This week (December 26-January 1) in English literary history – William Shakespeare’s King Lear was performed at the court of King James I (December 26, 1606); Charles Lamb died (December 27, 1834); J.M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan opened in London (December 27, 1904); John Steinbeck married Elaine Anderson (December 28, 1950); Theodore Dreiser died (December 28, 1945); James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published (December 29, 1916); Rudyard Kipling was born (December 30, 1865); Percy Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (December 30, 1816); Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published (January 1, 1818); James Fenimore Cooper married Susan Augusta de Lancey (January 1, 1811).

Highlighted Story of the Week – 

On December 29, 1916, James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was published. The book had been previously serialized in Ezra Pound’s review The Egoist. Joyce was born on February 2, 1882 in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest of 10 children of a cheerful ne’er-do-well who eventually went bankrupt. He attended Catholic school and University College in Dublin, where he learned Dano-Norwegian so he could read the plays of Henrik Ibsen in the original. In college, he began a lifetime of literary rebellion, self-publishing an essay rejected by the school’s literary magazine adviser.

After graduation, Joyce moved to Paris where he resolved to study medicine to support himself while writing but soon gave it up. He returned to Dublin to visit his mother’s deathbed and remained to teach school and work odd jobs. On June 16, 1904, he met Nora Barnacle, whom he convinced to return to Europe with him. The couple settled in Trieste, where they had two children, and then in Zurich. Joyce struggled with serious eye problems, undergoing 25 operations for various troubles between 1917 and 1930. In 1914, he published The Dubliners, and his 1916 novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, brought him fame and the patronage of several wealthy people, including Edith Rockefeller.

In 1918, his revolutionary stream of consciousness novel Ulysses began to be serialized in the American journal Little Review. However, the U.S. Post Office stopped the publication’s distribution in December of that year on the grounds that the novel was obscene. Sylvia Beach, owner of the bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, where Joyce moved in 1920, published the novel herself in 1922, but it was banned in the United Kingdom and the United States until 1933. Joyce’s final novel, Finnegans Wake, was published in 1939. James Joyce died on January 13, 1941 in Zurich, Switzerland and was buried at the Flutern Cemetery.

Check back every Friday for a new installment of “This Week in English Literary History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that include Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.

This week (December 22-28) in crime history – Serial killer John Wayne Gacy confessed to killing over two dozen men and young boys (December 22, 1978); Bernie Goetz shot four black men in the New York Subway (December 22, 1984); French officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason (December 22, 1894); Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and other war criminals were executed (December 23, 1948); Terrorists hijacked Air France flight 8969 in Algiers (December 24, 1994); JonBenet Ramsey was murdered (December 25, 1996); Countess Bathory’s torturous activities were discovered in Hungry (December 26, 1610): Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated (December 27, 2007); Thomas Paine was arrested for treason on France (December 28, 1793).

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On December 22, 1978, John Wayne Gacy confessed to police to killing over two dozen boys and young men and burying their bodies under his suburban Chicago home. Two years later, Gacy was convicted of 33 sex-related murders, which had been committed between 1972 and 1978, and given the death penalty. At the time, he was the worst serial killer in modern American history.

Outwardly, Gacy appeared to have a relatively normal middle-class upbringing; however, by some accounts, he had an abusive alcoholic father and also experienced health issues in his youth. In 1964, he married and moved with his wife to Iowa, where he managed his father-in-law’s Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. The couple had two children. However, Gacy’s wife divorced him after he was charged with sexually assaulting one of his male employees in 1968. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released due to good behavior after serving only a fraction of his sentence.

Gacy moved back to Chicago, where he started a contracting company and remarried. However, the seemingly respectable businessman, who became involved in local politics and once had his photograph taken with then-first lady Rosalynn Carter, was leading a double life as a sexual predator. He committed his first known murder in 1972. Gacy’s victims included male prostitutes as well as teenagers who worked for his company. Typically, he lured his victims back to his home and tricked them into being handcuffed or having a rope tied around their necks. Afterward, he’d knock them out with chloroform and then rape, torture and murder them. As he was a well-known community figure, who sometimes dressed up as a clown to entertain sick children, his crimes initially went undetected.

