Death by Yacht

Natalie Wood

Actress NATALIE WOOD died near Catalina Island on Thanksgiving weekend of 1981.

Wood was spending the holiday on the yacht Splendour with her husband Robert Wagner and actor Christopher Walken, her co-star in the movie Brainstorm. She disappeared sometime after dinner on the night of 28 November; the next morning her body was found floating nearly a mile from the Splendour, dressed in a nightgown and down jacket. No one had seen or heard her leave the yacht; the ship's dinghy was also found drifting at sea.

"Coroner to the Stars" Thomas Noguchi ruled accidental death, suggesting that Wood had slipped and fallen overboard. Hollywood gossips hinted at a romantic triangle (and a 2000 Vanity Fair article claimed that Wood had climbed into the dinghy after a drunken argument with Wagner), but nothing of the sort was ever proved. In a stunning development, the case was reopened by the LA County Sheriff's Office in 2011 after reading comments made by the boat's captain during the 30th anniversary of Wood's death.