who began her career in film as a child and successfully transitioned to young adult roles Wood started acting at age four and was given a costarring role at age 8 in Miracle on 34th Street 1947 As a teenager she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Rebel Without a Cause 1955 followed by a role in John Fords The Searchers 1956 Wood starred in the musical films West Side Story 1961 and Gypsy 1962 and received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in Splendor in the Grass 1961 and Love with the Proper Stranger 1963 Her career continued with films such as Sex and the Single Girl 1964 Inside Daisy Clover 1965 and Bob Carol Ted Alice 1969 During the 1970s Wood began a hiatus from film and had two daughters one with her second husband Richard Gregson and one with Robert Wagner her first husband whom she married again after divorcing Gregson She acted in only two feature films throughout the decade but she appeared slightly more often in television productions including a remake of From Here to Eternity 1979 for which she won a Golden Globe Award Woods films represented a coming of age for her and for Hollywood films in general Critics have suggested that her cinematic career represents a portrait of modern American womanhood in transition as she was one of the few to take both child roles and those of middleaged characters Wood died off the coast of Santa Catalina Island on November 29 1981 at age 43 during a holiday break from the production of her wouldbe comeback film Brainstorm 1983 with Christopher Walken The events surrounding her death have been the subject of conflicting witness statements prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department under the instruction of the coroners office to list her cause of death as drowning and other undetermined factors in 2012 Description above from the Wikipedia article Natalie Wood licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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