The heavy-set serial killer came under suspicion in December 1978 when authorities investigating the disappearance of teenager Robert Piest discovered that the boy was last seen with Gacy. After learning of Gacy’s sex-crime conviction in Iowa, police searched his Norwood Park home. They noticed a strong odor coming from a crawl space but at first thought it was from a damaged sewage pipe. Several items, including a store receipt, were later found at Gacy’s home that linked him to Piest and other young men who had been reported missing. After Gacy confessed, investigators recovered 29 corpses buried on his property, as well as four more that he’d dumped in nearby rivers when he ran out of room at home.

After his conviction, Gacy spent 14 years on Death Row, during which time he drew paintings of clowns and other figures that sold for thousands of dollars. On May 10, 1994, having exhausted all his appeals, the 52-year-old Gacy, who the media dubbed the Killer Clown, was put to death by legal injection at Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that include the award winning Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (December 19-25) in English literary history – Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published (December 19, 1843); Emily Bronte died (December 19, 1848); Robert Frost married Elinor White (December 19, 1895); Poor Richards Almanac was published (December 19, 1732); Thomas Paine’s essay “American Crisis” was published (December 19, 1776); John Steinbeck died (December 20, 1868); Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn divorced (December 21, 1945); F. Scott Fitzgerald died (December 21, 1940); George Eliot (may Anne Evans ) died (December 22, 1880); Beatrix Potter died (December 22, 1943); Samuel Beckett died (December 22, 1989); Stephanie Meyer was born (December 24, 1973).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published. The story is one of the most beloved works of 19th century literature, and the story’s enormous popularity helped make Christmas a major holiday in Victorian Britain. When Dickens wrote the story in late 1843 he had ambitious purposes in mind, yet he could never have imagined the profound impact his story would have. Dickens had already achieved great fame. Yet his most recent novel was not selling well, and Dickens feared his success had peaked. Indeed, he faced some serious financial problems as Christmas 1843 approached. And beyond his own worries, Dickens was keenly attuned to the profound misery of the working poor in England. A visit to the grimy industrial city of Manchester motivated him to tell the story of a greedy businessman, Ebenezer Scrooge, who would be transformed by the Christmas spirit.

Dickens was born in 1812 and attended school in Portsmouth. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was thrown into debtors’ prison in 1824, and 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory. The miserable treatment of children and the institution of the debtors’ jail became topics of several of Dickens’ novels. In his late teens, Dickens became a reporter and started publishing humorous short stories when he was 21. In 1836, a collection of his stories, Sketches by Boz, later known as The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, was published. The same year, he married Catherine Hogarth, with whom he would have nine children. The short sketches in his collection were originally commissioned as captions for humorous drawings by caricature artist Robert Seymour, but Dickens’ whimsical stories about the kindly Samuel Pickwick and his fellow club members soon became popular in their own right. When the stories were published in book form in 1837, Dickens quickly became the most popular author of the day.

The successes were soon reproduced with Oliver Twist (1838) and Nicholas Nickleby (1839). In 1841, Dickens published two more novels, then spent five months in the United States, where he was welcomed as a literary hero. Dickens never lost momentum as a writer, churning out major novels every year or two, often in serial form. Among his most important works are David Copperfield (1850), Great Expectations (1861), and A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Beginning in 1850, he published his own weekly circular of fiction, poetry, and essays called “Household Words.” In 1858, Dickens separated from his wife and began a long affair with a young actress. He gave frequent readings, which became immensely popular. He died in 1870 at the age of 58, with his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, still unfinished. Dickens was interred within Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey in London.

Check back every Friday for a new installment of “This Week in English Literary History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that includes Literary Legends of the British Isles and America’s Literary Legends.

This week (December 17-23) in Hollywood history – Jennifer Jones died (December 17, 2009); Dana Andrews died (December 17, 1992); Thomas Mitchell died (December 17, 1962); Betty Grable was born (December 18, 1916); Irene Dunne was born (December 20, 1898); Clark Gable married Ricky Anne Loew-Beer (December 20, 1949); Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered (December 21, 1937); Darryl Zanuck died (December 22, 1979); Butterfly McQueen died (December 22, 1995).

