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Natalie Wood - Blog Posts
dies at 43: natalie wood, the movie actress, drowned yesterday off santa catalina. page d12.
laminated newspaper clipping reporting the death of natalie wood on november 29, 1981.
found in the pages of natasha: the biography of natalie wood, purchased second-hand
James Dean was a cutie and all, even with the eye bags, but he looked too old for a high schooler
You can wake up now, the universe has ended.
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
All the time I’ve been… I’ve been looking for someone to love me. And now I love somebody. And it’s so easy. Why is it easy now?
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
“I’m fine”
Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass (1961, dir. Elia Kazan)
James Dean & Natalie Wood in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Dir. Nicholas Ray
“She had those really warm brown eyes, and that sweet little set of lips- she was just a sweet person, and she carried that presence about her no matter where she was, I think. Certainly when she was with me… she couldn’t have been any nicer.”
Classmate Phoebe Kassebaum on her friendship with Natalie Wood.
During my Ophelia stage, I began to watch films starring Natalie Wood that were shot in the 1960s. There was something about her wide eyes and fragility that reminded me of these drowning women, the fair Ophelia. In Splendor in the Grass, Natalie’s character Deanie loses her mind and self-destructs in more and more glamorous ways, eventually wading into a pond decked out in a gorgeous flapper dress for her suicide attempt. Deanie is saved, goes to therapy, and gets set to marry a nice doctor. But I didn’t care about that. I cared about the frantic way she slid into the water, the way she picked her footing as she climbed down. In her beauty and self-destruction, she wielded an ugly power. Why were these fictional beautiful women always losing their minds so extravagantly? Why are they so compelling? I’ve always found wilting orchids more compelling [than girl bosses] - women who burn bright and burn out, undermined by their own desire for love or wholeness or whatever it is that pushes them under water. Some of us choose the self-destructive model and discover power in the tatters. - Patricia Grisafi; Why Are We So intrigued by Beautiful Drowning Women? A Look at Natalie Wood’s Hysterical Glamour
“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 and Robert Vaughn photographed at a Halloween party, 1956.
Natalie Wood at the Cannes Film Festival (by Paul Schutzer. France, 1962).
Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower, We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind;
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961, dir. Elia Kazan)
Natalie Wood photographed by Hal King for a 1958 Max Factor ad campaign.
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961) “We took them to lunch at a place on East Fifty-eighth street, and my dear, we shouldn’t have been there. They were entwined, lots of hugs and kisses. The restaurant was rather crowded. But that didn’t deter the lovers. They went at it all through lunch. I loved it!” - Eleanor Kilgallen
SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961) “The way Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty are carrying on, it’s a wonder they have time to eat.” - Dorothy Kilgallen
James Dean & Natalie Wood in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Dir. Nicholas Ray
Natalie Wood photographed at the Annual Academy Awards, April 10th of 1968.
Natalie Wood and James Dean eat at a hot dog stand during a break in filming “Rebel Without a Cause,” 1955.
Natalie Wood photographed at the Paris premiere of La Chasse à l’homme in September of 1964.
When I saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg again a few years ago, it struck me: it’s exactly the same ending as in Splendor in the Grass. I adore that film. It’s one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever seen in the cinema. And the end scene is exactly the same as in Umbrellas. He is on the farm, with his dungarees, his wife, the child and she comes back…it was so moving to see that resemblance. I think it is one of the maddest, most audacious films on the subject of love. Particularly for a man to bring a young woman to life in such a way! Splendor in the Grass is so much about unbridled love. The idea that loving can make you insane. That is what happens: you become insane! Going as far as to see her leave for the hospital, because she is dying of love, she wants to die! That film knocked me over. - Catherine Deneuve
Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty at the 34th Academy Awards, 1962.
She always seemed a little tentative, a little frightened. She was sweet and lovely, and I never heard her say a bad word about anybody, but she was not a boisterously happy person. She was kind of delicate, I always felt she was vulnerable, and sensitive,- which she was. Bev Long on Natalie Wood.
