NIVETHA PETHURAJ, MODEL,ACTRESS MISS INDIA UAE 2015 BORN 1991 NOVEMBER 30

NIVETHA PETHURAJ, MODEL,ACTRESS

MISS INDIA UAE 2015 BORN 1991 NOVEMBER 30

Nivetha Pethuraj is an Indian film actress and model who appears in Tamil language films.

Early life[edit source]
Nivetha Pethuraj was born in Kovilpatti [2]. She spent early schooling in Thoothukudi,[3] settled in Dubai for over 13 years. She attended Dubai’s Crescent English High School and holds a degree in human resources management from Heriot Watt University in Dubai

Career[edit source]

She started her career with modelling and was crowned as Miss India UAE pageant by beating 15 contestants at Al Raha Beach hotel in Abu Dhabi on April 11, 2015. The contest was attended by single Indian women with ages between 18 and 25 years residing in UAE.[1] She made her acting debut in the Tamil drama, Oru Naal Koothu (2016).

Miss India UAE 2015[edit source]
She started her career with modelling and was crowned as Miss India UAE pageant by beating 15 contestants at Al Raha Beach hotel in Abu Dhabi on April 11, 2015. The contest was attended by single Indian women with ages between 18 and 25 years residing in UAE.[1] She made her acting debut in the Tamil drama, Oru Naal Koothu (2016) “This is my dream. I’ve wanted to enter pageants since I was five years old and this is like a dream come true,”

the 23-year-old from Chennai said. “I want to pursue a career in acting and modelling and this is going to help me a lot.” Ms Pethuraj is an alumna of Our Own Indian School in Dubai and holds a management degree from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. She works as a VIP attendant for fashion brands. She beat 15 other contestants to the title. The competition was open to all single Indian women between the ages of 18 and 25 years who reside in the UAE. “She was a complete package,” said Shonal Rawat, former Miss Asia Pacific who helped judge the pageant with other Indian celebrities.

“She had poise and presence.” The contestants spent one week training for the pageant held at Al Raha Beach Hotel in Abu Dhabi, with some sessions lasting up to 12 hours. Their transformation, at the hands of expert hairstylists, choreographers and fashion designers, was broadcast in a video presentation during the event showing before and after photos. “Most of them are new to this profession, so what we’re trying to do is to show them the business,” said Eisha Ramrakhiani, spokeswoman for the event. “Most of them are very keen to get into the world of modelling and acting, to try out for auditions and things like that, so we’re prepping them. We are training them how to walk, how to groom themselves, how to talk, how to audition well when they go for castings.” The first round of the pageant featured the young women in high heels and traditional Indian dresses in bold reds, pinks and orange adorned in gold detailing and brilliant chandelier earrings. Many wore dazzling maang tikkas, an Indian hair ornament that dangles over the forehead.

Then came one of the most nerve-racking rounds, in which each woman strides to centre stage, faces the audience of about 250 admirers under hot spotlights and briefly introduces herself. For a couple of the contestants, the pressure was enough to make them repeat or forget their lines, sometimes standing in awkward silence. The sympathetic audience cheered them in these moments, sometimes helping then to refocus. “It’s hard enough coming up on stage in front of hundreds of people, but when you do it with eight layers of make-up and five-inch heels, believe it, that’s a task in itself,” said Malavika Varadan Sharma of Dubai radio station City 101.6, who acted as co-host for the event. In the second round, the young women showed off their Bollywood dance moves in a synchronised number set to a compilation of musical hits. Finally, they paraded in evening gowns before the judges eliminated all but five contestants. The final five were put through a question-and-answer session in which they were asked about the battle of the sexes, retirement policies in India and choices they have made that changed their lives.

One simple question that elicited a complex answer from one of them was: “Where is home?” “To me my heart belongs in India, definitely, but I cannot leave the life I have over here and go back because of the comfort that the UAE has given me and I don’t believe any other place can ever do that,” said Jyotsna Arora, 23. “My dance, my engineering, basically my entire life, who I am right now is because of the UAE, so I owe a lot. So my heart might be in Delhi, but my soul, my everything is in the UAE.” Ms Arora was second runner-up and Stephanie Lahole, 18, was crowned first runner-up. Ms Pethuraj will represent the UAE at the Miss India [4]

Filmography[edit source]

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
2016	Oru Naal Koothu	Kavya	Nelson	Best Debut Award - Behindwoods
2017	Podhuvaga En Manasu Thangam	Leelavathi	Thalapathy Prabu
	Mental Madhilo	Swecha	Vivek Athreya	Telugu Film Debut
	Tik Tik Tik	TBA	Shakti Soundar Rajan	Post production
	Party	TBA	Venkat Prabhu	Filming

