Favorite Photos - Blog Posts

“It’s okay if every weekend doesn’t lead to big moments and campfires and laughter that carries on for hours and hours. Some weekends maybe quiet, still, with plenty of room to contemplate. And in that contemplation, there is room to grow. So hold those weekends dear. Don’t see them as less or as threats to the more exciting times. There is beauty and truth even in the seemingly mundane.” - Morgan Harper Nichols

Natalie Wood photographed by Hal King for a 1958 Max Factor ad campaign.

“She would just hold the knife horizontally across the front of her eyes,” [a friend] recalls, “and move her face up and down so she could see everything on the blade. I thought that was rather cute.” Natalie Wood by Suzanne Finstad.

Natalie Wood photographed during the filming of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” 1969.

Natalie Wood photographed holding a baby bird, 1962.

Natalie Wood photographed by Earl Leaf at her Laurel Canyon home, 1957.

Natalie Wood rehearses “the Sweetheart Tree,” on set of “the Great Race,” 1965.

Natalie Wood, 1962

Natalie Wood and her newborn daughter Natasha photographed by Orlando Suero, 1970.

Natalie Wood in New York City behind the scenes of “Penelope,” 1966. Art Zelin.

Natalie Wood photographed in the French countryside during the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.

Natalie Wood in a film still for “Splendor in the Grass,” 1961.

Natalie Wood photographed by Earl Leaf in her Laurel Canyon home, 1957.

Natalie Wood photographed by Bill Ray, 1963.

Natalie Wood in a promotional photo for “Penelope,” 1966.

Natalie Wood photographed getting her makeup adjusted behind the scenes of “Gypsy,” 1962.

Natalie Wood photographed by Earl Leaf at her Laurel Canyon home, 1957.

Natalie Wood photographed in between takes of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” 1969.

Natalie Wood photographed by Earl Leaf in the bathtub at her Laurel Canyon home, 1956.

Natalie Wood photographed during a telephone conversation. Bill Ray, 1963.

Natalie Wood photographed by Ernst Haas in dance rehearsals for “West Side Story,” 1961.

Natalie Wood and her then-husband Robert Wagner photographed by Peter Basch, 1957.

“I want to be a movie star,” a seven-year old Natalie Wood once told the press. Here at twenty-five, on the set of “Sex and the Single Girl,” her wish is fulfilled.”

Natalie Wood and Jack Lemmon depicted by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, for “the Great Race,” 1965.

“Natalie [Wood] started “Splendor” with the mingled fear and pleasure she had with “Rebel”... She would recall [Elia] Kazan encouraging her, “Don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself,” to be bold, be free, to “shock herself.”

Natalie Wood and director Elia Kazan photographed behind the scenes of “Splendor in the Grass;” Excerpt from “Natalie Wood” by Suzanne Finstad.

Natalie Wood and co-star Sal Mineo photographed on a “date,” circa 1956.

“Dean barely spoke to Natalie that morning, but trailed her out the door during the lunch break, inviting her on his motorcycle. “I was thrilled. We went speeding off to some greasy spoon.”... Dean chatted with Natalie about the script at lunch, relaxing her. Suddenly he put down his sandwich. “I know you,” he said challengingly. “You’re a child actor.” Natalie, who sensed he was testing her, responded, “That’s true. But it’s better than acting like a child.” Dean “didn’t get it for a moment,” she later recalled. “Then he started to laugh. Then I started to laugh.” Natalie Wood by Suzanne Finstad.

“Elia Kazan assured me a double would do the scene where I was under an eight-foot waterfall. But then it turned out the double couldn’t swim at all, and I had to do it. I told Kazan: “I’ll do it only if you take me out to the waterfall and throw me in. I know I can’t swim that far, and I’m scared besides.” And that’s what they did. They threw me in, and had to get out fast before I drowned. ”

Natalie Wood by Suzanne Finstad; Natalie Wood photographed in between takes of “Splendor in the Grass,” 1960.

“The next day, she ... went to see Dean in “East of Eden,” which had opened at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. “She walked out and said, ‘I’m gonna marry him.’ Natalie later admitted she had ‘a big crush’ on Dean. “I remember going with my school girlfriends to see East of Eden like fifteen times, sitting there sobbing when he tried to give the money to his father. We knew every word by heart.”

Natalie Wood photographed sunbathing in between takes of “the Burning Hills,” 1956.