`` Brainstorm , '' and was on her yacht with her husband , Robert Wagner , and her co-star , Christopher Walken . Aspects of Wood 's life have only heightened the speculation . How could someone so young , with a good marriage and revitalized career , die just like that ? Captain describes Wood cover-up story Wood had been a top star for decades , both a box office draw and Oscar-nominated actress . Among her films were some of the biggest and most influential of the 1950s and '60s , including `` Rebel Without a Cause , '' `` West Side Story '' and `` Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice . '' `` It was as if she had movie star stamped on her birth certificate , '' Wagner once said . Indeed , she seemed fated for stardom from the beginning . Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko , daughter of Russian immigrants , in San Francisco in 1938 . The family later changed their last name to Gurdin . At age 4 , she had a bit part in 1943 's `` Happy Land '' after a production company spotted her in nearby
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Natalie Wood was terrified of the water . As an 11-year-old shooting `` The Green Promise , '' she was thrown off a bridge during a storm scene and nearly drowned . The incident scarred her for life . Thirty-two years later , Wood died after falling into the ocean off Catalina Island in California . Wood 's life is full of such curiosities . She was that rare child performer to make the transition to adult movie star , but her rise to success was marked by troubled relationships . She had beauty and talent , but she suffered from alcohol abuse and once tried to commit suicide . And then there 's her death , coming just as she was restarting her movie career . Wood , who died in 1981 , is back in the news after police reopened the case involving her drowning at age 43 . Police : Robert Wagner not a suspect in new probe of Natalie Wood 's death The story surrounding Wood 's death has long been one of Hollywood 's great mysteries . She was making a motion picture comeback in a highly touted science-fiction film ,