Posted on 09/25/2008 11:43:33 AM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Robert Wagner says he was so distraught over the break-up of his first marriage to actress Natalie Wood that he pondered suicide and would sit with a gun outside the home of her lover, Warren Beatty, intent on killing him.
"Pieces of My Heart," Wagner's autobiography released this week, reveals details of his career and life, including the split with Wood, their decision to remarry a decade later and her drowning death in 1981.
"I was pretty young, and I don't think I could have ever gone through with that act, but I was pretty frustrated and upset," Wagner, 78, told Reuters in an interview.
Beatty, who met Wood on the set of "Splendor in the Grass," in 1961 "was pretty smooth, very attractive. He was the man," Wagner said.
Wagner's family moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s and he ran in Hollywood circles as a child. Fred Astaire would pick him up at school because Wagner was friendly with the legendary dancer's stepson. He caddied for Clark Gable and dated the daughter of actress Gloria Swanson.
Over time, Wagner was put under contract at 20th Century Fox. When Barbara Stanwyck, then 45, and Wagner, 22, met on the set of "Titanic," they began a discreet, four-year relationship. Wagner said she was his first love.
"The greatest thing that she gave me was a sense of self esteem. That she thought the way she did about me and took the time with me meant everything in the world," Wagner said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Silly trivia: I had Natalie Wood and Lana Wood paper dolls. Way cool.
At first glance I thought the picture on the left was Billy Bob Thornton.
I dare any of you to watch “Dr T and The Women” with Richard Gere before denigrating comparable cinematic classics such as “The Trial of Billy Jack” and “Ishtar”.
HAHA!
A clean-shaven Billy Bob!
The skipper was either asleep or out cold the whole time. If he needs money he'll resurface and sell his story to a tabloid, but it's different each time. He's not taken seriously.
The rumors out of Hollywood at the time were that if anyone was guilty it was Walken. Natalie and RJ were storybook and fairy-tale. He was Jonathan Hart, the white hat, the "good guy."
There were rumors of some big argument between Walken and Wagner. Disgusted, Natalie attempted to go to ashore in her pajamas, hit her head and was knocked out.
There were also rumors that Walken had made advances to Natalie, and that he angrily tossed her in when she spurned him.
So I bought the book thinking that the evidence would surely implicate Walken. He's so cold-looking. Sinister.
Finstad describes how the three had been ashore at a restaraunt the night of the incident, and the author was able to interview witnesses of the dynamics between the party of three as well as of the liquor being consumed by all (a lot).
The reports were consistant. Any discord observed by patrons and restaraunt staff had little to do with Walken, it was between the Wagners, and it wasn't pretty.
Talk about the hangover from hell....
Another twist: Since Natalie had a bruise on her head, Noguchi speculated that she'd hit her head when she "slipped" and was knocked out, so she didn't know a thing. Since then however, several nautical Coast Guard-types have studied the tides and the ocean currents that were in place that night and concluded that it would not have been possible for Natalie to have been found where she was by just drifting there already dead. The only way for her to have gotten there was if she swam, and swam hard. They speculate that she must have held onto that dinghy and kicked and kicked for I-don't-remember-how-long, but well into the night.
The worst part? She almost made it. She was perhaps a few hundred feet from shore when she was overwhelmed or gave up.
If you're a Natalie Wood fan it's a great book and the most in depth detailed biography out there, but so creepy at the end. So many "what ifs," you keep wanting to rewrite the last chapters, but nothing can change that horrible ending.
That a fantastic pic of your GrandMa....Beautiful Lady she is.
Thanks very much!
Very sad indeed. Thanks for your writings.
If only things had gone differently, maybe Natalie would still be with us today. How sad that she died that way.
It is a sad and tragic Hollywood story.
Very sad indeed. Thanks for your writings.
If only things had gone differently, maybe Natalie would still be with us today. How sad that she died that way.
It is a sad and tragic Hollywood story.
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