Why don't the gays like Natalie Wood?

She was a terrible actress.

[quote]Is it because she's spoiled?

Death will do that to a girl.

I didn't know they didn't like her. She liked them.

She was a lightweight. She couldn't sing. She couldn't deliver a line well.

That's an iconic scene right there. Not sure why it's not a camp classic like the various wig-outs by Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, or Elizabeth Taylor.

"She was a terrible actress."

She was a good floater.

I adore her.

r1 I agree with you. I'm not normally critical of actors but I just never thought she was that good at acting. Her worst performance was in "Gypsy," she wasn't feeling it at all.

I CAN understand her appeal though. She'd been around forever, was always being squired around by cute guys and her waif-like facade was endearing to a lot of people.

Does anyone know how people in the movie world thought of her as an actress?

She was likeable. Gay men don't often like simply pretty women. I guess she had enough vulnerability.

She reminds me of Winona in OP’s link.

I love her.

[quote]She was likeable. Gay men don't often like simply pretty women.

They like nutcases.

I like this 60s theme song for a film of hers by the same name. Love that distinctly 60s sound!

She wasn't a diva: she didn't have the talent or the outsized personality.

R13, I was going to say. She was bland.

Didn't she do "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with RJ?

Who is she, again?

[Quote] Who is she, again?

The only pair of eyes to witness Chris Walken and RJ make it.

She was a big reason the boys in the band got made. She hired Mart Crowley as her assistant but he didn’t really work for her it was so he could have an income when he wrote the play. Hi

Loved her in 'Gypsy.'

OP is a bitchy cunt.

Same reason they won't accept Julia Roberts. Men liked them. Straight men.

Not so much dislike as indifference. There's just some intriguing spark that Wood lacked, a certain something. I feel the same way about Marilyn Monroe. Just...yawn.

Marilyn Monroe had plenty of spark.

[quote] She was likeable. Gay men don't often like simply pretty women.

[quote] They like nutcases.

Rofl! You made me laugh out loud, because it's so true.

We really like the crazies. They're so much more interesting, and we can endlessly bitch about them, or adore them, or both.

Marilyn Monroe was steered in a lot of her hit films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, to name one of at least seven where she had to have an acting steer for the entire production. She was known to need steers and all kinds of "special help" that her contemporaries did not rely on. That's a significant part of where her reputation for being high maintenance originated.

Why?

In person, she had a disturbing, schizophrenic void about her, an emptiness that couldn't be concealed with her best efforts at acting. Without steers, she was a limited actress that had a certain vacant sadness about her, that she couldn't usually hide.

She wasn't just bipolar with borderline personality disorder, by the way. She was schizophrenic and to varying degrees, catatonic. And alcohol was a big no-no for her. Even worse than pills and dope.

You think Marilyn was important enough in "All About Eve" to be steered through her role? Give me a break.

Plain and boring. Nothing exciting or fresh about her, unlike her contemporaries.

R25, that actually WAS one of the films she was said to be steered in PARTS of, but not the entire movie.

She was a high-grossing, profitable household name and people were willing to steer her for free sometimes, so of course it was tolerated on set.

Your attempt to characterize Monroe as someone who was wheeled out and operated like a marionette isn't very convincing.

I'm laughing at the Marilyn Monroe discussion.

Natalie Wood is so boring, she can't even fuel the conversation in her own thread!

Natalie Wood’s appearances lacked conviction. She’s just unvaryingly shallow, as a rule.

My favorite film of hers is THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED, which at least has a little gothic frisson. Everyone else in it (like Kate Reid) ultimately acts circles around her, though.

But she’s alright in it.

Like Audrey Hepburn - she took roles that should have been iconic gay performances (ex, Gypsy /Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and made them bland. Bland, boring - and IMHO bad actresses.

Natalie was a friend to the gays and bearded for many of them. But she was not a terribly convincing actress, and many of her films have an obligatory "Natalie has a hysterical breakdown scene" that ring hollow.

R28, that's exactly what she was; it was an unfortunate component to her damsel-in-distress. She was hopelessly dependent on others, and used crying to control those around her.

R31, I was going to say that Natalie's roles in "Gypsy" and "West Side Story" should've catapulted her to Gay Icon status, but instead she is outshone by her co-stars and pretty much delivers unmemorable performances in both.

She and Audrey, however, seem to be beloved my female movie fans.

Monroe wasn't even a star when she made "All About Eve." The idea that she was hand held and thus shone in her brief role is not believable. The woman had IT.

She’s one of my favs. This gay likes her.

worst actress of all time.....in interviews she seems psychotic.

