Natalie Wood - Glamour, Love & Secrets

STARDOM HAD A DARK SIDE UNTIL SHE TOOK CONTROL OF HER OWN LIFE

- LOUISE A. BARILE

She lived a too brief but brilliant life and not a day goes by when her loved ones don’t think of Natalie Wood. “She was really funny and she was fierce and she was happy,” her daughter Courtney Wagner says. “That’s how I remember her.”

Born Natasha Zakharenko to Russian immigrants living in San Francisco, Natalie was groomed for stardom from birth. “Our mother was born in Russia but she was raised in China from the age of 5,” says Lana Wood, Natalie’s younger sister, who explains that their mother strongly believed in prophesies she was given as a young woman. “The gypsy said she would have a child that would be known all over the world and that somebody was going to die from drowning. So my mom used to tell us that to keep us away from the water.”

A superstitious woman with a forceful personality, Maria Zakharenko “almost willed” Natalie to stardom, Suzanne Finstad, author of Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography tells Closer. “She was groomed by her mom to succeed at all costs, to be a pleaser, to do whatever directors and producers, even co-stars, wanted her to do.” Natalie admitted she was from a generation who didn’t question authority. “I saw my parents as gods whose every wish must be obeyed or I would suffer the penalty of guilt and anguish,” Natalie said.

The first prophesy came true very quickly. Natalie made her acting debut at age 4. She went on to steal scenes from Orson Welles in 1946’s Tomorrow Is Forever. By age 8, she’d become a household name as the little girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street. “My mother was very caught up in the business with Natalie,” Lana tells