PAZHASSI RAJA , FOUGHT AGAINST BRITISH AT LAST COMMITTED SUICIDE ON 1805,NOVEMBER 30

PAZHASSI RAJA , FOUGHT AGAINST BRITISH

 AT LAST COMMITTED SUICIDE ON 1805,NOVEMBER 30

வீர கேரள வர்மா பழசி இராசா (Pazhassi Raja, அல்லது கேரளச் சிங்கம், சனவரி 3, 1753 – நவம்பர் 30, 1805) கேரளாவின் வடக்கில் உள்ள கண்ணூர் மாவட்டத்திலுள்ள தற்கால கூத்துப்பரம்பு பகுதியில் அமைந்துள்ள கோட்டயம்-மலபார் நாட்டின் மன்னராக இருந்தவர். பிரித்தானியக் குடியேற்றவாதத்தை எதிர்த்துப் போராடிய துவக்க கால விடுதலை வீரர்களில் ஒருவர். பிரித்தானியர்களுக்கு எதிராக அவர் நிகழ்த்திய மறைவுத் தாக்குதல்களில் உயிர்விட்டதை அடுத்து அவருக்கு வீர என்ற அடைமொழி வழங்கப்பட்டது.

பழசிராசாவின் இளமைக்காலம் பற்றிய குறிப்புகள் கிடைப்பதில்லை. துவக்கத்தில் பிரித்தானியருக்கு திப்பு சுல்தானுடன் நடந்த சண்டையில் உதவிய பழசிராசா பின்னர் அவர்களுடன் பிணக்கு கொண்டார். விடுதலை போராட்டமாக இல்லாது அவர்களது வரிவிதிப்பிற்கு எதிரான புரட்சியாக 1793–1797 காலகட்டங்களில் வெடித்ததாக வரலாற்று நூல்கள் கூறுகின்றன.[1]
வரலாற்று பின்னணி[மூலத்தைத் தொகு]
பழசி குடீரம்-வயநாட்டில் மானந்தவாடியில் பழசிராசா இறந்த இடத்தில் எழுப்பப்பட்டுள்ள நினைவகம்
கேரளாவை ஹைதர் அலி, பின்னர் திப்பு சுல்தான் ஆண்டு வந்தபோது நிலக்கிழார்களை தவிர்த்து விவசாயிகளிடமிருந்து நேரடியாக வரிவசூல் செய்து வந்தனர். பழசிராசாவின் துணையுடன் திப்புவிடமிருந்து கேரளாவை வென்ற பிரித்தானியர் இதனை மாற்றி மன்னர்களிடமிருந்து வரி பெறும் முறையை கொண்டு வந்தனர். பிரித்தானியர் வசூலித்த வரிகள் மக்களால் கொடுக்க வியலாத அளவில் இருந்தன. மக்களின் எதிர்ப்புகளை யடுத்து மன்னர்களால் வரிவசூல் செய்ய இயலவில்லை.

தவிர கோட்டயத்தை அடுத்திருந்த பகுதிகளை பழசிராசாவிற்கு கொடுக்காமல் அவரது மாமனுக்கு குத்தகை விட்டனர். இதனால் தன்னை அவமதித்ததாக கருதிய பழசிராசா மக்களிடம் வரி வசூலிப்பதை நிறுத்தினார். இது பிரித்தானியர்களுக்கு உடன்பாடில்லாவிடினும் பழசிராசாவின் மக்கள் ஆதரவை கண்டு ஓர் ஆண்டு வரிவிலக்கு அளித்தனர். ஆனால் பழசிக்கு கோபமூட்டுமுகமாக மாமனின் குத்தகையை ஐந்தாண்டுகளுக்கு நீட்டினர். இதன் எதிர்விளைவாக சூன் 28,1795 நாள் முதல் அனைத்து வரிவசூலையும் நிறுத்தியதோடன்றி பிரித்தானியரால் புரட்சியாளர்களாக காணப்பட்டவர்களுக்கு புகலிடம் கொடுத்தார்.

பிரித்தானிய படைகள், லெப்.கார்டன் தலைமையில் கோட்டய அரண்மனையை சுற்றி வளைத்தது. ஆனால் அதன் முன்னரே பழசிராசா தப்பி விட்டார். பிரித்தானியப் படை அவருடன் பேசி மீண்டும் திரும்ப உடன்பட்டபோதிலும், ஓர் தவறெண்ணத்தால் வயநாட்டின் மலைப்பகுதிகளுக்கு தப்பினார். 1797ஆம் ஆண்டு பல சிறு தாக்குதல்கள் மூலம் பல பிரித்தானிய வீரர்களை கொன்றார். பழசியை எதிர்க்க முடியாத பிரித்தானியர் அவருடன் உடன்பாடு கொண்டு அவரது மாமனின் குத்தகையை இரத்தாக்கினர். அமைதியாக பிரித்தானியருடன் வாழ பழசி இணங்கினார்.
போராட்டங்கள்[மூலத்தைத் தொகு]

