SUTTONS BAY — The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay set the table for a Natalie Wood extravaganza, complete with a visit from her daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner.
Wagner presented the 2020 HBO documentary “Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind” last weekend in a Wood-themed film festival.
The film festival also showed films featuring many of the actress’s most acclaimed roles, including “Splendor in the Grass”, “West Side Story,” “Love with the Proper Stranger” and “Rebel Without a Cause.”
Gregson Wagner also shared stories of her mother, signing her book “More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood.”
“Natalie Wood was an icon for her time,” said Bay Theatre General Manager Graham Powers. “She has left this lasting legacy, and one that Natasha has been able to help keep alive.
“It’s just incredible,” he said. “We watch cinema today, and there are bits and pieces that are rooted in movies like ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, and ‘Splendor in the Grass’. Because of that, I think that she has such an impact even on Hollywood today.”
The documentary covers both the life of Natalie Wood and the mysterious circumstances of her death, which is still the subject of controversy. It features interviews with Gregson Wagner, alongside interviews with friends and co-stars of the late actress, including Robert Redford, Mia Farrow and Elliott Gould.
The documentary also contains an interview with Wood’s former husband, actor Robert Wagner. Although many have claimed Wagner was involved in his wife’s death, both Wagner and Gregson Wagner have disputed these allegations. She died in 1981, off the coast of Santa Catalina Island, California, and her death was officially classified as an accidental drowning, according to Los Angeles Times reporting.
Gregson Wagner, a producer of the documentary, felt that her mother’s life had too often been overshadowed by the speculation surrounding her demise.
Natalie Wood was born on July 20, 1938, in San Francisco, California. The daughter of Russian immigrants, she started to appear in films at the age of 5.
She received her first film credit in the 1946 drama “Tomorrow is Forever,” beginning what would be a decades-long career in Hollywood. In particular, her childhood role in 1947’s “Miracle on 34th Street” garnered her acclaim in the film industry.
While still a teenager, Wood portrayed a troubled young woman in the 1955 Nicholas Ray-directed classic “Rebel Without a Cause”, starring alongside James Dean and Sal Mineo in a role which earned her an Academy Award nomination. By 1961, Wood had secured the status of being an incredibly sought-after actress through two high-profile films — “Splendor in the Grass” and the much-lauded musical “West Side Story.”
In “Splendor in the Grass,” a high school drama concerning love and repression, Wood gained attention for her role as distraught teenager Wilma “Deanie” Lewis. In “West Side Story,” the famous film adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical, Wood played Maria, one half of a doomed love affair between members of opposing New York City street gangs. The film, scored by Leonard Bernstein, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and based upon William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” has since become a classic.
Following these performances, Wood appeared in another musical, 1962’s “Gypsy.” She soon gained a third Oscar nomination for “Love with the Proper Stranger” (1963). A romantic drama directed by Robert Mulligan, “Love with the Proper Stranger” deals with issues of gender and reproductive rights. In the film, Wood stars as a first-generation Italian immigrant named Angie Rossini attempting to deal with an unintended pregnancy outside the bonds of marriage.
After the 1965 box-office disappointment “Inside Daisy Clover,” Wood spent three years away from the silver screen. She made a reappearance, however, in the popular 1969 sex comedy “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.” Wood performed in the 1976 adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, and three years later in the 1979 miniseries “From Here to Eternity,” which won her a Golden Globe.