Natalie Wood was sexually assaulted by Kirk Douglas, sister alleges
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
According to Lana Wood, Natalie Wood did not discuss with her what happened until both were adults and Natalie, after describing being brought into Douglas' suite, told her sister, "And, uh ... he hurt me Lana."
Kirk Douglas speaks at the Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 1980, in France.AP file
"It was like an out-of-body experience. I was terrified, I was confused," Lana Wood remembers her saying. Lana, now 75 and around 8 when the alleged incident occurred, remembered her sister and their mother agreeing it would ruin Natalie's career to publicly accuse him.
"Suck it up" was Maria's advice, according to "Little Sister," much of which focuses on Natalie Wood's death in 1981, when her body was found off Catalina Island in California. Authorities initially ruled the death an accidental drowning, but that has changed after years of scrutiny and more witnesses emerging.
Wood's husband at the time, Robert Wagner, has been called a person of interest and Lana Wood is among those who hold him responsible for her death. Wagner has long denied any involvement in her death.
In her book, she recalls promising her sister not to discuss her being assaulted by Douglas, but rumors were so prevalent that when he died in 2020, at age 103, Natalie Wood's name trended along with his on Twitter. Lana Wood, whose own acting credits include "The Searchers" and the TV series "Peyton Place," believes enough has changed since her conversation with Natalie that she can now tell the whole story.
"With no one still around to protect, I'm sure she'll forgive me for finally breaking that promise," she wrote.
Douglas' son, actor Michael Douglas, said in a statement issued through his publicist: "May they both rest in peace."
Kirk Douglas, in his late 30s at the time of the alleged assault, was known for such films as "Spartacus," "The Bad and the Beautiful" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral." He also was one of the first major actors to form his own production company and a prominent liberal activist who has been widely credited with helping to break the Cold War blacklist against suspected Communists when he hired Dalton Trumbo to write "Spartacus" and listed him by name for the 1960 release. Douglas and his second wife, Anne, donated millions of dollars through the Douglas Foundation they co-founded in 1964 with a mission to "helping those who might not otherwise be able to help themselves."
Douglas received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981 and the Legion of Honor from France in 1985. He was given an honorary Oscar in 1996, when the film academy praised him as "a creative and moral force."
Douglas himself acknowledged that he was a womanizer and an unfaithful husband. Speaking to The Associated Press about Douglas in December 2016, less than a year before the #MeToo movement caught on, the actress and dancer Neile Adams lightheartedly said of her friend, "You could not sit beside him without his hand crawling up your leg."
In his memoir "The Ragman's Son," published in 1988, Douglas writes briefly about Natalie Wood. He remembers driving home one night and stopping at a red light. The door of the car in front of him opened and "a pretty little girl wearing a suede jacket hopped out" and ran up to him.
"'Oh, Mr. Douglas, would you please sign my jacket?'" he remembers her saying. "As I obliged, the woman who was driving got out and introduced her. 'This is my daughter. She's in movies, too. Her name is Natalie Wood.' That was the first time I met Natalie. I saw her many times afterward, before she died in that cruel accident."
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Seems like Hollywood has been a hotbed of debauchery, but who knew it was so prevalent until more recently? Mind you, everyone's heard of the "casting couch".
Since Harvey Weinstein and many othersgot busted, count on seeing even more accounts coming to light. What happened in the dark will be seeing the light.
Everybody.
Personally i've never understood peoples moral fascination with folks who are basically professional liars.
Their job after all is usually just representing that which they are not. Why would anyone believe anything they said?
That's an interesting concept. Do you think that Alec Baldwin ISN'T devastated for having killed that person - was just lying about it?
I am acquainted with people who know Baldwin and they tell me he is completely devastated by what happened.
My comment made absolutely no judgement on whether Baldwin was devastated or not.
Your comment implied a generalization about actors, and Baldwin is an actor that I used to point out the fallacy of your statement.
Which still has nothing to do with if I think Baldwin is devastated or not.
The fact remains, acting, is faking that you are something you are not most of the time. If you are just being yourself you aren’t acting.
Simplistic nonsense.
