Within
the years of 1980 and 2008, more than 185,000 murder cases were closed as
undetermined (Hargrove 1). In 1981, one of Americas finest actress’, Natalie
Wood, who starred in West Side Story, Splendor in the Grass, and many more fan
favorites, was discovered dead floating atop the cold waters’ off the coast of
California: the same waters at which she sailed with her husband, Robert
Wagner, and their yacht’s captain, Christopher Walken only a day before (Ott
1). Soon after, her case was declared as an “accidental drowning” and everyone
got on with their natural grieving process. However, was her death actually an
“accidental drowning”? Could the common conspiracy that Wood and her husband
did not just have a simple fight the evening before (Jackson 3)? Or is it
possible that the captain did it insight of Wagner? Or could she have simply
fallen of the boat while tying down the dingy?
Natalie
Wood was an extremely determined young woman. At a young age, Wood worked hard
to get her first acting job. It was not long before she started training in
performing arts that she landed her first role as a nine-year-old appearing in
Miracle on 34th Street, and then later with a bigger role in, Tomorrow is Forever. One of the biggest
roles that Natalie earned was the lead in the Broadway original, West Side Story:
Natalie Wood was cast as Maria, the leading lady of the film. She worked hard to rehearse all the songs
and was especially excited to sing Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics. But, behind her
back, producers brought in a woman named Marni Nixon to re-dub all of
Wood’s songs. Wood
would record her version of the number, then the producers would tell her she’s
doing a wonderful job. (Eire 1)
Wood’s determination was truly tested at
this point in her career. It was unfortunate to her because it was so early on.
Wood was put to the true test when having to watch someone else invade her
dreams. As soon as Wood thought she was going to get to sing live on stage, the
directors informed her that she would be lip synching to a better voice that
they found to dub over her actual voice. One of the most exciting parts about
landing this role to Natalie was the opportunity to sing Sondheim’s songs on a
real Broadway stage. This situation almost seems as cruel as taking candy from
a baby, only in Natalie’s case, the baby is forced to watch the candy be eaten.
Natalie would show up to rehearsal for the show and would put in the work while
watching the voice of the show get all of the praise from the directors and
other cast members. Natalie never once strayed away from her loyalties, she
stood tall and proud and never let anyone take away her own accomplishments in
her biggest break so far. The very next year this determination led her to
prove her talents to everyone in the nation. During rehearsals for her next
movie, Gypsy, Natalie earned her way
to singing the song, “Little Lamb” all on her own. She feared that they would
want to dub over her voice again with a “better” vocalist, so she worked hard
to prove herself. This determination not only proved to the directors and
viewers that she could accomplish grade levels of achievement in her signing,
but it proved her talents to her agents as well as surrounded music producers.
While getting to sing the show live on the set of Gypsy she also got to record
another version of the song in the sound studio which further led to the
beginning of the movies very own original soundtrack at which Natalie had
various singing appearances on. From the trials and tribulations to the
confidence boosters and accomplishments, Natalie had experienced a lot in a
short three years. The biggest accomplishments that this all led to, though,
was the three Golden Globe nominations for “Best Actress in a Motion Picture”
and “Best New Actress of the Year”, as well as her Academy Award nomination for
“Best Actress” and lastly her BAFTA Award for “Best foreign Actress” all of
which Natalie earned before the age of
25 (“Natalie Wood” 1). In her time, it was truly a hard task for a female to
receive even just one of these awards much less five in five years. Most other
young actresses in the early 1960’s were not credited so quickly like Natalie
because they lacked the drive and determination that Natalie had and used
throughout her career so far.
