Gavin Lambert, a very British 79-year-old author, novelist, biographer and writer of screenplays, is not the most likely biographer of movie star Natalie Wood. But Lambert says it came naturally to him because he and Wood were good friends.
It may also have been a detriment, however. Their friendship began after his novel "Inside Daisy Clover" became one of Wood's better-known big-screen roles in 1965, and Lambert may have been a bit too close to his subject to achieve objectivity.
He has also written biographies of filmmaker George Cukor and movie star Norma Shearer, so he knows the territory. During a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home, Lambert said that Robert Wagner, the movie/TV star who married Wood twice, knows and trusts him. (Lambert refers to Wagner by his nickname, R.J., and says Wagner was thrilled at his decision to write about Wood.)
"The plot is laid out for you," Lambert said of writing biographies. He recalled that "R.J. mentioned once that people kept approaching him about writing Natalie's biography and he turned them all down. He said, 'I wish you would do it.' So, later, I decided to do it.
"It was a painful subject for him, but he opened many doors for me, introducing me to people who knew Natalie and cooperating with me in every way. He has always been haunted by the possibility that he could have prevented the drowning accident in 1981 that took her life at the age of 43. But R.J. and I were good enough friends that we could agree to be absolutely frank with each other about the biography."
Wood's death by drowning occurred off the coast of Catalina when the actress fell from the yacht Splendor into the water. Since the fall occurred during the early morning hours — while Wagner and Christopher Walken, Wood's co-star in her last film film, "Brainstorm," were drinking and arguing on the other side of the yacht — they were not aware of it until later. Because the boat's dinghy was gone, Wagner initially thought she had taken it to shore. But Wood's body was found floating in the water by the Coast Guard — and when the dinghy was found, the ignition was off.
Lambert concludes from his research and interviews that Wood was drunk and heavily medicated at the time of her accident. Since she was afraid of "dark water," it doesn't seem feasible that she jumped. Prior to the accident, Wagner was angry at both Wood and Walken, because he suspected they were having an affair. But the stories told by Wagner and Walken match up quite well, especially considering they were each under the influence of alcohol. The coroner's report determined her death to be an accident.
"The really tragic part of her death," said Lambert, "is that she went out in a series of sensational tabloid headlines. In the sleaze that followed, the real Natalie kind of disappeared — both the actress and the person." As a result, Lambert wrote the book to "do a total portrait of Natalie."
In his opinion, Wood was "not a great actress. But I think she was a very good and interesting actress. When under contract to Warners, she didn't want to do most of the films they had her do. I think she gave at least a half-dozen performances that were remarkable. As a child, she gave an incredibly truthful performance in 'Driftwood' (1947) — and her performance in 'Miracle on 34th Street' (1947) stands out.
"Then there was a long period between childhood and adulthood when she was in limbo. She got out of that in 'Rebel without a Cause' (1955), in which she gave a major performance. 'Splendor in the Grass' (1961) was one of her finest. She also did very well in 'Love with the Proper Stranger' (1963) and 'Inside Daisy Clover.' She was also good in 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice' (1969), in which she was charming and proved her ability to do light comedy."
In the '70s, she turned to TV, where she performed in what Lambert considers two distinguished roles — as Maggie the Cat in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1976), in which she co-starred with her husband, Wagner, and "From Here to Eternity" (1979).
Lambert remembers Wood as "a stronger personality than almost any other movie star, someone who worked hard on her craft. She loved contact with people and had the ability to attract them. She was magnetic, accessible. It was reassuring to her that people cared about her. She also had a great sense of humor."
He added that "her childhood horrors could have turned her into a monster, but she was a warm, generous person. Her mother was like a guard dog. That made her sensitive to betrayal of any kind. The result is that she was both strong and fragile."
Wood had a number of affairs, according to Lambert, with such famed actors as Warren Beatty and Steve McQueen, as well as Jerry Brown, who would later become governor of California. But it was Wagner who was her "one true love." Nevertheless, she often had "fixations" on those with whom she co-starred, and several of those fixations become affairs.
Wagner, says Lambert, has not read the book — showing that he also made no effort to control its interpretation. "The scar will never totally heal. I told him I would not be offended if he never read it."
Lambert considers Wagner to be "a good-natured, kind person. He is no longer a movie star, but he is gallant about the change in his professional life. He is not bitter about getting smaller roles, and he is happily married to Jill St. John."
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com