Manoah Bowman - Natalie Wood: Reflections on a Legendary Life

2016 by Manoah Bowman

Becoming Natalie 2016 Sloan De Forest

Art and Soul: Natalie Wood in West Side Story 2016 Matt Tunia

A Reminiscence 2016 Natasha Gregson Wagner

Public Property/Private Person Natalie Wood Estate, courtesy of Michael A. Tom

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Page 1 Illustration courtesy of Don Bachardy

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For Clover

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

By Robert J. Wagner

The Gurdins 19381957

By Sloan De Forest

Childhood Career 19431955

Natalie vs. Hollywood 19551960

Splendor in the Grass West Side Story Gypsy

NATALIE WOOD IN WEST SIDE STORY

By Matt Tunia

By Natalie Wood Exclusive Photographs by Bill Ray

19631969

Featuring Photographs by Bob Willoughby

By Natasha Gregson Wagner

19701981

PHOTOGRAPHING NATALIE WOOD

An Interview with Michael Childers

By Robert Redford

Robert J. Wagner and Natalie Wood, October 1959.

BY ROBERT J. WAGNER

W hat makes someone a star? There is an indefinable quality, an x-factor I can only describe as a brilliant light that glows from within. It is not something that can be bought or artificially manufactured, but a god-given attribute. The first time I met Natalie Wood, I knew she had it. She was seventeen and in the glow of her post-Rebel Without a Cause fame. She had a reputation at the time for being wild, and she seemed fascinating to me. Her thousand-watt flame drew a lot of moths. I was one of them.

I had known plenty of attractive women, but she was special. Joyous, vivacious, humorousher humor was so infectious. People naturally gravitated to her. Later, I found out that shed had a childhood crush on me when we were both under contract at Fox, but I was unaware of it at the time. In 1956, we met at a fashion show at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and I asked her to a screening of a picture I did with Spencer Tracy at Paramount, The Mountain. We just hit it off, and our relationship grew from there. As I fell in love with Natalie the woman, I also came to love and respect Natalie the actress. In her best work, she is extraordinary, and even in her lesser films, you cant take your eyes off of her.

It amazes me to think that she was discovered when she was six years old and brought to Hollywood. They dyed her hair blonde, told her to speak with a German accent, and suddenly there she was on the movie screen with Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert. How does that happen? That is god-given talent. It has to be. It has to come from someplace. When you watch her as a child in her first film, Tomorrow Is Forever, you can see she had a real concept of what she was doing. Yes, she was being directed, but she had to receive that direction. She had to be able to take the directors guidance and use her own ability to make that process work. She had a gift.

The newlywed Wagners, 1958.

She also had what it took to break away from her child roles and her oppressive parents and strike out on her own. Going from a child actress to an ingnue to a leading lady is not easy. Natalie was very much aware of how important Rebel was when she was up for the role. Man, did she want that, and she did everything to get it. During that time, she went to New York and did live TV shows, stretching all the time trying to find herself, and when she found her strength as an artist, she was on pretty solid ground.

She had the drive, the desireshe wanted more than anything to be a great actress. When she got the part of Deanie in Splendor in the Grass, working with Elia Kazan and William Inge, everything just clicked. The character of Deanie Loomis was perfect for her. She did tremendous work in Splendor, and evolved into one of the finest actresses ever on the screen.

Natalie and I shared a truly magical love affair. When we married in 1957, we made a pact that we would never do a film together, but broke it with All the Fine Young Cannibals. Though the movie turned out disappointing, the experience of acting with Natalie was wonderful. We worked together, lived together, and were in sync emotionally, mentally, and physically. It was worth breaking our pact.

When she started West Side Story right after Splendor, there was so much pressure on her, and on our marriage, which started to crumble at the same time her career was hitting its zenith. We were separated and in the midst of divorce proceedings when she was nominated for an Academy Award for Splendor in the spring of 1962. I sent her a note that read, in part:

You were great in the film, and should and do deserve to get the award. I know its what youve always wanted and wished for and now its all coming true. The work and the dreams are there, and as you probably know youve got my vote. My thoughts will be with you and for you on Oscar night and believe me, Nat, I hope with all my heart that when they open up the envelope, its you.

Natalie did not win that night; Sophia Loren received the Oscar for Two Women. Sophias performance was certainly award-worthy, but I sometimes wonder. If Natalies name had been in the envelope, would she be a cinema legend today the way Sophia Loren is? Or Audrey Hepburn? Would her talent be better remembered and appreciated today? Probably.

After we broke up, I spent years trying to move on, but she was never out of my heart for a minute. She was everything to me. It was such an exciting experience to have a second chance with Natalie, to come back together and get married all over again. Her sensitivity, her warmth and sincerity, those are the things that drew me to herthe same qualities that drew fans to her films.