WOOD MYSTERY STILL CAPITVATES:
NATALIE WOOD kept film audiences rapt for nearly four decades — and her 1981 drowning death off the coast of Catalina Island, Calif., at age 43 has proven as captivating.
“Natalie Wood: An American Murder Mystery,” airing Monday at 10 p.m. on Investigation Discovery (ID), features sit-downs with key people in Natalie’s life — including her sister, Lana Wood (inset) — and a never-beforeseen interview with the harbor master on duty the night Wood died.
The case surges with renewed urgency since Robert Wagner, who Wood was married to at the time of her death, was deemed a “person of interest” in February by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
Commentary from legal eagles, historians and journalists who’ve followed the case from the very beginning add to hourlong special that promises to sort out the “fact vs. fiction” in the twisted Hollywood story. “There are still so many unanswered questions surrounding her death that we hope this special will ... provide some insight into what really happened that fateful night,” Henry Schleiff, head of Investigation Discovery, said in a release. The show also flashes back to review Wood’s illustrious career that began at age four and brought her three Oscar nominations before the age of 25. “She was one of those kids that was always dancing and singing and play-acting,” said Lana Wood, who recalls “sobbing hysterically” at her sister’s wedding to Wagner. “She asked me, ‘Why?’” “I thought I was going to lose you,” Lana Wood recalls saying to explain her tears. “And I did.”