Natasha : " The Biography Of Natalie Wood "

by SuzanneFinstad (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $3.25

  This biography of Natalie Wood (born Natasha Zakharenko), beautiful star of West Side Story and Rebel Without a Cause , goes from a childhood dominated by her frustrated, alcoholic mother, through her love affairs and marriage (twice) to Robert Wagner, to an addiction to sleeping pills and her premature death by drowning at the age of 43. The author spent three years in researching Wood's life story, to reveal it tinged from the start with tragedy and drama. Wood grew up fast - a lonely misfit, uncertain of her identity. She was raped by a leading Hollywood star at the age of 16 - an attack that her mother forbade her to report. Her leading men frequently became her lovers, including Elvis Presley, James Dean and Warren Beatty. Her fear of being alone and years of exploitation and abuse led eventually to the sleeping pill addiction and a number of suicide attempts. This book - written with the help of over 400 interviews with friends, family, lovers, co-stars and the police officials who investigated her death - also looks at unpublished evidence surrounding her controversial death, and considers her lifelong terror of water. Ironically, it was her ability to project the pain and vulnerability of her life that made Natasha Wood such an exceptional actress.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.25

• New

  Paperback
  2002

  $18.13

  Born Natasha Zakharenko, Natalie Wood continues to haunt us 20 years after her tragic and mysterious death. Her dark hypnotic beauty and passionate performances made her a movie star legend, appearing in over fifty films including West Side Story and Rebel Without a Cause for which she was Oscar nominated. The story of her life is tinged with tragedy and drama. Pushed by her domineering, frustrated mother - an alcoholic determined to make her child a star at whatever cost, Natalie grew up fast - lonely and a misfit, uncertain of her identity. At fifteen she had embarked on an affair with a director 30 years her senior, she was brutally raped by a leading Hollywood star when she was sixteen -an attack which her mother forbade her to report. Her leading men frequently became her lovers including Elvis Presley, James Dean , Warren Beatty and the real love of her life, Robert Wagner whom she eventually married twice. Her fear of being alone and the years of exploitation and abuse led to an addiction to sleeping pills and several suicide attempts and for the first time, this book looks at evidence, yet to be published, surrounding her premature and controversial death - drowning at the age of 43. Suzanne Finstad has spent 3 years researching this, the first substantive biography of Natalie Wood, conducting over 400 interviews with friends, family, lovers, co-stars and the police officials who investigated her death.