This week (November 26-December 2) in Hollywood history – Charlie Chaplin married Lita Grey in Mexico (November 26, 1924); Casablanca premiered in New York (November 26, 1942); Bruce Lee was born (November 27, 1940); Director Kathryn Bigelow was born (November 27, 1951); Actress Gloria Grahame was born (November 28, 1923); Natalie Wood drowned (November 29, 1981); Efren Zimbalist Jr. was born (November 30, 1918); Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were married (November 30, 1940); Bette Davis and William Sherry were married (November 30, 1945); Zeppo Marx died (November 30, 1979); Richard Pryor was born (December 1, 1940); Bette Midler was born (December 1, 1945); Good Will Hunting premiered in Los Angeles (December 2, 1997). Highlighted story of the week –  On November 29, 1981, actress Natalie Wood, who starred in such movies as Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story, drowns in a boating accident near California’s Catalina Island. Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko on July 20, 1938, in San Francisco, California, Wood began her acting career as a child. She gained acclaim for her role as Susan Walker, the little girl who doubts the existence of Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). As a teenager, Wood went on to play James Dean’s girlfriend in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She also earned Best Actress Academy Award nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) with Warren Beatty and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) with Steve McQueen. Wood’s film credits also include West Side Story (1961), winner of 10 Oscars, in which she played the lead role of Maria; Gypsy (1962), which was based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name and co-starred Rosalind Russell and Karl Malden; The Great Race (1965), with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis; Inside Daisy Clover (1966), with Christopher Plummer and Robert Redford; and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) with Robert Culp, Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon. Wood was twice married to the actor Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), from 1957 to 1962 and from 1974 to the time of her death. On the night of November 29, 1981, the dark-haired beauty was with her husband on their yacht “The Splendor,” which was moored off Santa Catalina, near Los Angeles. Also on the yacht was the actor Christopher Walken, who at the time was making the movie Brainstorm with Wood. Neither Wagner nor Walken saw what happened to Wood that night, but it was believed she somehow slipped overboard while untying a dinghy attached to the boat. Her body was found in the early hours of the following morning. Wood was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California. Check back every Wednesday for a new installment of “This Week in Hollywood History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books and includes the silver medal winning Fade to Black Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950.