When she was nine she had an accident on a movie set which left a slight but permanent bone protrusion on her left wrist. For the rest of her life, on camera or in public, she wore a bracelet to cover it.
Among the men she frequently dated were singer Elvis Presley and actors Raymond Burr, Dennis Hopper, Warren Beatty, Nick Adams, Tab Hunter and Scott Marlowe.
According to Mary F. Pols, Wood went on studio-arranged dates throughout her early years as a starlet, often with closeted gay actors. Tab Hunter said he was a frequent companion of Natalie Wood at the request of Warner Brothers, which had both stars under contract. They would attend parties to promote films like The Burning Hills even though he was gay - not publicly at the time - and she was still in her teens. Wood biographer and Hollywood screenwriter Gavin Lambert also confirms that Wood had studio-arranged dates with homo- or bisexual actors, the first of which was with Nick Adams.
According to Lambert and his reviewer David Ehrenstein, Wood later even did her part for gay history by supporting homosexual playwright Mart Crowley in a manner that made it possible for him to write his play, The Boys in the Band.
Concerning a possible relationship between Wood and young homosexual actor Raymond Burr, Wood biographer Suzanne Finstad cites Dennis Hopper as saying, "I just can't wrap my mind around that one. But you know, I saw them together. They were definitely a couple. Who knows what was going on there." However, no romantic relationship has ever been proved between Burr and Wood.
Contrary to popular notions, Gavin Lambert wrote that Wood's casting in Rebel Without a Cause did not lead to a romance with co-star James Dean: "Like many people, she was fascinated by his charm. He had this magnetic quality on the screen and in life... They got on very well, they liked each other a lot." He added that both Dean and Rebel director Nicholas Ray (with whom Wood reportedly had an affair) helped renew her passion for acting after a diet of lackluster movies like Chicken Every Sunday, Dear Brat and Father Was a Fullback.
Wood is reported to have had a lifelong fear of dark water and drowning. During the filming of This Property is Condemned, she was so scared of performing a skinny-dipping scene that co-star Robert Redford held her feet underwater to help steady her while shooting it.
Along with Tatum O'Neal, Haley Joel Osment, Elizabeth Taylor, Anna Paquin, Dean Stockwell, Ben Affleck and Jodie Foster she is one of only eight former child actors to have been nominated for an Oscar.
Drowning at Catalina Island
Wood's two marriages to actor Robert Wagner were publicized and stormy, but they were reconciled at the time of her death. In 1981, at the age of forty-three, Wood drowned while their yacht The Splendor was anchored at Catalina Island. An investigation by Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi resulted in an official verdict of accidental drowning, although speculation about the circumstances continued. Wood was on board the yacht with Wagner and actor Christopher Walken. There were reports Wagner and Walken had a loud argument and Wood apparently tried to either leave the yacht or to secure a dinghy that was banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. A woman on shore said she heard cries for help from the water that night, along with voices replying "we're coming." Wagner, Walken and the pilot of the Splendor said they heard nothing. Noguchi revealed that Wood was legally intoxicated when she died and there were marks and bruises on her body, which could have been received as a result of her fall.
At the time of her death Wood was filming Brainstorm and preparing to make her stage debut in a Los Angeles production of Anastasia, opposite Dame Wendy Hiller.