1799 இல், திப்புவின் சீரங்கப்பட்டணம் வீழ்ந்த பிறகு ஆங்கிலேயர் வயநாடு பகுதிகளை தமதாக்கிக் கொண்டனர். இதனை எதிர்த்து மீண்டும் ஆங்கிலேயருடன் சூன் 1800 இல் சண்டையிடத் துவங்கினார். பிரித்தாளும் குணம் கொண்ட ஆங்கிலேயர் பழசிராசாவை அவரது மலபார் ஆதரவாளர்களிடமிருந்து பிரித்தனர். இதனால் பழசிராசா தனது மிக அணுக்க நண்பர்களுடனும் மனைவியுடனும் காடுகளில் வசிக்க வேண்டியதானது.மட்டனூர் அருகிலுள்ள புரலிமலை புரட்சி போராட்டங்களுக்கு மையமாக விளங்கியது.[2]

அவரது துணைவர்கள் சுழலி,பெருவாயல் நம்பியார் மற்றும் கன்னவத்து சங்கரன் நம்பியார் முதலானவர் பிடிபட்டுத் தூக்கிலிடப்பட்டும் தனது மறைமுகத் தாக்குதல்களை நிறுத்தவில்லை. 1802ஆம் ஆண்டு எடச்சேன கங்கன் நாயர் மற்றும் தலக்கால் சந்து பனமரம் கோட்டையை முற்றுகையிட்டு அங்கிருந்த 25 ஆங்கிலேயரை கொன்று வெற்றிக் கொடி நாட்டினர். இந்நிகழ்வு எதிர்ப்பு இயக்கத்திற்கு புத்துயிர் தந்தது.
இந்த நேரத்தில் வரியை உயர்த்தியதால் மக்கள் கிளர்ந்தெழுந்தனர். இதனைப் பயன்படுத்திய பழசிராசா படையினர் ஆங்கிலேயருக்கு அதிக சேதம் விளைவித்தனர்.
இறப்பு[மூலத்தைத் தொகு]

1804ஆம் ஆண்டு மாவட்ட ஆட்சித்தலைவராக பொறுப்பேற்ற தாமஸ் ஆர்வி பாபர், பழசிராசாவிற்கு துணைபோவது சட்டவிரோதம் எனவும் புரட்சியாளர்களின் நடமாட்டத்தை ஆங்கிலேயருக்கு தெரிவிப்பது கடமை என்றும் அறிக்கை விட்டார். சூன் 16 அன்று பழசிராசா மற்றும் அவரது துணைவர்களை பிடிப்பவர்களுக்கு பரிசும் அறிவிக்கப்பட்டது[1] இதனைத் தொடர்ந்து தலைக்கால் சந்து பிடிபட்டார்.
நவம்பர் 30,1805 அன்று பாபர் நேரடியாக பழசிராசாவினை சுற்றிவளைத்தார்.

ஆனால் பழசிராசா தனது மோதிரத்தை விழுங்கி ஓர் சிற்றாற்றின் கரையில் தற்கொலை செய்துகொண்டார். மன்னரின் உடல் அதற்குரிய மரியாதைகளுடன் எரிக்கப்பட்டது.
திரைப்படம்[மூலத்தைத் தொகு]
பழசிராசாவின் வரலாற்றினை மலையாள இயக்குனர் ஹரிஹரன் திரைப்படமாக தயாரித்து மம்முட்டி, சரத் குமார், சுரேசுகோபி,மனோஜ் கே ஜயன் முதலானவர் நடித்து தமிழ்,மலையாளம்,கன்னடம்,தெலுங்கு மற்றும் இந்தி என ஐந்து மொழிகளில் வெளியிடப்பட்டது.
Image may contain: sky and outdoor

LIN CHI LING ,TAIWANESE ACTRESS BORN 1974 NOVEMBER 29

LIN CHI LING ,TAIWANESE ACTRESS 

BORN 1974 NOVEMBER 29

Lin Chi-ling (born 29 November 1974) is a Taiwanese actress, model and television host.[1][2
Early life[edit source]
Lin's father, Lin Fan-nan (Chinese: 林繁男), and her mother, Wu Tzu-mei (Chinese: 吳慈美). Both Lins grandparents from Fujian, China. Following their marriage, they moved to Taipei where Lin and her elder brother Lin Chi-hong (Chinese: 林志鴻) were born. Lin attended Taipei Municipal Zhongzheng Junior High School and at the age of 15 was discovered by model talent scout Lin Chien-huan (Chinese: 林健寰).[3] She later attended Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, Canada, then attended the University of Toronto until 1997, when she completed bachelor degree, double-majoring in Western art history and economics.

