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"Natasha:
The Biography of Natalie Wood"
With Suzanne Finstad
Author
Thursday, July 26, 2001; 1 p.m. EDT

This year marks 20 years since actress Natalie Wood's mysterious drowning from her yacht off Catalina Island at the age of 43. Author Suzanne Finstad provides a detailed examination of that Thanksgiving weekend when Wood, Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken sailed the "Splendor," culminating in her disappearance.

Finstad covers the life of Natasha Zakharenko (Wood) from her childhood dominated by a stage mother to becoming a product of the Hollywood studio system and a glamorous star of some classic films (Miracle on 34th Street, The Searchers, Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story and Gypsy).

Finstad will be online Thursday, July 26, at 1 p.m. EDT, to discuss the life and death of Natalie Wood.

Suzanne Finstad

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Pollock Pines, Calif.: Why is it a "mysterious drowning"? Drowning is drowning.

Her boat? Who was the registered owner of the boat? Weren't they married? Didn't their separate incomes match closely at this stage?

Is the standard response going to be "you have to read the book" to have these and more question's answered?

Obviously, you are making a living as a writer and are passionate about your work.

Why now? Twenty years later. Is it that those who had information and were reluctant to speak are now speaking? I know, read the book.

Good Luck. What other projects do you have for the future?

Suzanne Finstad: It's not mysterious "that" she drowned, it's how she got in the water that remains a mystery.

It was the Wagner's boat, the Splendor, operated by their private captain. Yes, they were married and they were each fabulously wealthy.

I think you're referring to the information provided by the captain to Lana Wood, to her 1992 receptionist and to a friend of the skipper's, to whom he revealed part of what he said happened that night.

The reason Lana chose to divulge this now is that she had been having a recurring dream about Natalie. She interpreted this dream to mean that her sister's spirit was not at peace. Lana felt that by releasing to me in a compassionate book about her sister this information she was given concerning her drowning that it might allow her sister to rest in peace. The others had not come forward for their own reasons of privacy.

Right now I'm still emotionally invested in Natalie. Once she lets me go, I will move on.

Crofton, Md.: Do you suspect any foul play in Natalie Wood's death?

Suzanne Finstad: No. The events of that night are complex and disturbing and there remain unanswered questions I would like to see answered or explained.

I have set forth almost moment by moment what is known of what occurred that Thanksgiving weekend of 1981. This is based on police statements, interviews with witnesses, interviews with the coroner, the coroner's special investigator and virtually everyone else connected to the event leading up to the drowning and its aftermath.

I leave it to readers to analyze this chronology and form their own conclusion as to what they think happened.

D.C.: Did Natalie have kids?

Suzanne Finstad: Yes. She had two daughters. Natasha (her own Russian name) by her second husband, Richard Gregson, and a daughter Courtney by her second marriage to Robert Wagner. She has a step-daughter Katie, the daughter of Robert Wagner and Marion Marshall.

Gaithersburg, Md.: Where was Ms. Wood originally from? Was Natalie her stage name or was she called Natalie among her friends and relatives?

Suzanne Finstad: Natalie was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko in San Francisco on July 29, 1938 to Russian immigrant parents. Her father changed their surname to Gurdin when she was about three or four. While she was filming "Tomorrow Is Forever" as a six-year-old, producer Bill Goetz appeared on the set and told her her name was being changed to Natalie Wood for marquee value. She never legally changed her name from Natasha (the Russian pet name for Natalia) Gurdin. In fact, as an adult she would often sign letters to Russian family and old friends as either Natasha or "Natalie" with Natasha in parenthesis. This split in her persona is a theme of my book Natasha.

Great Falls, Va.: If she hated water why was she in the boat?

Suzanne Finstad: Good question. Friends of Natalie's explained to me that Natalie enjoyed the privacy of being on a boat, where fans, agents, publicists, etc., could not intrude upon her privacy. She once made the comment that she liked to be on the water or near the water but not in the water.

University Park, Md.: Hello. I always admired Natalie Wood, and I've already read one positive review of your book -- so I'm very much looking forward to reading it. I was personally devastated to hear of her death -- can remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard. What is your take on how a waning career that offered only limited roles ("Meteor"?)for a mature actress contributed to Natalie Wood's untimely death?

Suzanne Finstad: I don't think there was a causal connection between her waning career and her death but you bring up a good point. Natalie was aware that she was at a crossroads in her career and was taking steps to transform and revitalize it. She was to star in her first play, Anastasia, and had optioned as a producer and potential star the rights to the biography Zelda (the life of Zelda Fitzgerald). She also had aspirations to direct.

