Natasha (57 page)

Brainstorm
continued on its troubled, anarchic course through November. David McGiffert, who carried on as first assistant director in L.A., noticed that “things were a little more contentious” between Trumbull and the united force of Natalie and Walken once filming began on the MGM lot. “They were now aligned to what they were doing with the script, and obviously their relationship was playing into the relationship on the screen: the relationship on the screen was of a couple that was having trouble, and the
offscreen
relationship was of a couple that was having a great time.”

The charged friendship between Walken and Natalie was still evident after she was back home with R.J. “The dynamics that went into that were funny, they were hazy, they would change a lot,” appraised McGiffert. “Lots of mood swings about what was going on.” McGiffert noticed Natalie seemed to open up around Walken in a way that was similar to what Redford described during the times
they
acted together when she dropped the “Natalie Wood” movie star persona. As McGiffert remembers, “She was really alive. She had a beautiful laugh, and a beautiful way of just letting go, and she’d just get all goofy and fall over things. It was fun to watch, because she was usually pretty controlled, and she’d just get giddy and it was infectious. And it would make Chris want to do more to make her laugh, and he was good at that.”

Faye Nuell stopped by the set at MGM to see Natalie, since Nuell was working on the lot. “She was clearly infatuated with Christopher,” in the observation of Nuell, who felt Natalie “basically told me, without saying the words, they were having an affair.”

If Natalie was romantically involved with Walken, she did not share it that November with her best friend, Peggy Griffin, who “would be greatly surprised” if it were true. What is clear, and becomes significant, is that there was a
perception
she was intimate with Walken, at least among the people involved with
Brainstorm
, to the point that McGiffert, the first assistant director, was certain R.J. was aware of it by Thanksgiving, pointing out, “He’s not stupid.”

Natalie alluded to colleagues on the set that R.J.’s drinking was bothering her, just as she had to Sugar Bates during the trying
Eva Ryker
shoot
exactly two years before, when Natalie was preoccupied with premonitions she would drown in dark water. Outwardly, Natalie and R.J. appeared “just, oh, madly in love” to their mutual close friend Griffin that pre-Thanksgiving, who described them as “a happy couple; very playful, very respectful, very supportive. A team at all times, on every level.”

Faye Nuell stopped by Natalie’s
Brainstorm
set the fortnight before Thanksgiving for what would be their last conversation. Nuell and Natalie stood in a doorway in one of the buildings on the MGM lot, both suddenly experiencing a “total flashback” to when they met in 1955 on
Rebel Without a Cause
. They were struck by how many of their friends from the movie had died early—Jimmy Dean, Sal Mineo, Nick Adams. “It was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re still here!’”

That same week, in what would be a cruel irony, actor William Holden, the longtime companion of Stefanie Powers, R.J.’s costar on
Hart to Hart
, was found dead in his bedroom after tripping and gashing his head while under the influence of alcohol. R.J. comforted Powers over the needless loss of her great love, as she would do for him less than two weeks later, under circumstances that were also engendered by the effects of excessive alcohol, the true demon surrounding Natalie from earliest childhood in a household haunted by Fahd’s vodka-inflamed rage.

On Thanksgiving morning, Natalie and her friend Griffin had a long phone conversation about their weekend plans.
Brainstorm
was winding down, and Natalie was excited about starting rehearsals on Monday for
Anastasia
. “Everything about this whole sad time to me was so ironic,” observes Griffin. “For years, my tradition was that I had Thanksgiving with my parents, and then in the early evening, about 6:00, I’d go over to Natalie and R.J.’s and have dessert and coffee. And this particular year I had a friend in the hospital, and my whole Thanksgiving Day got kind of turned around.”

Griffin told Natalie she couldn’t make it for dessert that night, and they discussed Natalie and R.J.’s plans to spend Friday through Sunday off Catalina, on the
Splendour
. The Wagners planned to take Natalie’s close friend, realtor Delphine Mann. Griffin was invited, but declined. “I never went on the boat in the winter. It’s very confining. You don’t have the freedom of doing all those things you do in the summer.”

She and Natalie said their goodbyes, and set a date to see a movie
together that Sunday night after Natalie got back from Catalina. “I still remember the movie we were going to see,” Griffin recalls sadly. “
Absence of Malice
, with Paul Newman. And to this day, I’ve never seen the movie. I just couldn’t see it.”

