As many of you have probably read or heard, the Los Angeles authorities are re-opening the investigation of the death of actress Natalie Wood, 30 years after she was found floating in the Pacific Ocean near Catalina Island.
I was 11 years old, and I remember almost nothing about the case, not knowing who Natalie Wood was at the time, (I still have never seen any of her movies except for “Miracle On 34th St.”) though I watched her husband Robert Wagner’s TV detective show “Hart To Hart” fairly regularly back then.
Anyway, there are conflicting stories about what happened on the yacht that night between Wood, Wagner, their friend actor Christopher Walken and the boat’s Captain, Dennis Davern.
Did Natalie Wood just drunkenly fall overboard, (which as I understand it was the official finding back in 1981) or as Capt. Davern is suggesting, (obviously in a transparent attempt to flog his book) was foul play involved due to a physical fight between Ms. Wood and her (jealous, drunken, enraged?) husband Robert Wagner?
Feel free to come up with any possible scenarios about what you think REALLY happened, no matter how obscene, vulgar, far-fetched or racially insensitive…
‘Bob, can I have another drink?’
‘Sure, Natalie. But don’t go overboard.’
What kind of wood doesn’t float?
Natalie.
Either Wagner bopped her in the head and she fell overboard and Walken agreed to remain quiet, or else she fell overboard and hit her head. Only one person knows if he hit her, and he says he didn’t.
Apparently, Wagner was pissed because he felt that their guest, Christopher Walken, was hitting on Wood. A fight ensued, and what happened after that remains to be seen, I guess. I see that Walken has hired an attorney for this matter- I don’t know if that implies guilt on his part or not.
I have also heard the theory that she walked in on the two men getting it on and ran out falling overboard in the process of trying to get away.
Either that or she did not want to shower on the boat, choosing to wash up onshore instead.
I’ve read a few news stories quoting various police officials stating that neither Wagner nor Walken are suspects. So who is? The captain? The one-armed man?
The marriage was in difficulties at the time and it didn’t help much when Wood was cast alongside a young, smoking-hot Christopher Walken in Brainstorm. Walken was invited along on the cruise by Wood and the two of them clearly had the hots for each other, something which Natalie Wood apparently made little attempt to disguise from Wagner. The oddest thing about the events of that night was the claim that Wood had taken the dinghy and attempted to row back to the shore in the middle of the night. Everybody knew she was terrified of the water and there was no way she would have gone off in a small boat on her own, even if she were drunk as a skunk.
Wagner and Wood had a terrific fight late that night, smashing bottles and glasses. That was the cue for Walken and the Captain to diplomatically retire to their beds, leaving the married couple screaming blue murder at each other. Wood vanished from the boat soon after. Wagner claimed he’d gone to bed and left her alone. The Captain now claims that Wagner forbade him to make a search for Wood but as he’s publicizing his book and this is the first time in all these years he’s ever mentioned anything like this I just don’t know how much credence we can place in it.
We’ll see if the Sheriff’s department can sort it out but I’m not holding my breath.
I worked at a theater in Beverly Hills in the mid 1990’s and Christopher Walken was on stage there for a week.
He was a nice guy, but a bit odd and really does talk like that in real life.
However, before he started his run at the theater, everyone who worked there was told to not to mention nor ask Chris anything about that night with Natalie Wood.
I am not sure if this was the theater producer being overly protective, or if it was a directive from Walken or his mangager, but that subject was taboo while he was there.
I found it a bit odd, considering that incident had happened well over a decade earlier, but apparenty it was still a sore subject.
I remember when this happened. It would be nice to be able to have answers to some of the questions in this case.
A claim in a book someone is trying to sell, is one thing. But it’s telling to me, that the case is actually being reopened. It would break my heart to learn that Walken had anything to do with it, so I’m glad to hear he is not a person of interest.
There were only 4 people on the boat. One of them died, the police have said that Wagner is not a suspect. That only leaves Walken and the boat captain, unless the evening played out like some bad Scooby Doo or Jonny Quest episode.
From what I read in Suzanne Finstad’s *Natasha * (well-researched biography of Natalie Wood), the principal anomalies in the received account were the bruising on her arms and legs, and the delay in reporting her being missing.
My guess is that:
– she toppled into the water in the usual way that drunks do
– Wagner and Walken nearly managed to haul her back on the boat (accounting for the bruising)
– they failed because they were too drunk to accomplish it
– they messed around for a while trying to re-locate her (accounting for the reporting delay)
– everyone has kept quiet ever since because no-one wanted to tell Wood’s and Wagner’s daughters that she died because Daddy was too plotzed to fish her out of the water (which is tragic, but not a crime, and could be what the Captain was hinting at)
The scattered reports of what other boaters may have heard are generally reconcilable with the above scenario.
[ul]
[li]Everyone got drunk, possibly including the captain. [/li][li]Wood and Walken were pretty obviously hot for each other, which caused a big argument between Wood and Wagner after everyone retired for the night. [/li][li]She stormed out of their cabin due to the argument, throwing a down jacket over her nightgown. [/li][li]In her drunken, angry state, she thought to take the dinghy to shore to scare/anger/give the middle finger to her husband. (People who claim she never would have done such a thing because she was terrified of drowning have obviously never been really f’ing drunk.)[/li][li]She fell into the water not the dinghy. (Because… drunk.) [/li][li]Bruises were from her trying to get back into the boat or into the dinghy, or banging on the boat trying to signal for help. She couldn’t manage and drowned. [/li][li]Delay in reporting was due to them trying to locate her, thinking she fell in and was treading water somewhere, or else searching the entire ship to make sure she hadn’t crawled into a corner and passed out. Could also be that Wagner waited some time before going to find his angry wife, thinking she was just somewhere else on the boat.[/li][/ul]
This seems all very silly to me. How can anything definitive be established about Wood’s death after 30 years? At best whatever Capt. Davern says is just his guess about what happened since he didn’t directly witness any foul deed by anyone. Sure sounds like he’s trying to sell more books on the 30th anniversary of Wood’s death.