Arlington, Va.: I haven't read the book yet, so forgive a threshold question: What was Natalie Wood's ethnic background? "Zakharenko" indicates a Russian family origin, but I wonder if she was Jewish as well. Is "Wood" a translation of "Zakharenko"? Also, was Natalie Wood seen as something of a stand-out in terms of her iconic beauty in her time, being rather dark in an age of epic blondes from Marilyn Monroe to Catherine Deneuve?

Suzanne Finstad: She was Russian Orthodox, not Jewish. Her mother, Maria Zudilova (maiden name) claimed variously to be either a royal Romanoff or a gypsy.

The surname Wood was chosen for Natasha by producer Goetz either because of his friendship with director Sam Wood, or Sam Wood happened to walk by at the time Goetz selected the name. Six year old Natasha disliked it intensely. She would have preferred Woods, plural, because at least then she said it would remind her of forests and trees.

As for her dark ethnic beauty, I believe it was a factor in her stardom. She was occasionally cast in ethnic roles, such as the Puerto Rican Maria in West Side Story, and a Mexican in The Burning Hills.

Fairfax, Va.: I understand that Natalie Wood was deeply hurt by having her singing voice dubbed in West Side Story (I think Marnie Nixon sang the role). Objectively speaking, would she have been able to carry it off if they had featured her voice? Or was it a case of the studio knowing what it was doing. Do any examples of Wood's singing survive?

Suzanne Finstad: Natalie would've loved this question. She longed to have her voice used in West Side Story and was devastated when she learned she would be dubbed. Realistically, she did not have the range for the light operatic score of West Side Story, but she had a sweetness to her singing voice that would have enhanced the characterization of Maria. You can hear Natalie's singing voice in Gypsy and in a television film she did with Robert Wagner during their second marriage called The Affair. By that time, she made sure it was in her contract that her voice would be used.

Fairfax, Va.: Why did it take so long for Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken to realize that Natalie Wood was missing from the boat?

Suzanne Finstad: The question that perplexes me more is why did the three men on the boat wait at least an hour and a half from the time they told police they first noticed her missing before looking for her or calling for help.

Columbia, Md.: Ms. Finstad,

Do you believe that the public will ever know what happened on the yacht that night since Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken were present and have never spoken about it? It just seemed odd that she would be on dingy in nightclothes.

Suzanne Finstad: It would have been odd for Natalie to be alone on a dingy at night in any attire. In fact, the night before she drowned, she had balked at getting into the dingy even with her husband and Chris Walken aboard. Because of the amount of alcohol consumed that day and that night, the details may be lost in an alcoholic haze.

Birmingham, Ala.: Who will you cast to play Natalie Wood in the movie??

Suzanne Finstad: That will be challenging. She was one in a million. Any ideas?

D.C.: Are Natalie's parents still alive? Has Robert Wagner ever commented publicly on her death?

Suzanne Finstad: Her beloved "fahd," as she called her father, died a year before Natalie and she delivered a touching eulogy. Her formidable stage mother "mud" (as Natalie called her), died of Alzheimer's in January 1998.

Robert Wagner has issued one public statement through his attorney in 1981, speculating that Natalie had left the boat to take the dingy ashore. Later that same year, a friend of his issued a second statement for Wagner offering a different theory: that Natalie slipped and fell off the boat while attempting to retie the dingy, which he thought might have been keeping her awake by bumping against the side of the boat. Both explanations are problematic. Natalie, as I mentioned earlier, had never been known to take the dingy alone at night. As for the second theory, the coroner's investigator, Paul Miller, examined the yacht and the dingy and said that Natalie would not have been able to hear a bumping dingy from her stateroom.

Washington, D.C.: Natalie Wood is still my all-time favorite actress. I read your biography and found it to be sensitively written and illuminating (and also overdue!). I've seen about 95% of Natalie's movies, and I was wondering if you had to pick a favorite, which Natalie Wood film do you like the best? I never understood why she got a reputation as a bad actress. I always felt that she was highly talented. Thanks.

Suzanne Finstad: My personal favorite is her first major film, "Tomorrow Is Forever" in which she played a Viennese orphan, demonstrating flawless German at the tender age of six.

As for her acting ability, I will quote Orson Wells, her costar in that film, who pronounced her a prodigy. I am not sure she was ever given the opportunity as an adult actress to match the genius and potential she exhibited in her debut film.

D.C.: Did you speak to Lana Wood while writing your book? Did she have more to add since her own biography of Natalie?

Suzanne Finstad: Lana was one of more than 350 people I interviewed in the course of my several years of research. She shared with me insight and intimate information she had not revealed in her own memoirs, which came out shortly after Natalie's tragic death.

Suzanne Finstad: If you read Natasha you will fall in love with Natalie Wood and by the end of the book your heart will be broken. By the last chapter you will not be as concerned by "how" she died as you will be wishing she had lived.

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