Natalie Wood was always described as a
fearful young lady. She’s was known for her fear of heart break, her fear of
bad publicity, and some even say repressed fears of her mother ("5 Facts About Natalie Wood: Fears,
Old Flames & Why Size Mattered." 1). One of her biggest
and most publicly known fears was her fear of deep water. Natalie refused to
even visit the beach. In her film Splendor
in the Grass there was a great scene filmed in the shallow parts of the
ocean on shore and Natalie had to be tricked into filming it by her director ("5 Facts About Natalie Wood: Fears,
Old Flames & Why Size Mattered." 1). Wood would even
refuse beach photo shoots because of huge fear of water. All of Natalie’s
common fears lead to the obvious question, “are these fears tied to something
greater?”. Before Natalie’s disappearance stories about Natalie being afraid of
her husband were leaked and some people tagged Wagner as a “wife beater”. While
this effected his career as much as it would any other career at this time it
eventually fizzled out as a rumor amongst Natalie’s fans. Only did the new name
tag fizzle out in Wagner’s mind, or did it lie latent in his mind until he
could not take it anymore. Fears are usually tied to traumatizing experiences
and with this being true people cannot help but to think that perhaps Natalie
was put through some sort of traumatizing experience by her husband Robert
Wagner. His Aggression was clear to everyone as a problem meaning he could have
been more aggressive towards her behind doors. Wagner never put his scotch down
and would blow up at the smallest incidents:
Mr. Wagner was so angry at Miss Wood flirting with Mr. Walken
the night she died that he smashed a bottle of wine in the yacht and said:
‘What are you tryin' to do, f*** my wife? Mr Davern said that soon after he
heard a physical fight coming from below deck - and then nothing. Ten minutes
later he went down to the stateroom and found Mr Wagner crying saying:
‘Natalie’s gone, she’s missing’. (Bates 2)
One
could only image how many other occasions that physical and verbal abuse could
have shown up in their relationship. Wagner and Wood were married twice with
several affairs in between. Before their first marriage Wood hooked up with
Elvis Pressley which at the time were big shoes to fill for Wagner ("5 Facts About Natalie Wood: Fears,
Old Flames & Why Size Mattered." 3). This means that from the
beginning, Wagner has always held built up anger towards Natalie. Because
Natalie was so fearful of a lot that crossed her path, she had to overcome many
challenges in her career. She eventually became a more private person in fear
of too much personal information being spread about her life. Perhaps this
information would have led to the reveal of her husband being abusive? Natalie
also struggled with overcoming smaller fears throughout her acting career, but
eventually did so that she could accomplish all of her roles successfully.
There are a few different conspiracies
presented to the public about the death of Natalie Wood, but there is only one
that is the true result to her death. Perhaps she did just fall off of the boat
leading a panic attack at which led to her drowning. The most common conspiracy
although, when researched, is one that her husband, Robert Wagner murdering her
after a pretty serious fight on the boat. Lastly and a lot less talked about,
it is very likely that the captain of the boat and very good friend of
Natalie’s, Christopher Walken, murdered her because of a secret scandal. Survey
says that twenty four in thirty five people thing that Robert Wagner viscously
murdered his wife, seven in thirty five survey believe that co star and
longtime friend, Christopher Walken, killed Natalie out of jealousy, and only
four in thirty five believe that Natalie slipped while tying up the dinghy.
Conspiracy
one is that Natalie Wood slipped off of the boat while tying up the dinghy.
Paola Crespo in her article about the case in HuffPost mentioned that Natalie’s
fear of water was simply, just a show and that people the had eaten dinner with
the night of where worried about the Wagner’s safety because they seemed
“intoxicated by 10:30 p.m.” (Crespo 3). Most people when drinking Champaign for
a holiday celebration do not stop at just one glass. The Wagner’s reported
“heavy drinking” the evening of Natalie’s death only further supports the
argument that her drowning was accidental and can be blamed on her drunk
clumsiness. There are nearly five million fatal accidents reported per year due
to heavy alcohol intake. It is very likely that Wood walked out onto the boat extremely
late at night after drinking even more to simply tie of the dinghy, but instead
ended up slipping off. Because she was physically impaired due to her Champaign
fill-ups that evening, Natalie was exposed to a lot more than strong winds and
wave knocking her off the boat. A lot of people question why Natalie was even
on the boat in the first place, but according to this conspiracy, she was “seen
skimming the shore on the dinghy multiple times” (Crespo 4). Apparently,
Natalie’s big fear of water was a rumor made up for publicity after her death.
Believers of this conspiracy even point out the fact that this trip was not the
first trip on the family yacht. Also, if Natalie was so afraid of the deep sea,
why did she even agree to celebrating big holidays and some weekends on their
yacht, or to even owning a yacht in the first place? Some of the questions will
never be answered, but all of the questions strongly support that her death was
not a murder and that she only slipped off the boat, and the shock to slipping
and impaired reaction is what led to her fatal drowning.
