Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography (by Suzanne Finstad)
Being a child during Natalie Wood’s celebrity as an actress and then her mysterious death, I was often asked if I was named after her. No, my parents did not name me after Natalie Wood; my mom said she just liked the name. Hearing the name Natalie Wood so frequently had me inquiring about her fame. I was first exposed to her acting in the Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street. Then, I learned she died by drowning, and the circumstances of her death were mysterious. Now that I think about it, maybe her suspicious death is what sparked my very first interest in true crime. I recall wanting to know EXACTLY what happened. I’m still like that when it comes to true crime. I want to know all the evidence and the roles of everyone involved.
I only occasionally thought about Natalie Wood over the past several decades. Mostly, when I saw Christopher Walken in a movie, I wondered what he knew about her death since he was on the boat the night she died. Then one day I’m browsing an Audible sale and discover this book, Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography by Suzanne Finstad, and the description revealed that this book would tell me everything I wanted to know about Wood. It did not lie!
This book was originally published in 2001 with the title Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood. It was updated and re-published with the new title in 2020 to include information about the reopening of Wood’s death investigation in 2018. A complete biography is the best way to describe this book. Author, Suzanne Finstad, clearly spent years of her life researching and interviewing everyone associated with Wood. It is extremely detailed, and she did not leave a stone unturned.
Naturally, the book opens with the history of Natalie’s parents and their upbringing in Russia. I appreciated learning about the extensive background of her mom, as it’s instrumental to the way in which Natalie was raised and the tremendous influence of her mom. I can only imagine the pressures of her childhood and being forced into acting at such a young age. She starred in a lot of movies, so she’s clearly a wonderful actress; however, she didn’t have a choice, and most of the time she was the sole provider for the family.
It was fascinating to learn about the various movies she starred in and the celebrities she worked with, became friends with, or dated: Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Warren Beatty, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor. Her most famous movies are Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, and West Side Story. As much as I love classic movies, I haven’t watched any of these movies from start to finish, mostly parts here and there on television. After reading this book, I hope to see Rebel and Splendor from start to finish someday. Aside from Wood’s acting career, Finstad uncovers her personal relationships and shares the off-screen Natalie Wood. She reveals how sweet and considerate Wood was to people close to her, as well as the demons she faced due to a tumultuous childhood, a mother obsessed with acting, and abusive people in Hollywood.
Natalie was motivated to be a mom and was eager to find the man she was going to marry and have children with. She first married Robert Wagner in the 1950s, and they divorced before having any children together. The reason for the abrupt divorce is told in this book, and it’s not the reason the public was given at the time. She then married Richard Gregson and their relationship produced a daughter, Natasha. Their marriage ended when Gregson had an affair with Wood’s assistant. Wood and Wagner remarried in the 1970s, and their relationship produced a daughter, Courtney. Finstad thoroughly covers Wood’s relationships and marriages. Wood seemed like a perfect mom who tried to give her daughters the childhood she never had.
Reading about her daughters makes the ending of the book even more depressing. Based upon extensive research and interviews, Finstad accounts of that final, fateful weekend Wood spent with her husband, Christopher Walken, and the boat’s skipper aboard their boat, Splendor. Thanks to Finstad’s work, the LA Sheriff’s Department reopened the investigation into Wood’s death. The cause of Wood’s death was officially changed by the coroner, and Robert Wagner was named as a person of interest. The chain of events leading to this outcome is solely credited to Finstad. She not only told an engaging story of Natalie’s life, she honored her and stood up for her when others did not. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn about Natalie Wood’s life and death. It left me feeling sad for her and frustrated that the original investigation was garbage.
As I neared the end of this book, I dove into Google Images for pictures of Natalie throughout her life. As an internet search will often do, I ventured down a few rabbit holes and learned her eldest daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, published a book in 2020 titled More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood. I’m curious to read this book and learn her perspective on the relationship with her mom and the impact of Natalie’s loss.
The introduction and prologue of the audiobook were read by the author. The core of the book was narrated by Rose McGowan, who did a really nice job.
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