After graduating from university, Lin returned to Taiwan.[4] She intended to pursue a career in fine art and sought a position at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, but was turned away because she lacked a postgraduate degree in the field.[5] Lin continued to model part-time before leaving the industry and working as an administrative assistant for the Fubon Cultural and Educational Foundation. In 2000, Lin left Fubon and spent three months studying in Japan, then returned to Taiwan and modeling, with Catwalk Production House.
Career[edit source]
Modeling[edit source]

2009 Asia Model Festival Awards, South Korea
In 2002, Lin was invited to model in a television advertisement in Hong Kong. The advertisement received attention and discussion on the internet, and interest in Lin began to grow.[6] The following year, noted television producer Ge Hongfu offered Lin a position as hostess of a fashion program on Shanghai Oriental Television. In 2004, Lin starred in a broad series of advertisements in Taiwan that included big giant building-size posters, billboards, and television commercials. Almost overnight, Lin skyrocketed to national fame and became an instant celebrity model. Her rise to fame initiated a Taiwanese craze for supermodels, an effect commentators named "The Lin Chi-ling Phenomenon" (Chinese: 林志玲現象; pinyin: Lín Zhìlínɡ xiànxiànɡ).

Lin's popularity grew throughout the rest of 2004, as she began modeling in Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese advertisements, and continued when she began doing Japanese advertisements in 2005. From 2004 to 2006, Lin served as Taiwan's goodwill ambassador to the Japan Tourism Association.[7] One of the unintended results of Lin Chi-ling phenomenon is that due to Lin's popularity among her Chinese fans, some Japanese pornographic actresses resembling Lin have become more famous and more popular among Chinese fans than their native homeland Japan, and received nicknames given by their China fans in association with Lin Chi-ling,[8][9] such as in the case of Yui Hatano, who is frequently referred by Chinese fans as AV Lin Chi-ling,[8] and Nozomi Aso (麻生希/あそう のぞみ), who is frequently referred by Chinese fans as AV little Lin

Chin-ling.[9] On 8 August 2005, Lin was in Dalian, China, shooting an advertisement for Procter & Gamble home products when she fell from the back of a horse she was riding and was inadvertently trampled. Workers rushed Lin to a nearby hospital where doctors discovered that she had suffered six broken ribs, a punctured left lung, and an accumulation of blood in the pleural cavity.[10] Lin underwent four months of treatment and therapy, and announced in November 2005 that she had completely recovered.
Television[edit source]
Lin has had numerous roles in television over her time as a model, being the host of TVBS-G LA Mode News, TVBS-G Fashion Track, the Golden Melody Awards and the Top Chinese Music Chart Awards in 2005.
Lin starred as one of the three female leads in the 2010 Fuji TV Japanese television drama Tsuki no Koibito. The male lead is popular actor Takuya Kimura.

Film[edit source]
Lin has made her film début role in a historical epic directed by John Woo entitled Red Cliff. Playing the role of Xiaoqiao, it was her first time acting. In 2009, she starred together with Jay Chou in the action-adventure film The Treasure Hunter.
Earnings[edit source]
As of 2006, Lin has served as an official spokesperson for both China Airlines and Longines.[11]
Taiwanese media reported Lin as #1 model in the "Richest Celebrities [in Taiwan]" list in 2007, with estimated earnings of TWD$60,000,000 (≈ AU$2,100,000 ≈ CA$1,900,000 ≈ UK£906,000 ≈ US$1,900,000), in which Jay Chou appeared as #1 male singer (with over TWD$100,000,000) and Jolin Tsai appeared as #1 female singer (with nearly TWD$100,000,000).[12]

Hong Kong press reported she was 2009's #1 highest-paid model in the Greater China region, followed by Chinese Jennifer Du (#2), Hong Kong's Gaile Lai (#3) and Lynn Hung (#4).[13] She has continuously ranked #1 on Taiwan's "Highest-earning models" list since 2004. Her earnings was estimated to be TWD$160,000,000 (≈ AU$5,400,000 ≈ CA$5,400,000 ≈ UK£3,370,000 ≈ US$5,320,000) in 2010, which consisted of those from advertisements (TWD$120,000,000) and various such as TV-series appearance in Japan (TWD$40,000,000),[14] and TWD$200,000,000 (≈ AU$6,600,000 ≈ CA$6,800,000 ≈ UK£4,240,000 ≈ US$6,600,000) in 2011.[15]
In the same year, she established a charity fund Chiling Charity Foundation (財団法人台北市志玲姐姐慈善基金会),[16] which supports child welfare.

NATALIE WOOD ,AMERICAN ACTRESS BORN JULY 20,1938 - 1981 NOVEMBER 29

NATALIE WOOD ,AMERICAN ACTRESS 

BORN JULY 20,1938 - 1981 NOVEMBER 29

Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko;[2][1][4][5] July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American film and television actress. She was known for her screen roles in Miracle on 34th Street, Splendor in the Grass, Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers, and West Side Story. She first worked in films as a child, then became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, when she received three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.

Wood began acting in movies at the age of four and, at age eight was given a co-starring role with Maureen O'Hara in the classic Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street.[6] As a teenager, her performance in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She starred in the musical films West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962), and received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). Her career continued with films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969).

