Natalie Wood, the star of Rebel Without a Cause and The Searchers, died mysteriously on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981 while boating off Catalina Island with her husband Robert Wagner and co-star Christopher Walken. Investigators have long suspected that something was amiss with the actress’s death. Keep reading the article below to learn more about Natalie Wood Death.
Her body was found floating in a cove about a mile from their yacht, Splendour, wearing a jacket and a cotton night gown.
Natalie Wood was one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars, a former child actress who rose to stardom in classics like Miracle on 34th Street and Rebel Without a Cause, becoming a symbol of a woman making the difficult transition from child star to adult actor. But she was also known to be troubled, and her rocky relationship with husband Robert Wagner is believed to have played a role in her death.
On November 29, 1981, the body of Natalie Wood was found floating in the ocean off California’s Catalina Island. She was wearing a flannel nightgown, blue wool socks, and a red down jacket. Her rubber dinghy was found washed ashore nearby. The Los Angeles County coroner ruled that she died of accidental drowning and hypothermia. His theory was that Wood fell off her yacht and slipped into the water while trying to get back aboard the dinghy.
But there was much more to the story than the official account. Her sister Lana claimed that Wood was unable to swim and had been afraid of water. And a witness recalls seeing her running to a neighbor’s house, claiming that she was being chased by Wagner.
In a 2008 memoir, Wagner offered a different theory of Wood’s accident. He alleged that the actress had been pushed into the water by someone on his boat. However, he would not divulge the identity of the person in question to avoid a lawsuit from Davern.
After his book came out, Davern published his own account of the incident. He claimed that Wagner was jealous of Walken and that Wood had been flirting with him on the night of her death. This led to a fight and, according to Davern, a subsequent disappearance of Wood in the water.
But authorities did not believe Davern’s version of events. He had changed his story several times over the years, which raised suspicions that he was withholding information to protect Wagner. In addition, witnesses from other boats did not offer similar accounts of the fight. For these reasons, the case was reopened in 2011 and placed under investigation.
The Search
When Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Wood died in November 1981 off the coast of Catalina Island, California, rumors swirled that foul play may have been involved. In this fascinating book, Sam Perroni probes the case with a unique mix of new information and insights, including never-before-released confidential documents, fresh interviews with witnesses and forensic experts, and revealing archival photographs. He exposes a glossed-over investigation by local law enforcement agencies and the entrance of powerful Hollywood insiders that suppressed the truth for four decades.
After dinner at Doug’s Harbor Reef restaurant in Two Harbors, Wood and her co-stars, Wagner and Walken, went back to Wagner’s yacht, the Splendour. The trio drank and argued over a love triangle between the actress and Walken, according to testimony given by her friend, Islander Doug Bombard. When she failed to return to the boat, he called Harbor Patrol, but it took another six hours before the body of the actress was discovered floating in the ocean. She was wearing a flannel nightgown and red down jacket. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.14 percent, and there were relatively fresh superficial bruises on her arms and knee and a scrape on her cheek that were initially attributed to her fall into the water.
An examination of Wood’s stomach contents revealed that she drank around midnight before her death. A radio call by her husband, Wagner, to report her missing was placed at 1:30 a.m., possibly three hours after she went missing. The Coast Guard did not begin searching for her until about 7:30 a.m.
Perroni interviews the chief medical examiner at the time, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, who had grabbed headlines with sensational news conferences after determining the causes of death for celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin and United States Senator Robert Kennedy. He reveals that Noguchi engaged in “creative forensic autopsy reporting” and jumped to conclusions in the Natalie Wood case.
He also speaks to Paul Miller, a respected boating expert who analyzed the Splendour and its rubber dinghy the day of Wood’s death. He reveals that, for the first time ever, he sent a confidential memorandum to Noguchi with his findings, which have remained under lock and key until now.
The Final Countdown
Throughout her life, Natalie Wood was a self-described “dutiful girl.” She never rocked the boat, and she often kept quiet to protect those around her. She didn’t speak out against her mother, the directors who exploited her, the studio executives who looked the other way, or even the sheriff’s detectives and coroner’s examiners investigating her death in 1981.
As a result, many questions remain about what happened to the actress on the day of her death. She was on a yacht with her husband, actor Robert Wagner, and their friend Christopher Walken on the weekend of November 28, 1981 when she disappeared.
The boat was anchored off the coast of California, and the trio had planned to go swimming. However, a storm rolled in and the weather became unfavorable for sailing. Wood’s Brainstorm co-star Walken was in town for the filming of the sequel to the hit movie, and he offered to join them on the yacht. Wagner, who was also on board with Wood and Walken, agreed.
According to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department, Wagner reported that Wood fell overboard and struggled to get into a rubber dinghy. Bruises found on her arms and knee and scratch marks on her neck were believed to support this theory. However, investigators were unable to test the dinghy because it was no longer available to be examined.
In 2011, 30 years after the actress’s death, LA sheriff’s officials reopened the investigation into her disappearance. A new report cited fresh bruises on her body as well as a change to her cause of death from drowning to “drowning and other undetermined factors.” According to the medical examiner, the scratch marks on her neck were not a result of attempting to board the dinghy, but instead may have been caused by the movement of the water on her skin as it swirled around her. Despite these changes, Wagner was not officially named as a person of interest in her murder. However, his daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner did confront him on-camera in a 2012 documentary, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind, stating that she does not believe he is responsible for her mother’s death in any way.
The Conclusion
A year after the release of West Side Story, Natalie Wood was found dead in mysterious circumstances off the coast of Catalina Island, California. Her death was originally classified as an accident, but it has since been reclassified as undetermined. For decades, speculation swirled that foul play was involved in her demise.
Wood was born in Russia and began acting as a child. Her early film roles tugged at audiences’ hearts and earned her acclaim. But her life was troubled and chaotic. She was a drug addict, suffered sexual abuse and was subjected to constant pressure to make the right films by her studio. Her mother was also controlling. In 1955, she starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without A Cause, which depicted the angst-ridden life of a rebellious teenager.
In 1959, she met actor Robert Wagner and they married the following year. The couple had a tumultuous relationship and the marriage ended in divorce. By this time, she had a deep-seated fear of being alone in the dark of night. This fear stemmed from a childhood prophecy told to her by a Gypsy.
For years, accusations were leveled at her husband, who denied any involvement in her death. In 2011, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office amended her death certificate based on new information and reclassified it as an undetermined drowning.
But investigators have been suspicious of the change in classification. They cite the numerous bruises discovered on her body and their location, as well as the fact that the men on board the yacht—Captain Dennis Davern, Christopher Walken and Wagner—have shifted their stories over the years. Those shifts are a red flag to investigators, and the bruises themselves raise questions about whether or not they occurred after her death. Also suspicious is the way in which a famed chief medical examiner-coroner, Dr. Thomas Noguchi, promoted his findings in the Natalie Wood case with sensational news conferences. This book explores Noguchi’s “creative forensic autopsy reporting” and demonstrates his deliberate failure to follow routine procedures when making his public pronouncements in the Natalie Wood case.