She could have been America’s sweetheart, except there was something naughty in the impish mischief of her devilish good looks. The always sexy Natalie Wood started as a child actress in the 1950s, famously denying the existence of Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Natalie left the kid stuff behind and stepped into her bad-girl stride as a teenager, playing the carnally knowledgeable juvenile delinquent Judy, in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Acting alongside Hollywood legend James Dean, the role nabbed her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Up next was The Searchers (1956) alongside John Wayne, before Natalie played the instantly iconic role of Maria, the Puerto Rican so ravishing she’s worth getting shot over in West Side Story (1961). She excelled in roles that stretched the boundaries of her good girl status with both Splendor in the Grass (1961) and Love With the Proper Stranger (1963), earning her Oscar nominations for Best Actress. But despite these teasingly titillating titles, they don’t offer much skin, with “Splendor” showing Natalie in a bathtub but frustratingly not letting us glimpse her splendid spanker or luscious between the leg lawn. The closest Natalie ever came to true full-frontal disclosure was in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). The picture tackled the risqué topic of mate swapping and featured racy sequences of Natalie in a bra and panties as well as a bikini, with a bit of a butt cheek flash at one point. Natalie stopped acting for a while to raise her kids, returning sporadically in TV movies and the occasional film like Meteor (1979) with Sean Connery and Peeper with Michael Caine (1975). Unfortunately we will never get to peep the full body beauty of Natalie, as she tragically drowned on a boat off Catalina Island alongside husband Robert Wagner and Brainstorm (1983) costar Christopher Walken. Like her Rebel costar, Natalie is a Hollywood icon that while gone too soon will forever live on in our hearts, and other organs, as a youthful beauty with acting skills to boot.
