Natasha (80 page)

Natalie with Warren Beatty at the Academy Awards in 1962. Contrary to gossip, he was not the reason she left Robert Wagner.

Natalie, 23, fulfills the vow she made at 16: to put her handprints in the cement at Grauman’s. Behind her smile, she was devastated by her recent breakup with R.J.

Natalie with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Paris during
The Great Race
, her least favorite shoot. She made a suicide attempt at the end of filming, November 1964.

Natalie with beau Henry Jaglom, spring 1966. Later that year, Frank Sinatra would hire someone to follow them.

Natalie, boating off Catalina with her date, lawyer David Gorton, one of her “boys of ’66.” The couple to their left are Edd Byrnes and Asa Maynor, Natalie’s good friends.

Natalie attends the fall ’66 London premiere of
This Property Is Condemned
with director Sydney Pollack, who credits her with his big break.

Natalie, touched by her ovation during a tribute at the San Francisco Film Festival in October 1976. She thought no one would remember her.

Natalie and fiancé, Gregson, on the set of
Downhill Racer
with director Michael Ritchie (far left) and Gregson’s producing partner and Natalie’s close friend Robert Redford (far right). Taken in Idaho Springs, Colorado, April 1969.

Three generations: Maria, Natalie, and Natasha, whose birth gave Natalie another chance at childhood.

Natalie holds daughter Courtney at a backyard birthday party with best friend, Peggy Griffin, circa 1975. Nanny and cook Willie Mae Northen is in the background at left.

Probably the only photo taken of Natalie cooking: aboard the
Splendour
in 1977, making her famous huevos rancheros. She was at the peak of her happiness.

Natalie’s last visit to San Francisco, June 1981, the summer before she drowned. At left is her daughter Courtney; on the other side, daughter Natasha.