The scene with Natalie and her father, where she kisses him on the lips, is equally as bad as the "Am I spoiled???" scene.

It's like she plays the same character in all her movies.

Too petite and cute. We like ballsy broads.

She was dirty. She wouldn't take a shower on the boat. Said she preferred to wash up on shore.

Natalie seems to have so much more depth in real-life interviews, than she ever did in movies.

She's about 36 years old here, and so gorgeous.

I don't like her voice.

It's kind of grating.

Natalie Wood is the only kind of wood that sinks and doesn't float

Why do Dlers hate Natalie Wood? I don’t think I’ve ever read a nice thing about her on this site

Hmmm hmmm...speak for yourselves.

Some gay men like normal and cute women. For example, I find Angelina trashy and think Audrey was a porcelain doll and, as I said before, if I was ever to throw my lot in with a woman, I would sure as hell prefer to live and appear in the world with an Audrey than a nutcase dopie like Angelina. Hell, even Aniston seems laid back and down to earth and DEFINITELY easier to live with than Angelina (which is why her exes are still her friends and Angie has NO friends).

"steers"?? (Marilyn Monroe posts, above.) Is that a common term?

she got roles cause she put out, thats why she so nuts.

I disagree.

Most of the actresses DL loves are very mannered.

Natalie was very good at conveying raw emotion.

I’m sorry, but if you can watch Splendor In The Grass and not see the skill it took to convey the range of emotions and subtle expressiveness of the eyes and body language to convey the character’s state of mind, then you’re crazy.

Gypsy-She’s the wide eyed young girl reluctant to become a stripper. How exactly do you upstage Russell in her hammiest scene stealer role besides Mame? She had all the one liners and songs. And then the brassy strippers and another scene hog (Malden). She did well, I would say, and danced great.

I agree she was surprisingly good in "Splendor". Surprising because the rest of her performances I've seen are so underwhelming.

Does anyone know where I can watch "Splendor"? I've never seen it. Thank you.

As many said above - I can't imagine NOT liking Wood, I just can't imagine loving her either. She was basically rice pudding or cheap vanilla ice cream. Just OK.

R3 What gives you the idea that she liked 'the gays'?

Because they’re in love with her much hotter sister Morning.

[quote]Same reason they won't accept Julia Roberts. Men liked them. Straight men.

No, gays SEE THROUGH Julia Roberts. Quite different.

[quote][R3] What gives you the idea that she liked 'the gays'?

Her best friend was the guy who wrote Boys In The Band and she backed him and the play all the way, in spite of much opposition. I think that gives you a pretty clear view of where she was coming from.

Natalie was one of the most talented starlets ever. She also had a lot of pain and struggle throughout her life. Despite that, she had a good heart, which is hard to encounter in Hollywood. At a time when gay people were oppressed beyond belief, they identified with her struggles and she theirs.

Natalie was an excellent child actress.

She practically steals "Tomorrow is Forever" from veterans Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert.

Imagine being an adult and too ignorant to know what a steer is in today's day and age, r47

Or worse yet, pretending you don't know what a steer is because you think you're part of some grandiose disinformation supergroup of sniveling perps, who make a point of denying reality.

I thought she was charming and cute, but she really didn't get good roles in the best movies of the 60s and 70s. She was old school. The only attempt she made was with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - in which she succeeded. Why this didn't let her shift gear into great American movie era of the 70s I do not know. She could have been An Unmarried Woman for instance.

She was a pain in the ass!

R60, Natalie very much wanted to play Beth Jarrett in "Ordinary People" and thought she might have an edge because of her close friendship with Robert Redford, but he wouldn't even return her calls and hired MTM.

Never got her allure. Or Redford.

Her friendship with Mart Crowley aside, she wasn't a professional hag nor was she a diva or a great actress. She was not easily going to transition to more adult roles in middle age----the maternal roles, one dimensional as they were, tended to go to better actresses or to people like Mabel Albertson who played a good battle ax. She wasn't likeable in away that would make her good for a tv series, although she probably could have been a tv movie queen for awhile---she did women in jeopardy pretty well.

She bearded for Raymond Burr in the 1950s.

she was one note, and that note was "not believable".

amazed she was cast in so many things. shows the power of what having a Stage Mother can do, i suppose.

She didn't have a campy bone in her body, not even in Gypsy. I mean, who can do a Natalie Wood impression? There's just nothing about her personality that a gay man can hold onto.

But I liked her anyway and feel sad and angry about her tragic and senseless death.

Her former costar was having NONE of it!

