Natalie Wood's Life in Photos

The actress was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko on July 20, 1938. Both her parents were Russian immigrants living in San Francisco, California.

Wood's first acting jobs were uncredited roles in the 1943 films The Moon Is Down and Happy Land. It was her performance in the latter, however, that caught the attention of director Irving Pichel, setting the four-year-old actress up for success.

In 1945, Wood's mother moved the family to Los Angeles on the advice of Irving Pichel, who took an interest in the child star. It was Pichel who suggested that the young actress adopt the Americanized version of her name, Natalie, and change her surname to Wood, after director Sam Wood.

After the success of Miracle on 34th Street, Wood's contract with 20th Century Fox was updated to $1,000 a week, with the plan that her payments would build for seven years to $3,300 weekly.

A nine-year-old Wood experienced a horrible accident on the set of The Green Promise. The actress fell through a broken bridge while filming a storm scene, nearly drowning. The incident left her with a protruding bone in her left wrist, as well as a lifelong fear of water.

Throughout the early '50s, Wood struggled to convince studios that she could transition from child star to screen siren. As a result, she was mostly stuck with roles on television.

After Warner Bros. cast Wood in Rebel Without a Cause, they also signed the former child star to a $400 a week seven-year contract.

Over the years, Wood expressed her frustration with the studio system in Hollywood (stars weren't allowed to choose the movies they appeared in, as studios had all the power). With the momentum from Rebel Without a Cause, Warner Bros. lined up a number of films, including The Searchers, which was Wood's least favorite role, as she felt she wasn't properly cast.

At the age of 17, Wood was a regular fixture in the gossip columns for her romantic interests, including a romance with Elvis Presley. However, the relationship ended shortly after it began.

Robert Wagner and Wood began seeing each other after a studio-arranged date. The couple got married on December 28, 1957 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Wood was placed on suspension by Warner Bros. after she refused roles in both The Miracle and A Summer Place, and then failed to appear on the set of The Young Philadelphians in protest of another role she was not interested in. The star's stance against studio head Jack Warner paid off in her favor: She was given permission to choose one of the movies she was in every year.

After her marriage to Wagner, the attention the couple received from the media increased significantly.

After five years of marriage, Wood and Wagner ended their marriage. Separating in 1961, Wood became involved with her Splendor in the Grass costar, Warren Beatty.