Highlighted Story of the Week – 

On December 22, 1979, Darryl Zanuck, the powerful Hollywood studio chief and producer behind a long list of classic movies, including The Grapes of Wrath, All About Eve and The Longest Day, died at age 77 in Palm Springs, California. Zanuck was a force in the movie business for four decades, during which he greenlit hundreds of projects and promoted the careers of such actors as Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power.

Zanuck was born on September 5, 1902, in Wahoo, Nebraska, and began his career in Hollywood as a writer in the early 1920s. He penned scripts for the canine film star Rin Tin Tin at Warner Brothers and by the early 1930s was head of production for the movie studio. In 1933, Zanuck left Warner to co-found Twentieth Century Pictures, which in 1935 merged with Fox Studios to become Twentieth Century-Fox. At Twentieth Century-Fox, Zanuck signed contracts with actors including Fonda, Power, Gene Tierney and Betty Grable and produced or gave the go-ahead to now-classic films like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Twelve O’ Clock High (1949), and All About Eve (1950). Zanuck’s final film was the 1970 box-office disappointment Tora! Tora! Tora!, about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was forced out as the head of Twentieth Century-Fox in 1971. Zanuck is buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Check back every Wednesday for another installment of “This Week in Hollywood History.”

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

This week (December 15-21) in crime history – Singer John Brown began serving prison term for assault and other crimes (December 15, 1988); Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death for war crimes (December 15, 1961); Federal Judge Robert Vance was killed by mail bomb (December 16, 1989); Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for attempted assassination of President Ford (December 17, 1975); John Kehoe, last of the Molly Maguires was executed (December 18, 1878); Three black men are beaten by group of white teens in Howard Beach (December 20, 1986); Socialite Sunny von Bulow was found unconscious at her Rhode Island mansion (December 21, 1980).

Highlighted crime story of the week – 

On December 21, 1980, wealthy socialite Martha “Sunny” von Bulow was found unconscious on the marble bathroom floor of her Newport, Rhode Island, mansion; the result of what appeared to be an insulin overdose. Following a long investigation, Sunny’s husband, Claus von Bulow, was charged with two counts of attempted murder and was convicted in a sensational trial in 1982. But the conviction was later overturned, and Claus was acquitted at a second trial in 1985.

Sunny Crawford, the only daughter of a wealthy oil and gas businessman, married Danish social climber Claus von Bulow in 1966. The couple enjoyed a glamorous lifestyle together, but the marriage apparently hit troubled times, particularly after daughter Cosima was born, and the two began sleeping in separate bedrooms. Claus, who had no independent source of income, was reportedly angry that Sunny was sitting on a $75 million fortune.

After Sunny fell into the coma, her personal secretary came forward, alleging that Claus kept a black bag containing insulin in his closet. With this information, Sunny’s children pressed for a deeper investigation into Claus’ involvement and eventually convinced authorities that there was enough evidence to prosecute. In fact, her coma on December 21 was not Sunny’s first brush with death. Less than a year earlier, she had mysteriously lapsed into a coma but eventually recovered. At the time, friends and family noted that Claus seemed strangely unconcerned. He had tried to blame the coma on Sunny’s alleged alcoholism, despite the fact that there were no traces of alcohol found in her system, and medical officials had no explanation for the coma.

During the investigation, police discovered that Claus had been having an affair with a former soap opera actress. The actress testified that she had issued Claus an ultimatum date that closely corresponded to the date of Sunny’s first coma. Many believed the circumstances surrounding both of Sunny’s comas undeniably implicated Claus. The case was boosted into the public’s consciousness by the second trial, which was televised and the bestselling book Reversal of Fortune, which focused on the efforts of Claus’ defense team to get his conviction overturned.

