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Natalie Wood Graduated From Van Nuys High School in 1956

While still at Van Nuys High School, Wood appeared in films.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has announced that it has reopened the investigation into Natalie Wood's death, which occurred in 1981 off the coast of Santa Catalina Island.

The information below about Natalie Wood is from Wikipedia:

Natalie Wood (born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (Russian: Наталья Николаевна Захаренко);[1] July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American actress.

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Wood began acting in movies at the age of four[2] and became a successful child actor in such films as Miracle on 34th Street (1947). A well received performance opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and helped her to make the transition from a child performer. She then starred in the musicals West Side Story (1961) and Gypsy (1962). She also received Academy Award for Best Actress nominations for her performances in Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love with the Proper Stranger (1963).

Her career continued successfully with films such as Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). After this she took a break from acting and had two children, appearing in only two theatrical films during the 1970s. She was married to actor Robert Wagner twice, and to producer Richard Gregson. She had one daughter by each: Natasha Gregson and Courtney Wagner. Her younger sister, Lana Wood, is also an actress. Wood starred in several television productions, including a remake of the film From Here to Eternity (1979) for which she won a Golden Globe Award.

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Wood drowned near Santa Catalina Island, California, at age 43, during production of Brainstorm (1983) co-starring Christopher Walken. Her death had originally been declared an accident. However, on November 17, 2011, the case was reopened.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Wood successfully made the transition from child star to ingenue at age 15 when she co-starred with James Dean and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray's film about teenage rebellion. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She followed this with a small but crucial role in John Ford's western The Searchers which starred John Wayne and also featured Wood's sister, Lana, who played a younger version of her character in the film's earlier scenes.

In the 1953-1954 television season, Wood played Ann Morrison, the teenaged daughter in the ABC situation comedy, The Pride of the Family, with Paul Hartman cast her father, Albie Morrison; Fay Wray, as her mother, Catherine, and Robert Hyatt, as her brother, Junior Morrison.[12]

Wood graduated in 1956 from Van Nuys High School.[6]

Signed to Warner Brothers, Wood was kept busy during the remainder of the decade in many 'girlfriend' roles that she found unsatisfying. The studio cast her in two films opposite Tab Hunter, hoping to turn the duo into a box office draw that never materialized. Among the other films made at this time were 1958's Kings Go Forth and Marjorie Morningstar. As Marjorie Morningstar, she played the role of a young Jewish girl in New York City who has to deal with the social and religious expectations of her family, as she tries to forge her own path and separate identity.


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