Natalie Wood was a great actress, a powerful force for change in Hollywood and an excellent mother, wife and friend. But she died at age 46 in a mystery that has never been fully explained. Explore more about Natalie Wood Death in the sections below.

Director Gregson Wagner uses home movies and family photos to paint a portrait of a woman whose professional choices were boldly forward-thinking for her time.

As much as Natalie Wood’s beauty and grace enthralled audiences on the big screen, it was her ability to portray such a full range of emotions that drew viewers in. She could be a cherub-cheeked cynic in Miracle on 34th Street, a rebellious teen in Rebel Without a Cause, or a mature woman battling her demons in West Side Story. Wood’s dark eyes registered intelligence and sincerity, and she infused her characters with a kind of neurotic energy.

As an actress, she was incredibly hard-working. She learned her lines cold, often rehearsing scenes multiple times before shooting began. Her devotion to her craft earned her the nickname “One Take Natalie.”

Wood was a child star until she was 12, when she escaped her mother’s tyrannical grip by signing a long-term studio contract. By the time she was 16, she had already wowed audiences with her performance in Rebel Without a Cause, which co-starred James Dean and Sal Mineo.

Yet despite her success, she struggled to define herself as more than just a film actress. She fought to earn fair compensation from her studios, and she campaigned for mental health advocacy. She even sought psychoanalysis, going seven days a week for years and stipulating in her film contracts that she be allowed time off for sessions.

But she couldn’t completely escape her troubled past, as evidenced by her repeated attempts to kill herself and her debilitating phobias. Her greatest fear, spawned by a prophecy told to her superstitious mother by a Gypsy fortune-teller, was that she would die in dark water.

Her final film, the 1983 sci-fi movie Brainstorm, was released two years after her untimely death by drowning. Finstad explores both the public and private sides of her life, and reveals that despite all she had to overcome, there was much more to this remarkable woman than met the eye.

In old clips, it’s easy to see why Wood was so captivating — anxiety, sadness and resilience ripple across her skin and pool in her brown eyes. But she was also a strong-willed woman, and home videos show a more loose, magnetic personality.

Her Family

In a time when women were not seen as capable of having careers outside the home, Wood forged a path to independence that was uncommon for a woman of her generation. She was an example to young girls who were trying to establish their own identities in a world where they had been taught to look up to women who sat around and did nothing.

Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko in San Francisco, California in 1938. She began acting as a child in bit parts before the age of five, and her enterprising mother, Maria, transferred her daughter’s dreams onto film stardom.

After her breakthrough role in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street, Wood’s career took off quickly. She was the studio’s favorite child star and a doe-eyed well of emotion on screen, while she was a savvy professional off it. She starred in classics like Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass, and West Side Story, garnering multiple Oscar nominations along the way.

As her movies moved into adulthood, Wood was able to take on challenging roles that showed her range. Her portrayal of Deanie in Rebel Without a Cause and Maria in West Side Story are considered her most significant adult performances. In her personal life, she married actor Robert Wagner twice, while having a child with producer Richard Gregson in between.

In the years before her death, Wood struggled to balance family life and work. In an attempt to heal from the trauma of her traumatic childhood, she underwent psychoanalysis seven days a week for eight years. She even spelled out in her film contracts that she would have to take time off for sessions.

Wood’s relationship with Wagner is discussed in the documentary. The pair was living aboard the yacht Splendour when she died. When the boat was adrift, Wagner told police that Wood slipped on the yacht’s ski ramp and fell into the water. Investigators, however, have said that the bruises found on her body suggest she was killed by being pushed from the boat.

Her Legacy

In a world where women are often seen as butterflies to be pinned down and admired, Natalie Wood was more than just a pretty face. She was a powerful and charismatic actress, wife and mother. She also fought to get the best for her daughters, was committed to a number of children’s causes and was a dedicated and generous patron of the arts.

This HBO documentary, helmed by director Laurent Bouzereau, leaves behind the unsettling mystery of Wood’s death and instead celebrates her life and legacy. Friends and colleagues like Mia Farrow, George Hamilton and Robert Redford speak to her kindness, professionalism and sense of loyalty to her family, friends and coworkers. And the archival footage of her from behind the scenes is striking, showing her gingerly stepping off a boat and into the dark water as trained divers support her.

Wood’s acting career spanned decades, beginning with her small role in Miracle on 34th Street and her breakout performance in Rebel Without a Cause. She was nominated for an Academy Award twice more, for Splendor in the Grass and Love with a Proper Stranger. She later starred in musicals such as West Side Story and Gypsy, before making a transition to television with hit shows such as The Great Race, Inside Daisy Clover and the miniseries From Here to Eternity. Her final film was the science fiction thriller Brainstorm, which was released two years after her death.

In her personal life, Wood was an insecure and volatile woman, but she was a devoted wife to her second husband Richard Gregson and loving mother to her daughter, Natasha, and her stepson, Courtney. She had one child by her first marriage to actor Robert Wagner and was a long-time companion of comedian Christopher Walken.

The documentary reveals Wood’s many charitable endeavors, including work to promote child safety, a donation of ancient art to UCLA and an endowment for student performers at the school where she taught. Her daughters carry on her legacy with the Natalie Wood fragrance and by donating to CoachArt, an organization that teaches art and athletics to chronically ill kids.

Her Death

For decades, Natalie Wood has haunted our collective cultural memory mostly through lurid speculation about what led to her drowning off the coast of California’s Catalina Island in November 1981. Did she accidentally fall overboard from her husband Robert Wagner’s yacht, the Splendour? Was she thrown in by Wagner or perhaps even by actor Christopher Walken?

Wood was 43 at the time of her death. She had already made a name for herself as a child star in such movies as Happy Land (1943) and The Little Girl Who Dropped Ice Cream Cone (also 1943), and then moved on to teenager and young adult roles in films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with James Dean. She was also popular on television, starring in shows such as The Pride of the Family (1953-1954), The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1954) and Mayor of the Town (1955).

But she never seemed to settle for being just a cog in the Hollywood machine, especially since she felt the industry was stacked against women. She fought back against studio boss Jack Warner, refusing to accept being assigned films and instead insisting that she pick at least one movie each year (a common practice at the time). She went on strike after he refused her request. She later battled the studio over mental health issues and pay.

Throughout her life, she was also a devoted wife and mother who remained close to her daughters and other relatives. She also forged an image of herself away from the cameras as a strong-willed woman who was well ahead of her time in her advocacy for equal rights and battling her own demons.

Personal photographs and home movies, some found in the storage unit after her death, paint a different picture of Wood than the glamorous images that were so prevalent during her lifetime. Her daughter from her second marriage, Natasha Gregson Wagner, recalls her as a devoted mother and friend who was surprisingly down-to-earth for someone in the spotlight. The documentary draws on these personal and private sources — along with never-before-seen footage of her second wedding to Wagner and excerpts from an article Wood wrote for Ladies Home Journal in 1966 that was ultimately published posthumously — to present a powerful portrait of a complex woman who inhabited glamour effortlessly but had plenty of substance behind the scenes, too.