After Claus was convicted in 1982, he hired famous defense attorney Alan Dershowitz to handle his appeal. Dershowitz, who uncovered evidence suggesting that Sunny’s coma may have been self-induced, also found enough discrepancies in the secretary’s testimony to have Claus’ conviction overturned. Soon after, Sunny’s children filed suit against Claus, who settled the suit by agreeing to renounce all claims to Sunny’s fortune. He then promptly relocated to London. Sunny remained in a persistent vegetative state until her death in 2008.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that includes the award winning Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (December 10-16) in Hollywood history – Victor McLaglen was born (December 10, 1886); Douglas Fairbanks Sr. died (December 12, 1939); Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner opened in theaters (December 12, 1967); Frank Sinatra was born (December 12, 1915); Anne Baxter died (December 12, 1985); Dick Van Dyke was born (December 13, 1925); Christopher Plummer was born (December 13, 1929); Myrna Loy died (December 14, 1993); Walt Disney died (December 15, 1966); Charlie Chaplin began his movie career (December 16, 1913).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On December 12, 1967, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, starring Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton, opened in theaters. The film followed the story of a young white woman (Houghton) who brings her fiancé (Poitier), an African-American doctor, home to meet her parents, played by Hepburn and Tracy in their last film together. Off-screen, the couple had a long romance, although Tracy was married to another woman. He died on June 10, 1967, a short time after the movie wrapped. Directed by Stanley Kramer, who was known for other films such as Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner examined the reactions of the young couple’s various family members and friends to their taboo relationship. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and collected two Oscars, including Best Actress for Hepburn, the second of her career.

Hepburn (1907-2003) won four Academy Awards (out of 12 total nominations) over the course of her long career. The legendary screen star followed her Oscar win for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with Best Actress wins for The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). Her final feature film was 1994’s Love Affair, with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.

Sidney Poitier, earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 1958’s The Defiant Ones, directed by Stanley Kramer and co-starring Tony Curtis and Theodore Bikel. For his performance as a handyman who builds a chapel for a group of German nuns in 1963’s Lilies of the Field, he became the first black man ever to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Among Poitier’s other well-known films are To Sir, With Love (1967) and In the Heat of the Night (1967).

Spencer Tracy (1900-1967) took home his first Best Actor Oscar for 1937’s Captains Courageous, having been previously nominated in the category for 1936’s San Francisco. He won again for 1938’s Boys Town and went on to earn five other nominations. Tracy received his ninth and final Best Actor Oscar nomination for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Check back every Wednesday for a new installment of “This Week in Hollywood History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction book that include the award winning Fade to Black: Graveside Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950.

This week (December 8-14) in crime history – John Lennon was murdered (December 8, 1980); Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped (December 10, 1963); Bernie Madoff was arrested for masterminding a Ponzi scheme (December 11, 2008); Singer Sam Cooke was shot and killed (December 11, 1964); Leona Helmsley was sentenced for tax fraud (December 12, 1989); The Mona Lisa was recovered two years after it was stolen from the Louvre (December 12, 1913); Texas Seven escape from a maximum security prison (December 13, 2000).

Highlighted Crime Story of the Week –

On December 8, 1980, singer John Lennon was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman outside his apartment building in New York City. After committing the murder, Chapman waited calmly outside, reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman was a troubled individual who was obsessed with Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the J.D. Salinger’s novel about a disaffected youth, and with various celebrities. While working as a security guard in Hawaii, he decided that Lennon was a phony and, while listening to Beatles tapes, Chapman decided to plan his murder. Chapman purchased a gun and traveled to New York. Although he called his wife to tell her that he was in New York to shoot Lennon, she ignored his threats. Unable to buy bullets in New York due to strict laws, Chapman flew to Atlanta and purchased hollow-nosed rounds.