After this, she took a break from acting and had two children with different husbands, appearing in only three theatrical films during the 1970s. She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson. She had one daughter with Gregson, actress Natasha Gregson Wagner. Wood gave birth to Courtney Wagner during her second marriage to Wagner.

Wood starred in several television productions, including a remake of the film From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award. During her career, her films represented a "coming of age" for both her and Hollywood films in general.[7]

Wood died, age 43, on November 29, 1981, drowning in uncertain circumstances.
Early years[edit source]
Natalie Wood was born Natalia Zakharenko[1][2] in San Francisco, to Russian and Ukrainian immigrant parents Maria Stepanovna (née Zudilova, Russian: Мария Степановна Зудилова; 1912–1996) and Nikolai Stepanovich Zakharenko (Ukrainian: Микола Степанович Захаренко; c. 1912–1980). Nikolai was a son of two Ukrainians from Kharkiv: Stephan Zakharenko and Eudoxia Sauchenko. Nikolai was born in Vladivostok. As a child, he immigrated with his mother and two brothers to Montreal, Quebec. Later they moved to San Francisco. There, he worked as a day laborer and carpenter.[8][9]

Natalia's mother was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia.[10] Her father Stepan worked in a chocolate factory in Russia. He was killed in street fighting between Red and White Russian soldiers in 1918 during the Russian Revolution.[11] After Stepan's death, Maria's mother left the country with her children, resettling as a refugee in the Chinese city of Harbin.[12] Maria married Alexander Tatuloff, in China, and had a daughter, Olga (1927-2015).[13]

Natalie liked to describe her family as having been either gypsies or landowning aristocrats in Russia.[14] In her youth, her mother had dreamed of becoming an actress or ballet dancer. Natalie and her sisters were raised Russian Orthodox Christian and remained in the church.[citation needed] As an adult, she stated, "I'm very Russian, you know."[15] She spoke both English and Russian with an American accent.[16]

Biographer Warren Harris wrote that under the family's "needy circumstances," her mother may have transferred those ambitions to her middle daughter, Natalia. Her mother would take Natalia to the movies as often as she could: "Natalie's only professional training was watching Hollywood child stars from her mother's lap," notes Harris.[17] Wood would later recall this time:

My mother used to tell me that the cameraman who pointed his lens out at the audience at the end of the Paramount newsreel was taking my picture. I'd pose and smile like he was going to make me famous or something. I believed everything my mother told me.[17]

Shortly after Natalia was born in San Francisco, her family moved to Santa Rosa in nearby Sonoma County. Natalia (often called "Natasha", the Russian diminutive)[18] was noticed by members of a crew during a film shoot in downtown Santa Rosa. Her mother soon moved the family to Los Angeles in order to pursue a film career for her daughter. After Natalia started acting as a child, David Lewis and William Goetz, studio executives at RKO Radio Pictures, changed her name to "Natalie Wood."[19]

Wood's younger sister, Svetlana Gurdin (the family had changed their surname), was born in Santa Monica after the move. Now known as Lana Wood, she also became an actress.[20] Lana had a role as one of the Bond girls.

Child actress[edit source]

Wood as Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street, 1947
















A few weeks before her fifth birthday, Wood made her film debut as a character actress in a fifteen-second scene in the 1943 film Happy Land. Despite the brief part, she attracted the notice of the director, Irving Pichel.[21] He remained in contact with Wood's family for two years, advising them when another role came up. The director telephoned Wood's mother and asked her to bring her daughter to Los Angeles for a screen test. Wood's mother became so excited that she "packed the whole family off to Los Angeles to live," writes Harris. Wood's father opposed the idea, but his wife's "overpowering ambition to make Natalie a star" took priority.[22] According to Wood's younger sister, Lana, Pichel "discovered her and wanted to adopt her."[23]

Wood, then seven years old, got the part. She played a post-World War Two, German, orphan opposite Orson Welles, as Wood's guardian, and Claudette Colbert, in Tomorrow Is Forever (1946). Welles later said that Wood was a born professional, "so good, she was terrifying."[24] After Wood acted in another film directed by Pichel, her mother signed her with 20th Century Fox studio for her first major role, the 1947 Miracle on 34th Street, which has become a Christmas classic. Wood starred with Maureen O'Hara. She was counted among the top child stars in Hollywood after this film and was so popular that Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.[22]

Film historian John C. Tibbetts writes that for the next few years following her success in Miracle, Wood played roles as a daughter in a series of family films: Fred MacMurray's daughter in Father Was a Fullback and Dear Brat, Margaret Sullavan's daughter in No Sad Songs for Me, James Stewart's daughter in The Jackpot, Joan Blondell's neglected daughter in The Blue Veil, and the daughter of Bette Davis' character in The Star.[7] In all, Wood appeared in over 20 films as a child.