Conspiracy
number two is the most popular, but still to this day is still labeled a
conspiracy because there is no further evidence given by Robert Wagner, who
continues to exclaim, to this day, that he knew nothing of her death until he
realized she was missing. A lot
of people noticed over the years that Natalie and Robert were not the happiest
couple. The two clearly had some relationship issues because they had been
married, divorced, then again remarried. Dr. Oz even exposed the hidden autopsy
reports that her death had been renamed as “drowning and other unknown
reasons”, this resulting from the other information he shared on Aire about her
“body being covered in bruising” (Oz 1). The conspiracy actually is very
logical because of the reports from other boats about the “ledged quarrels
between the two” tied hand in hand with the bruising on her body prior to her
death. When hearing a “quarrel” one does not mean they heard two people having
an angry discussion. Usually, this kind of wording means physical violence
along-side verbal abuse between two people. It makes perfect sense that their
terrible history and Robert’s possible jealousy of Natalie’s relations with
other men could have led to Robert beating and pushing her off the yacht after
a serious argument the night Natalie washed up dead.
The final conspiracy is one that is the most
scandalous. Cristopher Walken and Natalie Wood were known to the public as
“good friends”, but is it possible there was something more between them? This
prediction is definitely not one someone just made up according to Robert
Wagner himself. Wagner said in an interview after her death that he often
caught the two in deep conversation that would “abruptly end” when he entered
the room. Wagner even exposed to the public that he was jealous of the two on
the trip the night of Natalie’s death:
Wagner wrote that during his trip with Wood
and Walken, he became jealous and argued with both of them. ‘He's a person of
interest because he's the last person with her before she went in the water, this
is a suspicious death investigation. We want to know what happened from the
time of the argument to when she got into the water.’ (Gonzalez1).
This interview raised a lot of question to
fans and investigators because it was another lead on her death. If Natalie’s
own husband often questioned their relationship and was unsure if their was a
secret romance going on then it is highly likely that Walken grew jealous of
Natalie wanting to go back to bed with her husband and he pushed her off,
steered the boat in another direction, and released the dingy a mile away to
make the drowning look like an accident.
One
of America’s favorite and most hardworking actresses was taken away from them
the night of November 29, 1981. We may never know how she left us, but we do
know of the strong evidence supporting the strongest theory that her husband
pushed her off the yacht, leaving her to drown. There are other theories which
include murder by Christopher Walken, or her falling off the boat due to
intoxication. Although any of the believed theories can have accurate
attributes, Natalie Wood’s husband pushing her off in a “spare of the moment
decision” sort of way may be the answer to her death.
Work Cited
S Bates in New York, Daniel. "Witness Heard
Argument on Boat the Night Tragic Film Star Natalie Wood Died." Express.co.uk,
EXPRESS, 3 Feb. 2018, www.express.co.uk/news/world/913954/natalie-wood-witness-heard-argument-night-died-robert-wagner-hollywood-film-star.
S Crespo, Paola. "What Really Happened the
Night Natalie Wood Died." HuffPost, 6 Dec. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/what-really-happened-the_b_8594972.
S Eire, Grace.
"Natalie Wood’s Voice Was Dubbed Over For ‘West Side Story’ ? Here’s Her
Real Voice!" LittleThings.com, NOSTALGIA,
27 Jan. 2016, www.littlethings.com/natalie-woods-voice-dubbed-west-side-story/.
S "5 Facts About Natalie Wood: Fears, Old
Flames & Why Size Mattered." Biography, BIOGRAPHY,
18 2014, www.biography.com/news/natalie-wood-facts.
Gonzalez, Sandra and Respers, Lisa France, CNN.
"Investigators Say Robert Wagner's Story on Natalie Wood's Death Doesn't
'add Up'." CNN,
6 Feb. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/02/05/entertainment/natalie-wood/index.html.
S "What Really Happened the Night of
Actress Natalie Wood's Death?" Doctoroz.com, 14 May 2019, www.doctoroz.com/episode/true-crime-what-does-natalie-woods-autopsy-reveal-about-what-happened-boat.
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