The Mystery of Natalie Wood

From her fairy tale career through her turbulent life to her mysterious death, here is the intimate film biography of one of Hollywood’s greatest and most glamorous women. In Santa Rosa, 1943, a film is being shot on location. Emerging out of the crowd of extras, on-lookers, and crew is Natasha Gurdin, the four-year-old daughter of Russian immigrants. At the coaching of her aggressive stage mother, Maria (Alice Krige, Dinotopia), she curtsies for the film’s producer, introduces herself, and announces, “I want to be a movie star.” The line reading is perfectly convincing. Not only does it work, but by the time she is seven, as the newly-christened Natalie Wood (Elizabeth Rice, My Dog Skip), the studio’s newest charmer is fast becoming what her mother always wanted her to be: famous throughout the world.