Because Wood was a minor during her early years as an actress, she received her formal education on the studio lots wherever she was contracted. California law required that until age 18, child actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom, notes Harris. "She was a straight A student", and one of the few child actors to excel at arithmetic. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who directed her in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), said that "In all my years in the business, I never met a smarter moppet."[22] Wood remembered that period in her life, saying, "I always felt guilty when I knew the crew was sitting around waiting for me to finish my three hours. As soon as the teacher let us go, I ran to the set as fast as I could".[22]

As a child actress, Wood received media attention. By age nine, she had been named the "most exciting juvenile motion picture star of the year" by Parents.[25] At age twelve, Wood was ranked as Child Star of the Year by the Children's Day National Council of New York.[citation needed]

Teen stardom[edit source]

Wood with her sister Lana Wood in 1956
In the 1953–54 television season, Wood played Ann Morrison, the teenage daughter in The Pride of the Family, an ABC situation comedy. She successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 16 when she co-starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Nicholas Ray's film about teenage rebellion. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's The Searchers (1956).

Wood graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1956.[26] She signed with Warner Brothers and was kept busy during the remainder of the decade in many 'girlfriend' roles, which she found unsatisfying.[27] The studio cast her in two films opposite Tab Hunter, hoping to turn the duo into a box office draw that never materialized. Among the other films made at this time were 1958's Kings Go Forth and Marjorie Morningstar. As Marjorie Morningstar, Wood played the role of a young Jewish girl in New York City who has to deal with the social and religious expectations of her family as she tries to forge her own path and separate identity. She also had detractors. Film critic Pauline Kael referred to her as "clever little Natalie Wood ... [the] most machine-tooled of Hollywood ingénues."[7]

Later career[edit source]

Wood in 1979











Wood's characters in Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers and Marjorie Morningstar began to show her widening range of acting styles, observes Tibbetts.[7] Her former "childlike sweetness" was now being combined with a noticeable "restlessness that was characteristic of the youth of the 1950s." After Wood appeared in the box office flop All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), she lost momentum. Wood's career was in a transition period, having until then consisted of roles as a child or as a teenager. She hoped to be cast in adult roles.

Biographer Suzanne Finstad notes that a "turning point" in her life as an actress took place when she saw the film A Streetcar Named Desire (1951): "She was transformed, in awe of director Elia Kazan and of Vivien Leigh's performance ... [who] became a role model for Natalie."[28] "Her roles raised the possibility that one's sensitivity could mark a person as a kind of victim," noted Tibbetts.[7]

After a "series of bad films, her career was already in decline", notes Rathgeb.[29] Then she was cast in Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961) opposite Warren Beatty. Kazan wrote in his 1997 memoir that the "sages" of the film community declared her "washed up" as an actress, but he still wanted to interview her for his next film:

When I saw her, I detected behind the well-mannered 'young wife' front a desperate twinkle in her eyes ... I talked with her more quietly then and more personally. I wanted to find out what human material was there, what her inner life was ... Then she told me she was being psychoanalyzed. That did it. Poor R.J., I said to myself. I liked Bob Wagner, I still do.[30]

Kazan cast Wood as the female lead in Splendor in the Grass, and her career rebounded. He felt that despite her earlier innocent roles, she had the talent and maturity to go beyond them. In the film, Warren Beatty's character was deprived of sexual love with Wood's character, and as a result turns to another, "looser" girl. Wood's character could not handle the sexuality and after a breakdown was committed to a mental institution. Kazan writes that he cast her in the role partly because he saw in Wood's personality a "true-blue quality with a wanton side that is held down by social pressure," adding that "she clings to things with her eyes," a quality he found especially "appealing."[7]

Finstad felt that although Wood had never trained in Method acting techniques, "working with Kazan brought her to the greatest emotional heights of her career. The experience was exhilarating but wrenching for Natalie, who faced her demons on Splendor."[31] She adds that a scene in the film, as a result of "Kazan's wizardry ... produced a hysteria in Natalie that may be her most powerful moment as an actress."[32] Actor Gary Lockwood, who also acted in the film, felt that "Kazan and Natalie were a terrific marriage, because you had this beautiful girl, and you had somebody that could get things out of her." Kazan's favorite scene in the movie was the last one, when Wood goes back to see her lost first love, Bud (Beatty). "It's terribly touching to me. I still like it when I see it," writes Kazan.[33]

In 1961, Wood played Maria in the Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise musical West Side Story, which was a major box office and critical success. Tibbetts notes similarities in her role in this film and the earlier Rebel Without a Cause. Here, she plays the role of a restless Puerto Rican girl on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She was to represent the "restlessness of American youth in the 1950s", expressed by youth gangs and juvenile delinquency, along with early rock & roll. Both films, he observes, were "modern allegories based on the 'Romeo and Juliet' theme, including private restlessness and public alienation. Where in Rebel she falls in love with the character played by James Dean, whose gang-like friends and violent temper alienated him from his family, in West Side Story she enters into a romance with an ethnic white gang member and his threatening world of outcasts, also alienated from their families and the law.[7]