That night, a few close friends and family dropped in and out of the Wagners’ house for their traditional Thanksgiving buffet. Mud was there, Lana and her daughter, Mart Crowley, Delphine Mann, R.J.’s mother, and for a time Walken, whose wife was on the East Coast. Natalie had invited Walken on the boat for the weekend, allegedly to demonstrate to a suspicious R.J. that they were not having an affair, though it was typical of the socially gregarious Wagners to bring costars on the
Splendour
as their guests.

More typically, the boat was a family affair, with Natasha or Courtney inviting chums along to swim and Jet-Ski with R.J., while Natalie sat in the galley or in the wheelhouse reading scripts or the latest bestseller. She never swam, never Jet-Skied, and would not participate in anything water-related. If the
Splendour
was moored, Natalie might take the girls or a guest to shore in the
Valiant
, the Wagners’ motorized dinghy, but she would never get in the dinghy alone at night.

Later that Thanksgiving evening, she asked Crowley if he wanted to join her and R.J. on the
Splendour
with Walken and Delphine Mann. Crowley had a conflict, and at the last minute, Delphine Mann canceled. “She had some things coming up that weekend,” explains Griffin, “and so she changed her plans.” Mann would later agonize over her eleventh-hour decision not to go to Catalina with Natalie and R.J. and Walken. As Griffin would observe wistfully, “You think, ‘Well maybe, if someone else was there, it might change just
anything
…”

Lana, who was banned from the
Splendour
, along with Mud, felt Natalie “seemed odd” that Thanksgiving night, the last time she saw her sister alive. “Like something was bothering her. Nothing specific, just lots of little bitty things.”

What would forever haunt Lana was Natasha’s hysterical reaction to her mother’s plans to leave for Catalina in the morning. Natasha begged Natalie to stay home, not to go on the boat that weekend.

Normally, Natalie would indulge her daughters anything. But in this case, she said no to Natasha. She didn’t want Natasha to grow up with the kind of deep-seated fears Mud had instilled in her.

THE TRAGIC
,
ANOMALOUS EVENTS OF NATALIE
’
S
sad, last, lost weekend off Catalina Island, leading to her greatest fear realized—drowning in deep, dark water—have been speculated about and exploited throughout the twenty years since she died, threatening to eclipse the memory of her poignant performances, and the grace with which she lived her life, which is how she should be remembered.

Because the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s drowning have been the subject of such speculation, this examination of her last hours is offered to help clarify, at least, what is known and what has been offered in explanation by the participants, some of it for the first time, though the full details of that night may be lost in an alcoholic haze and remain a mystery.

Of the four people on the
Splendour
that weekend—Natalie, R.J., Christopher Walken, and the Wagners’ private captain, Dennis Davern—only Davern has talked publicly at length about what he claimed happened, and his stories have trickled out through the years in tabloids, for remuneration; in a British documentary and in
Vanity Fair
. His public accounts have stopped short of the climactic last moments when Natalie went off the boat, which he says he knows and has held back under pressure, hoping at some point to disclose for profit in a book, or as his coauthor put it, “his day to reveal the truth.” Natalie cannot give witness, and R.J. and Walken have each maintained silence other than through two hazy statements given by each to authorities, a brief, confusing interview by Walken, and in R.J.’s case, a four-paragraph account offered by him in conflict with some of the facts, followed by a contradictory explanation offered through a friend.

Consequently, Natalie’s last weekend can only be patched together from bewilderingly vague, confusing, contradictory statements given by the principals to L.A. Sheriff’s investigators, supplemented by the recorded statements and twenty-year-old memories of witnesses, or from Davern’s subsequent accounts.

By any interpretation, using all of the versions available, the last thirty-six hours of Natalie’s too-short life consisted of an almost surreal, bizarre, alcoholically charged chain of circumstances and behavior unlike hers or R.J.’s, building, like grand opera, to a tragic climax, the
details of which may remain as murky as the dark seawater she had a premonition would take her life.

Natalie, R.J., Walken, and Davern, the skipper R.J. brought to California to keep in his employ when he bought the
Splendour
in 1975, set sail for Catalina Island from Marina Del Rey before noon the Friday after Thanksgiving, the beginning of a cold, gray November weekend so unpleasant Davern suggested they go a different time. Natalie “was out for a wonderful weekend, to entertain her guest,” Davern would recall to a friend, and Catalina was the Wagners’ sentimental favorite, because of their romantic first honeymoon in 1958, tucked aboard
My Other Lady
.

