Natasha (81 page)

One of Olga’s favorite pictures: Natalie talks to Frank Sinatra’s pianist while Olga and her son Michael look on.

Fahd’s last days. Taken in the backyard at Canon with Mud, R.J., and Natalie, who held his hand at the end.

The
Valiant
, the Wagners’ dinghy, in the cove at Blue Cavern Point where it was found tangled in kelp at 5:30
A.M
. on Sunday, November 29, 1981.

The
Spendour
–“
the
boat that took her away,” Mud described it.

Natalie’s final glamour shot and one of her last autographs as “Natalie Wood,” signed with her usual warmth to two-time screen daughter Tonya Crowe.
Tonya Crowe Collection, courtesy of Tonya Crowe

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:

Criterion Music Corporation:
Lyrics from “When the World Was Young,” English lyrics by Johnny Mercer, French lyrics by Angele Vannier. Music by M. Philippe-Gerard. Copyright © 1950–1951. Copyright renewed 1978 by Enoch et Cie. Used by permission of Criterion Music Corporation.

Hobby-Catto Properties, L.L.C.:
excerpt from “Natalie Wood: Hollywood’s Number One Survivor” by Thomas Thompson,
Look
magazine, April 2, 1979. Used with permission from Hobby-Catto Properties, L.L.C.

Copyright © 2001 by Suzanne Finstad

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York.
Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com

THREE RIVERS PRESS and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in hardcover by Harmony Books in 2001.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Finstad, Suzanne
  Natasha : the biography of Natalie Wood / by Suzanne Finstad.
  Filmography: p.

  1. Wood, Natalie. 2. Motion picture actors and actresses—
  United State—Biography.  1. Title.
  PN2287. W59 F56             2001
  791.43′028′092—dc21
  [B]                                     2001039126

eISBN: 978-0-307-42866-0

FRONTISPIECE
: At the Sherry-Netherland in New York, spring 1963, during the filming of
Love with the Proper Stranger
. This was Natalie’s favorite movie experience. Privately, her romance with Warren Beatty was unraveling and she was lonely. Photo used by permission of William Claxton.

OPPOSITE PAGE
: Natasha at four, shortly after her parents changed the family name from Zakharenko to Gurdin and moved to Santa Rosa. Photo courtesy of Ed Canevari.

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