With Peter Falk in Penelope (1966)



Although the singing parts were sung by Marni Nixon,[34] West Side Story is still regarded as one of Wood's best films. Wood sang when she starred in the 1962 film Gypsy.[35] She co-starred in the slapstick comedy The Great Race (1965), with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Peter Falk. Her ability to speak Russian was an asset given to her character Maggie DuBois. It justified the character's recording the progress of the race across Siberia, and entering the race at the beginning as a contestant. In 1964, Wood received her third Academy Award nomination for Love with the Proper Stranger, making Wood the second actress to net three Oscar nominations by age 25, joining Teresa Wright.

Although many of Wood's films were commercially profitable, at times her acting was criticized. In 1966, Wood was given the Harvard Lampoon Worst Actress of the Year Award. She was the first performer in the award's history to accept it in person, and The Harvard Crimson wrote she was "quite a good sport".[36]

Director Sydney Pollack was quoted as saying about Wood, "When she was right for the part, there was no one better. She was a damn good actress." Other notable films starring Wood were Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property Is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford and brought Wood Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress. In both films, which were set during the Great Depression, Wood played small-town teens with big dreams. After the release of the films, Wood suffered emotionally and sought professional therapy.[37] During this time, she turned down the Faye Dunaway role in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) because she did not want to be separated from her analyst.[37]

After three years away from acting, Wood co-starred with Elliott Gould in the hit Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969), a comedy about sexual liberation. According to Tibbets, this was the first film in which "the saving leavening of humor was brought to bear upon the many painful dilemmas portrayed in her adult films."[7]

Wood in 1973




After becoming pregnant in 1970 with her first child, Natasha Gregson, Wood went into semi-retirement. She acted in only four more theatrical films during the remainder of her life. She made a brief cameo appearance as herself in The Candidate (1972), reuniting her for a third time with Robert Redford. She also reunited on the screen with Robert Wagner in the television movie of the week The Affair (1973), and with Laurence Olivier and husband Wagner in an adaptation of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) broadcast as a special by NBC. She made cameo appearances on Wagner's prime-time detective series Switch in 1978 as "Bubble Bath Girl," and Hart to Hart in 1979 as "Movie Star". After her daughters reached school age Wood began to work more frequently.[citation needed]

Film roles that Wood turned down during her career hiatus went to Ali MacGraw in Goodbye, Columbus; Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby; and Faye Dunaway in The Towering Inferno.[37] Later, Wood chose to star in the disaster film Meteor (1979) with Sean Connery, and the sex comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980), which bombed at the box office. Her performance in the latter was praised and considered reminiscent of her performance in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. In Last Married Couple, Wood broke ground: although an actress with a clean, middle-class image, she used the "F" word in a frank marital discussion with her husband (George Segal).

In this period, Wood had more success in television, receiving high ratings and critical acclaim in 1979 for The Cracker Factory and especially the miniseries film Here to Eternity, with Kim Basinger and William Devane. Wood's performance in the latter won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1980. Later that year, she starred in The Memory of Eva Ryker, which proved to be her last completed production.

At the time of her death, Wood was filming the science fiction film Brainstorm (1983), co-starring Christopher Walken and directed by Douglas Trumbull. She was also scheduled to star in a theatrical production of Anastasia with Wendy Hiller[38] and in a film called Country of the Heart, playing a terminally ill writer who has an affair with a teenager, to be played by Timothy Hutton.[37] Due to her untimely death, both of the latter projects were canceled. The ending of Brainstorm had to be re-written. A stand-in and sound-alikes were used to replace Wood for some of her critical scenes. The film was released posthumously on September 30, 1983, and was dedicated to her in the closing credits.

Wood appeared in 56 films for cinema and television. Following her death, Time magazine noted that although critical praise for Wood had been sparse throughout her career, "she always had work".[39]

Personal life[edit source]

Wood had two highly publicized marriages to actor Robert Wagner. Wood said that she had had a crush on Wagner since she was a child,[6], and on her 18th birthday she went on a studio-arranged date with the 26-year-old actor. They married a year later on December 28, 1957; it was a union that her mother argued against.