On the day of the murder, Chapman bought an extra copy of The Catcher in the Rye and joined fans waiting outside The Dakota, Lennon’s apartment building. That evening, as Lennon walked by on his way into the building, Chapman shot him in the back and then fired two additional bullets into his shoulder as the singer wrenched around in pain. On June 8, 1980, just two weeks before he was scheduled to present an insanity defense at trial, Chapman pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years-to-life. Ironically, Chapman was sent to Attica prison, where 10 years earlier, rioting had inspired Lennon and wife, Yoko Ono, to record a benefit song to “free all prisoners everywhere.” In prison, Chapman became a born-again Christian and spends his time writing evangelical tracts for publication.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that include Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

This week (December 3-9) in Hollywood history – Silent film actress Clara Bow married politician Rex Bell (December 3, 1931); Warren Beatty’s Red’s premiered (December 4, 1981); Elizabeth Taylor married John Warner (December 4, 1976); Walt Disney was born (December 5, 1901); Director Otto Preminger was born (December 5, 1901); Actress Agnes Moorehead was born (December 6, 1900); Bette Davis divorced Harmon Nelson (December 6, 1938); Actress Fay Bainter was born (December 7, 1891); Sophie’s Choice starring Meryl Streep opened in theaters (December 8, 1982); Actor Kirk Douglas was born (December 9, 1916); Actress Margret Hamilton was born (December 9, 1902).

Highlighted story of the week –

On December 4, 1981, Reds, a film about an American Communist and the Russian Revolution written, directed and starring Warren Beatty premiered. The movie, based on a true story, received 12 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Beatty) and Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor for Beatty’s co-stars Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Beatty won for Best Director, his inaugural win in that category. He had received his first Best Director Oscar nomination several years earlier for his directorial debut, 1978’s Heaven Can Wait.

Beatty was born on March 30, 1937, in Richmond, Virginia, and is the younger brother of actress Shirley MacLaine. He studied acting at Northwestern University and later with the legendary teacher Stella Adler in New York City. After a string of early roles in TV and theater, he made his big-screen debut in 1961’s Splendor in the Grass, co-starring Natalie Wood. In 1967, he and Faye Dunaway co-starred in the box-office hit Bonnie and Clyde. During the 1970s, Beatty appeared in such films as McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978). Beatty’s next movie was Reds, a historical epic that ran more than three hours in which he played the role of radical journalist John Reed. The film lost the Best Picture Oscar to Chariots of Fire. During the 1990s, Beatty appeared in such films as Dick Tracy (1991), Bugsy (1992), and Bulworth (1998). Off screen, he was known for his political activism and high-profile romances with such actresses as Julie Christie, Diane Keaton and Madonna. Since 1992, he has been married to actress Annette Bening.

Check back every Wednesday for another installment of “This Week in Hollywood History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is the author of six nonfiction books that include the award winning Fade to Black Graves Memories of Hollywood Greats, 1927-1950.

This week (December 1-7) in crime history – Russian revolutionary Sergey Kirov was murdered (December 1, 1934); Defense presents case in the Hamptons Murder trial (December 1, 2004); Rape trial of William Kennedy Smith began (December 2, 1991); John Brown was hanged for treason (December 2, 1859); Five-year-old Melissa Brannen disappeared from Christmas party (December 3, 1989); Amanda Knox was found guilty of murder (December 4, 2009); Black Panther members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed in a shootout with police (December 4, 1969); Boston Belfry Murderer claimed first victim (December 5, 1873); Colin Ferguson kills six on Long Island Commuter train (December 7, 1993).

Highlighted Story of the Week –

On December 5, 1873, Bridget Landregan was found beaten and strangled to death in the Boston suburb of Dorchester. According to witnesses, a man in black clothes and a flowing cape attempted to sexually assault the dead girl before running away. In 1874, a man fitting the same description clubbed another young girl, Mary Sullivan, to death. His third victim, Mary Tynan, was bludgeoned in her bed in 1875. Although she survived for a year after the severe attack, she was never able to identify her attacker.

Residents of Boston were shocked to learn that the killer had been among them all along. Thomas Piper, the sexton at the Warren Avenue Baptist Church, was known for his flowing black cape, but because he was friendly with the parishioners, nobody suspected his involvement. But when five-year-old Mabel Young, who was last seen with the sexton, was found dead in the church’s belfry in the summer of 1876, Piper became the prime suspect. Young’s skull had been crushed with a wooden club. Piper, who was dubbed “The Boston Belfry Murderer,” confessed to the four killings after his arrest. He was convicted and sentenced to die, and he was hanged on May 26, 1876.

Check back every Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”

Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the author of six nonfiction books that include the award winning Murder & Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.

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.