Davern, a slight, bearded, lanky New Jersey native of thirty-three, “worshipped” Natalie and R.J., friends recalled, thrilled to be included in his celebrity bosses’ family activities during weekend getaways on the
Splendour
, “helping to raise” Courtney and Natasha. As his childhood friend and coauthor Margaret Rulli would rhapsodize, “It was just like an unheard of Hollywood lifestyle. They really
had
the marriage. Robert Wagner loved Natalie Wood, his love for her took his breath away.”

The rough crossing to Catalina that Friday afternoon harbingered strange tempests of emotion gathering momentum on the
Splendour
. Davern could sense it in the air. “As soon as Christopher and Natalie and R.J. entered the boat is when there was a feeling of
jealousy
going on between R.J. and Christopher,” he told a British documentary group. “And it just kept on getting more like that as the time would go on.”

Alcohol was the leitmotiv. The East Coast-based Walken, who was an inexperienced sailor, started the voyage with two Bloody Marys, according to his later statement, becoming so seasick he had to lie down for the rest of the cruise. By the time he roused, around five in the afternoon, the
Splendour
was moored a quarter of a mile from the historic domed casino at Avalon, the tourist-populated side of Catalina Island, a picturesque seaside village of boutiques and restaurants associated with carefree gaiety.

Shortly after Walken got up, he and Natalie and R.J. took the
Valiant
, the Wagners’ motorized dinghy, to shore, leaving Davern behind to prepare dinner. As revealed in Walken and R.J.’s statements to police, they and Natalie spent a cold, drizzly afternoon into evening drinking beer and margaritas, beginning at a Mexican restaurant and
ending at El Galleon, a popular waterfront bar with an outdoor veranda where Natalie and R.J. once celebrated one of their special private anniversaries.

Between barhopping, the trio shopped a bit in a nearby arcade, where Walken wandered into a gallery, purchasing a painting, and the Wagners browsed at David Stein Jeweler’s. Natalie bought an early Christmas gift to surprise the skipper, and R.J. indulged Natalie with a $5000 one-carat diamond necklace set in a barnacle she admired in one of the display cases.

The manager of the bar at the El Galleon, the actors’ last stop, remembered them as leaving for the dock around ten
P.M
., which meant they had been consuming alcohol on and off for five hours from the time they arrived onshore, in addition to Walken’s earlier two Bloody Marys and whatever Natalie and R.J. may have been drinking aboard the
Splendour
from noon to five. The emotional dynamics during those five hours from five to ten
P.M
. when Walken was drinking with Natalie and R.J. in Avalon is unknown, though Davern later said in the same British documentary that R.J. was even more “irritated” by the attention Natalie paid to Walken once they returned from shore.

According to both R.J. and Walken’s later statements, when they got to the dock, Natalie did not want to get into the motorized rubber dinghy to go back to sea where the
Splendour
was moored, even with R.J. and Walken beside her, “because it was dark, it was cold, and she was afraid she would get wet.” Natalie told R.J. she wanted to ride back to the
Splendour
in a larger shoreboat. He eventually “talked her into” getting in the
Valiant
with him and Walken, R.J.’s statement reveals, and all three returned to the
Splendour
together, where Davern was preparing a barbecue.

Walken recalled “more drinking” on the boat, until he felt ill and went to his stateroom, leaving Natalie, R.J., and Davern to dine without him.

What happened next set the tone for the disturbing, mysterious rest of the weekend. In his less-than-six-minute original statement to police in the first chilling hours after Natalie’s body was found at sea Sunday morning, R.J. said nothing about the events of Friday night. During his second, and final, interview on December 4, he would tell authorities the sea had high swells that Friday night and everyone on the boat discussed crossing the channel to return to the mainland—although, in
their statements, neither Walken nor Davern would mention any group discussion of a night crossing cutting their trip short. Duane Rasure, the lead investigator, noted R.J. telling him that Natalie “didn’t want to go back at night in the dark.”

By R.J.’s December 4 version, he and Natalie had a “strong disagreement” about whether to move the boat closer to shore Friday night to get out of the rough waves. R.J. told authorities Natalie objected to repositioning the boat, so he told her to spend the night in a hotel in Avalon and take Davern with her. Investigators never asked R.J. why Natalie would object to moving the
Splendour
to calmer waters, or why he wanted to send Davern to the hotel with her instead of himself.

Davern’s original statement, taken that Sunday morning, mentioned none of this. In a second statement on December 10, with lawyers hired by R.J. present on his behalf, he mirrored R.J.’s follow-up statement, saying the sea was “grumpy” that night, and that the Wagners disagreed about whether to move the boat, though Davern stated it was
Natalie’s
idea for her to stay in a hotel in Avalon that night.