In an article in February 2009, Wagner recalled their early romance:

I saw Natalie around town but she never seemed interested. She was making Rebel Without a Cause and hanging out with James Dean; I was with an older crowd. The first time I remember really talking to her was at a fashion show in 1956. She was beautiful, but still gave no hint about the mad crush she had on me. I later found out she had signed with my agent simply because he was my agent. A month later, I invited Natalie to a premiere on what turned out to be her 18th birthday. At dinner, we both sensed things were different. I sent her flowers and the dates continued. I remember the instant I fell in love with her. One night on board a small boat I owned, she looked at me with love, her dark brown eyes lit by a table lantern. That moment changed my life.[40]

Wood and Wagner separated in June 1961 and divorced in April 1962.[41]

Wood with husband Robert Wagner



On May 30, 1969, Wood married British producer Richard Gregson. The couple had dated for two and a half years prior to their marriage, while Gregson waited for his divorce to be finalized.[37] In 1970 they had a daughter, Natasha. They separated in August 1971 after Wood overheard an inappropriate telephone conversation between her secretary and Gregson.[37] The split marked a brief estrangement between Wood and her family, when mother Maria and sister Lana told her to reconcile with Gregson for the sake of her newborn child. She filed for divorce, and it was finalized in April 1972.[citation needed]

In early 1972, Wood resumed her relationship with Wagner.[42] The couple remarried on July 16, 1972, five months after reconciling and three months after she divorced Gregson. Their daughter, Courtney Wagner, was born in 1974.

Wood's sister, Lana Wood, recalls this period:

Her marriage was considered to be one of the best in Hollywood, and there is no question that she was a devoted, loving — even adoring — mother and stepmother. She and R. J. had begun with love and built from there. They had overcome each other's problems and had reached an accommodation with time and the changes time brings. As with anybody else who has settled into making a long marriage work, they were far more determined than most people to make it work ...[43]

They remained married until Wood's death seven years later on November 29, 1981 at age 43.

Death[edit source]
During the making of the film Brainstorm, Wood drowned while on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island on board the Splendour. Many of the circumstances surrounding her drowning are unknown; it was never determined how she entered the water. She was with her husband Robert Wagner, Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, and the Splendour's captain, Dennis Davern, on the evening of November 28, 1981. Wood's body was recovered by authorities at 8:00 a.m. on November 29, one mile away from the boat, with a small inflatable dinghy, named the Valiant, found beached nearby. According to Wagner, when he went to bed, Wood was not there.[44] The autopsy report revealed that Wood had bruises on her body and arms as well as an abrasion on her left cheek.[45]

Natalie Wood's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame




Later, in his memoir Pieces of My Heart, Wagner acknowledged that he had an argument with Wood before she disappeared.[45] The autopsy found that Wood's blood alcohol level was 0.14%, and there were traces of two types of medication in her bloodstream: a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller, both of which increase the effects of alcohol.[46] Following his investigation, Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.[47] According to Noguchi, Wood had been drinking and she may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy.[45][48]

Wood was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Scores of representatives of international media, photographers, and members of the public tried to attend Wood's funeral; however, all were required to remain outside the cemetery walls. Among the celebrity attendees were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Elia Kazan and Laurence Olivier.[49] Olivier flew from London to Los Angeles in order to attend the service.[50]

Grave of Natalie Wood at Westwood Memorial Park







After a thirty-year hiatus, the case was reopened in November, 2011 after the captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and he also stated that Wood and Wagner had an argument that evening, and he alleged that Wagner was responsible for her death.[45][51][52]

After nine months of further investigation, Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of her death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors."[53] The amended document included a statement that the circumstances of how Wood ended up in the water are "not clearly established". The coroner's office had been instructed by detectives not to discuss or comment on the case.[53]

On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office offered a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report. The addendum stated that she might have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water and drowned but that could not be definitively determined.[54] Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter has speculated that Wood was particularly susceptible to bruising due to the drug synthroid which she had taken.[55]

Douglas Trumbull, director of Brainstorm, quit directing after Wood's death in 1981. In 2013, he explained that the uncertain circumstances surrounding her death were the main reason for this decision. He has since returned to filmmaking.[56]

In 2011, Walken hired a lawyer when authorities reopened the Wood case. Authorities stated that Walken is not a suspect.[57]

Wagner has denied any involvement in Wood's death.[58]

Tributes[edit source]
Several songs which were written about or mention Wood, including "Natalie Wood" (1980, written by Jay Alanski, cover by Jil Caplan), "Natalie's Song" (David Pack), "Eyes Like Natalie Wood" (Kathy Fleischmann), and "I Want to Be Loved Like That" (Phil Barnhart, Sam Hogin, and Bill LaBounty, performed by Shenandoah). In 1999, Julian Daze and the Photon Karma recorded "Natalie Wood", written by singer-songwriter Brian Bell, and released on the Stories of Old album. In 2002 The Handsome Family wrote the song "Natalie Wood," later released on their Twilight album. In 2015, the band TV Girl released a song titled "Natalie Wood". In 2015, an eau de parfum fragrance was released under the name "Natalie", and it featured gardenia, which was her favorite scent.[59]

Media portrayal[edit source]
A 2004 TV film titled The Mystery of Natalie Wood, directed by Peter Bogdanovich and partly based on the biographies Natasha: the Biography of Natalie Wood written by Suzanne Finstad and Natalie & R.J. written by Warren G. Harris, chronicles Wood’s life and career and starred Justine Waddell in the role.