Never much cared for her. To me, she was bland and boring, and not particularly attractive.

[quote]R60 The only attempt she made was with Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice - in which she succeeded

She’s the weakest link in that movie.

[quote] What gives you the idea that she liked 'the gays'?

Well, she did marry one. Twice!

[quote] she probably could have been a tv movie queen for awhile

She was great in the made-for-TV “Cracker Factory” as an alcoholic in and out of the psych ward.

Surely re-marrying your husband after previously catching him fucking the butler is the ultimate expression of gay man's doormat, r64? Professional? She had a vocation!

[quote]She’s the weakest link in that movie.

I don't agree. She delivered what was asked of her and she slipped into the late 60s fashions like genuine London dolly bird.

R67, Any impression of Natalie Wood would involve a body of water.

She might have had a better 1970s if she'd hooked up with Robert Evans.

And her bikini shots speak for themselves.

I realize I might be in the minority, but I've always preferred drunks who can swim.

[quote]She might have had a better 1970s if she'd hooked up with Robert Evans. —Ali Macgraw

She had a knack for comedy she could have done Neil Simon movies.

Maybe she was considered too passé.

She aged beautifully but when you're considered "old," there's little that can be done beyond diversifying into beauty products, fragrances etc.

Her movies have not held up, theyr an embarassment

That voice of hers, makes my skin crawl, sounds like a mouse in pain....

I liked her in Love with the Proper Stranger, or maybe I just liked her bar cart.

[quote]She might have had a better 1970s if she'd hooked up with Robert Evans. —Ali Macgraw

She could have been Julia.

or Theresa Dunn

How in the world can you not like Natalie. She was a very natural actress. She was a good child actress and a good adult one. She is far better that Audrey Hepburn at acting. " Rebel Without A Cause" " Love With A Proper Stranger" " Splendor in the Grass" " Gypsy" " Inside Daisy Clover" " Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice". She was the best Maggie the Cat. She had a voice that was always young and yet experienced- much like Garland and Taylor. No she couldn't sing. But her beauty more then makes up for a singing voice. And she was very beautiful. Her only fault marrying some as shallow as RJ. She was pro gay before it became civilized.

I expect her experience with rape (Kirk Douglas) made her value gay men even more.

Natalie landed several roles that her friend Elizabeth Taylor rejected (Marjorie Morningstar, Westside Story, This Property is Condemned, etc.), and ended up the #2 highest paid actress of the early '60s, behind #1 Taylor. And like Taylor, Natalie was hit and miss. Sometimes she's good, othertimes she's overwrought and dreadful. But unlike Taylor, Wood lacked [italic]presence[/italic]. She was largely unmemorable in her movies, and many of those movies aren't memorable today. That's just my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree.

Natalie herself was disappointed in her film career and took a long break to raise her family. When she returned to movies, she discovered she couldn't compete with the Jane Fondas, Faye Dunaways, Julie Christies, and Vanessa Redgraves, all in-demand actresses who had more range. These actresses were her contemporaries yet somehow they embodied "New Hollywood" while Natalie and Elizabeth were dinosaurs of the old studio system.

R59, check your meds.

[quote]She bearded for Raymond Burr in the 1950s.

And Tab Hunter.

R90, and actor Scott Marlowe, who hooked up with Tab Hunter.

I’m sure she was not a bad person, but I found her acting style difficult to watch.

R88, Natalie was to star in "The Mirror Crack'd", but changed her mind and Elizabeth Taylor replaced her.

Natalie was also first choice for "The Towering Inferno", but passed on it and Faye was hired.

Lol at R90 and R91.

Reading your two posts together, just made me laugh.

Boy, that's quite a list. The closet cases all knew exactly who to run to for a beard.

[quote] unlike Taylor, Wood lacked presence

That's it precisely.

R88, Natalie was younger than Jane Fonda, but they were not considered contemporaries since Natalie had been in films for nearly twenty years before Jane debuted in "Tall Story".

R88, Can anyone picture Elizabeth Taylor as Maria in "West Side Story"?

"I Feel Pretty" would have needed more diamonds.

Natalie was higher on any casting list in the early 1970s than Faye? I doubt that.

R98, From IMDB . . .

Katharine Ross, Raquel Welch and Natalie Wood were all offered the role that was eventually played by Faye Dunaway. Wood declined because she was pregnant with her second child, she also found the script "mediocre."

R95, I meant contemporaries [italic]in age.[/italic] Wood, Fonda, Dunaway, Redgrave, Christie, are all within five years of each other in age.

