Natalie Wood Prepares For The 34th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony, 1962. Allan Grant For Life Magazine.

NATALIE WOOD in THE GREAT RACE dir. Blake Edwards 

“Dear Audrey,

I just wanted to tell you again what a fabulous evening you gave me the night of the premiere of “My Fair Lady.”

Your performance was absolute perfection and I watched your work with great joy and admiration.

You have won my heart and my vote in March.

Love, Natalie”

Natalie Wood’s personalized note to Audrey Hepburn, dated October of 1964. (x)

Natalie Wood photographed attending the premiere of “My Fair Lady,” 1964.

Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty at the 34th Academy Awards, 1962.

Natalie Wood photographed in her Laurel Canyon home by Earl Leaf, 1957.

“I worked at least twelve hours a day in rehearsals, lost weight, and my body was sore from the rigorous training. But when I was judged worthy of joining the professional dancers, I felt pretty proud.”

Natalie Wood photographed in dance rehearsals for “West Side Story,” 1961.

Natalie Wood photographed in between takes of “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” 1969.

During my Ophelia stage, I began to watch films starring Natalie Wood that were shot in the 1960s. There was something about her wide eyes and fragility that reminded me of these drowning women, the fair Ophelia. In Splendor in the Grass, Natalie’s character Deanie loses her mind and self-destructs in more and more glamorous ways, eventually wading into a pond decked out in a gorgeous flapper dress for her suicide attempt. Deanie is saved, goes to therapy, and gets set to marry a nice doctor. But I didn’t care about that. I cared about the frantic way she slid into the water, the way she picked her footing as she climbed down. In her beauty and self-destruction, she wielded an ugly power. Why were these fictional beautiful women always losing their minds so extravagantly? Why are they so compelling? I’ve always found wilting orchids more compelling [than girl bosses] - women who burn bright and burn out, undermined by their own desire for love or wholeness or whatever it is that pushes them under water. Some of us choose the self-destructive model and discover power in the tatters. - Patricia Grisafi; Why Are We So intrigued by Beautiful Drowning Women? A Look at Natalie Wood’s Hysterical Glamour

Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen behind the scenes of “Love With the Proper Stranger,” circa 1963.

Natalie Wood at the Cannes Film Festival (by Paul Schutzer. France, 1962).