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Title details for Natalie Wood by Gavin Lambert - Available

Natalie Wood

A Life

by Gavin Lambert
Robert Blumenfeld
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

From her starring role as a skeptical child in the perennial classic Miracle on 34th Street, to her troubled adolescence in Rebel Without A Cause to her tragic maturity in Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story, actress Natalie Wood transfixed the world with her hypnotic brown eyes. Yet behind the beautiful facade lurked a fragile, sparkling, generous, funny woman traumatized by her childhood and beset by personal demons. In this landmark biography, her close personal friend Gavin Lambert sets out to tell her extraordinary story with the help of intimate interviews from her friends and colleagues including Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and her husband Robert Wagner. What emerges is a luminous, assiduously researched portrait that sheds new light on the life and tragic death of the silver screen's most beguiling star.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 11, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792741589
      • File size: 379227 KB
      • Duration: 13:10:03

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Robert Wagner, Wood's two-time husband, urged the author, a novelist, screenwriter, and family friend, to write this biography of his late wife, who disappeared one night off the rail of Wagner's yacht after a drunken spat. The star's fans may prefer the print version because of its photographs and because this totally soulless reading misses the humor, character, and tone of the writing. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 8, 2003
      Unlike the sexually explicit Natasha
      , by Suzanne Finstad, or Lana Wood's Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister
      , Lambert's take on the luminous star of Gypsy
      and West Side Story
      is a relatively discreet, affectionate examination of Wood's short, turbulent life. Groomed by a fanatically controlling stage mother, Wood (1938–1981) enchanted audiences in 1946's Tomorrow Is Forever
      and prompted Louella Parsons to proclaim, "Natalie Wood eats your heart out." Lambert follows her from such childhood triumphs as Miracle on 34th Street
      to her breakthrough adult part opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause
      . Wood's overlapping affairs with Rebel
      director Nicholas Ray and cast member Dennis Hopper, and brief romance with Elvis Presley, will be familiar material to aficionados. But Lambert reveals deep sensitivity and understanding of her development as an actress, and he's one of the few authors to capture the depth and beauty of her relationship with Robert Wagner. Lambert also effectively highlights Wood's shrewd professional moves, including her pretense to boss Jack Warner that she didn't want to star in Splendor in the Grass
      , because she knew he would refuse to let her appear in it if she displayed enthusiasm. The shooting of Wood's film with Robert Redford, Inside Daisy Clover
      , has special authenticity, since Lambert wrote the screenplay and witnessed her frustrations after several crucial voice-overs were cut from the final print. Details regarding Wood's tragic drowning are inevitably speculative and vital questions remain unanswered. But Lambert eloquently clarifies the self-destructive reasons behind Wood's addictions and insecurities, and in the end, readers will feel they truly know the subject more than they do in most biographies. 65 photos.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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