Walken’s brief original interview barely referred to Friday night. When he was interviewed the second time, he told sheriff’s investigators he heard “some sort of hubbub” between Natalie and R.J. after he had been in bed, seasick, for twenty minutes; then he heard what sounded like an anchor chain, and Natalie knocked on his door to say, “He wants to cross during the night.” By Walken’s second account, Natalie left the room and Davern appeared, asking Walken to come to the main salon to mediate. Walken told Davern, “Never get involved in an argument between a man and a wife.” When Davern left his room, Walken went back to sleep, evidently until morning, though he felt the boat move and noticed through the porthole that they were closer to shore.

As years passed, Davern would reveal there was more to that hour on the
Splendour
than in either of his statements. His expanded account, printed in several magazines and repeated on British television, describes “a fight” between Natalie and R.J. creating such “unbearable tension” on the boat that Natalie decided she wanted to go home, requesting that Davern take her ashore. Davern then knocked on Walken’s door, seeking his intervention. When Walken refused, Davern “thought the best thing for me to do was to go ashore with her,” he told the U.K. film company.

Davern drove Natalie to shore in the
Valiant
, by his and R.J.’s accounts, leaving R.J. on the boat, agitated, and Natalie’s guest, Walken, in his cabin, seasick and asleep.

Natalie walked the few short blocks from the dock at Avalon to her and R.J.’s sentimental favorite spot, El Galleon, distressed, deeply intoxicated, with only a duffel bag, and Davern, from the statements of witnesses. Paul Reynolds, the manager of El Galleon who saw Natalie leave with R.J. and Walken that night at ten, re-encountered her in the bar at eleven, accompanied by a “man with a beard” he identified as Davern. Natalie wanted to know when the next public boat was leaving for the mainland, which was not until morning.

Then she asked Reynolds to help her find two available hotel rooms. While the bartender called to make reservations at a modest motel a few doors down called the Pavilion Lodge, Natalie and Davern, according to Reynolds, had “a couple of drinks,” ogled by other patrons “looking at [Natalie Wood] get tipsy.”

This awful drama carried over to the Pavilion Lodge, where Natalie walked in with Davern close to 11:15
P.M
., both so intoxicated they had trouble getting in the door, as later told to police by the night clerk, Ann Laughton, who would remember Natalie wearing a red quilted jacket, the same thing she would have on approximately twenty-four hours later during her desperate struggle to keep from drowning.

Natalie prepaid by American Express for rooms 126 and 219, asking Laughton for some ice. Laughton showed Natalie and Davern how to use the ice machine and escorted them, together, to room 126, one of the Pavilion’s standard motel-style rooms, with a king-sized bed. When Laughton asked Natalie if she wanted to see room 219, Natalie responded, “Not at this time, we’ll see it later.” The maids’ records would reveal that room 219 was undisturbed the next day.

In the original statements given to the Sheriff’s Department, R.J. said nothing about Friday night to investigators, Walken implied everyone stayed on the boat that night, and Davern
told
police they all four slept on the
Splendour
, which investigators knew from motel personnel was a lie. Nobody in the sheriff’s office questioned R.J. or Walken about Natalie’s Friday night in Avalon during their first statements. But lead investigator Duane Rasure
did
confront Davern about it, who told Rasure that “before answering, he would rather talk to R.J.
and possibly an attorney,” adding, “If you check the hotel, you will find that there were two rooms rented.”

In Davern’s follow-up statement, with attorneys arranged by R.J. there to represent him, he disclosed that he spent Friday night at the Pavilion Lodge with Natalie, acting “as her bodyguard” at R.J.’s request. R.J. confirmed Natalie’s Friday night in Avalon when he was questioned for the second time.

While they were in room 126 at the Pavilion Lodge with midnight approaching, Natalie asked Davern to stay with her through the night; afraid, as she always was, to be alone at night. They drank more wine, he would remember, and talked.

Natalie got up before eight A.M. and wanted to go home, hoping to telephone Lana, Davern would recall to friend and coauthor Rulli. “Natalie tried to call Lana that morning to leave the island. She wasn’t going to go back to the boat.” Davern did not want to return either, he told Rulli. “Why put trouble on top of trouble?”

Natalie left Davern in room 126 at 8:00 and went to the front desk with the key to room 219, telling the day clerk, “Excuse me, I can’t find my room.” The clerk, Linda Winkler, astonished to see Natalie Wood at the Pavilion Lodge, directed her to room 219, noticing Natalie was “disoriented,” as Winkler told investigators.