All actors and actresses draw from inner experience to give life to the characters they portray; it is a creative marriage or if you prefer a merger of the real and the imagined called art. It is a technique used throughout the arts often referred to as the Muse whose fickle manifestations can be either creatively destructive or destructively creative.
Oh yes it does. Your generalizing statement implies that ALL actors lie all the time when you said this:
And please tell us how you are so familiar with the life of an actor to have said this:
I am quite familiar with actors, some were my clients, and very little of their total time is spent actually performing.
More ridiculous rationalizations from the left.
Put another, more factual, less PC way. They lie for a living. The better they are at lying, the more self indulgent, narcissistic awards they give each other. And few people really care. Otherwise awards show ratings would be through the roof when in reality they are lower than low.
No one cares .... well, a few people here evidently do but still .... most don't.
Wrong and please stop trying to put words in my mouth Buzz. You are better than this. I never said they "all" lie "all the time" Buzz. Read it again.
The word :"they:" does mean just "some". You did not specify but it's obvious you are referring to all actors.
That's YOUR opinion, not everyone's.
I have no idea why.
I don't disagree with your opinion on that. There is no connection between them.
Now you are just being obstinate Buzz. If i meant to say "all" i would have said "all" and i never intended to say "all."
I never said it was everyones opinion.
Something we can agree on and the main contextual purpose of my "liar" comment. "Liar" i admit is a strong word for it but it was meant to be. I respect the arts very much but simply don't understand why people who can just "act" well, are revered for their intelligence and morality so much.
I just don't get it.
According to you, all fiction , (books, plays, tv , or movies), all involves lying.
Other people call it artistic imagination.
Tell that to your English teacher.
Nah, that is not what I said and I appreciate it if you stop trying to put words in my mouth.
You apparently dont comprehend the meaning of what you said. You said actors lie for a living.
What they do is perform fictional scripts. If what they say is "lies" then fiction itself is a "lie". Most people dont see it that way.
I actually doubt if very many people at all would agree with you.
Yeah, like usual i understand it just fine. You on the other hand .....
Opinions do vary and nothing you've said here changes mine.
Oh, i beg to differ. Not many in the circles you run in to be sure but John, my friend, that is hardly most people.
Not even close.
Just like every politician on the planet.
Agreed, not that different at all.
Harry Truman, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Winston Churchill?
What question are you asking?
I was asking if you thought they were liars, since you agreed that politicians are all liars just like the actors you have already called liars.
I think you need to ask Mr Frost that question. He brought it up and said "every" politician. I did not.
That said, yeah, i'm sure those guys did lie when it suited them. Everyone does. Some certainly more than others and with more malice but there it is ......
LOL. HE said it, and you AGREED with him, which means you have the exact same opinion.
He we go again ...... i said "not that different at all." If i meant to say "exactly the same" i would have said "exactly the same."
Honestly Buzz, i can't tell if you are just playing reindeer games here or you've just been in China too long and your English comprehension is getting rusty.
I majored in English Literature for my B.A., was the Editor-in-Chief of my university student newspaper for almost two years, carried on a Business Law practice for 37 years that required absolute language accuracy for the purpose of drafting documents, and more recently taught high school English for 6 years. I don't think my use of the language is failing. And your use of the English language has been perfected by......?
I've never claimed to be perfect with the English language but i seem to have successfully survived a 40+ year Engineering and Business career using it. I must be doing something right.
So, do you want to talk about why you are trying to change the meaning of what i've said here or not? I really don't care either way but i do care when folks try to change the meaning of what i've said. You may have noticed that ......
IMPASSE
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There are many scenes in a number of movies Douglas made where the violence seemed to come from somewhere deeper than acting. Detective Story was one of them.
This was Natalie Wood at age 25. She was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood.
this seed made me remember a 40 year old joke:
name the 2 woods that don't float.
petrified and natalie.
A favorite Natile Wood movie was Gypsy...
Mine is Splendor In The Grass.
Amazing - all the "Tell-tell" books that are coming out about dead people who can't defend/support "their story" that they never knew.
The ONLY reason she is bringing it up now is to sell her book. Two dead people who can't speak for themselves and absolutely no way to prove it did or did not happen.
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