Another Natalie/Faye connection: Natalie was Warren Beatty's first choice for "Bonnie and Clyde".

R99, How would that plunging neckline gown that Faye wore have looked on Raquel?

Wood allegedly turned down "Bonnie and Clyde" because she didn't want to part with her psychoanalyst!

I posted this before, but this article briefly discusses the failed Burr-Wood romance, not to mention Burr's two phantom marriages.

The fat old gays of datalounge.com like ugly camp women, like Judy Garland or Barbra Streisand. They don't like beautiful people.

R105, Excuse me?

I’m shocked.

Her 60s movies and Rebel are basically my go tos.

She has plenty of presence, but she’s generous. She was never competitive or a scene stealer like the divas. You can’t be a “look at me, look at me” diva and convey the gentle qualities she was portraying on film: innocence, coming of age, youthful disillusionment, female existential angst, longing.

She was a delicate beauty. She wasn’t trying to be a sexy vamp or a powerful broad. Similar: Kelly, Deneuve, Bloom, Farrow, Simmons, etc.

Thank you R107. Very well said, indeed. Exactly what this thread needed at exactly the right time.

the modern, though less attractive version of her:

Not Lily Collins?

Sorry R109, but Emma Watson is nowhere near as beautiful as Natalie Wood.

Emma is weird looking and mannish.

Natalie was a natural beauty.

[quote]R86 How in the world can you not like Natalie. She was a very natural actress.

No, she was never considered a strong actress. In 1966 she won the Hasty Pudding Award given out by Harvard for “Worst Actress of Last Year, This Year and Next.”

Critics were generally unimpressed with her work.

The breaking and entering didn't help matters.

R112, And yet, she received three Academy Award nominations and won multiple Golden Globe Awards.

Halle Berry has an Oscar. And Maria Tomei.

I know what a steer is, R59. It’s a bull that’s been castrated. What I can’t figure out is why steers were wandering around movie sets. Didn’t they crash into things and knock things over, like a(n unmanned) bull in a china shop? “Like a steer on a movie set” … is that a thing?

Jesus be a dictionary.

R109 ...and the prettier version is Diane Lane.

Pia Zadora has a Golden Globe award.

Diane Lane is a more talented actor than both.

Elizabeth McGovern had more in common with Natalie Wood than Diane Lane does.

I lOVE Elizabeth’s dress in r88’s link.

I lOVE Elizabeth’s dress in r88’s link.

[quote]And yet, she received three Academy Award nominations

Acknowledgement of her being in the business since a child.

[quote]and won multiple Golden Globe Awards.

The Hollywood Foreign Press? Please, Sally KIRKLAND got a Golden Globe.

Monroe's career was aided by several producers, one particular agent (Hyde) and a few acting coaches (Lytess, Gosler, Strasberg(s)). Most of who acknowledged that it was Norma Jeane who worked the hardest to make Marilyn a star.

Thank you, r125.

Someone tried to steer Lindsay Lohan through "Liz & Dick." That's an example of "when it's gone, it's gone."

Liz had some truly spectacular breastesses!

R120/r121 just talking about looks!

I love this shot of Ali, Dyan and Natalie in hippy drippy fashions.

[quote]r120 Diane Lane is a more talented actor than both [Natalie Wood and Emily Watson].

Oh god, yes. There's no comparison.

Lane began her career on the New York stage at age 6, learning to speak Greek for MEDEA. At 12 she was acting alongside Meryl Streep in Chekhov.

She's remarkable in UNFAITHFUL. Wood never never never would have been able to pull of a performance like that. She wouldn't even know where to start.

[Quote] learning to speak Greek for MEDEA

She didn't just learn her fucking lines?

When push came to shove, she could give a memorable performance.

Eh...

If Natalie had somehow survived the boat accident--for instance, if RJ and/or Walken had called for help in a timely manner--she would've had the "comeback story" that us gay men love so much in our idols. Dame Liz, Britney, Judy, etc. As it stood with her dying at age 43, Natalie merely left behind a lifetime of fairly decent films, and the fact that she'd been a good mum. She didn't die as young as Marilyn or as old as someone like Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. I think the shock of her death also overshadowed her life. Very, very, very few people know about her link to 'Boys in the Band'. She could've had years ahead of her in 80s primetime soaps or other campy roles. It's not so much that us gays don't like her; we barely knew her as an individual.

PS--If she had lived to've outlived Kirk Douglas, she would've been the darling of the #metoo movement by outing him for the rapist he was.

Even with the publicity of her death, "Brainstorm" bombed.

RE: r130

Natalie learned German at age 7 to accurately portray a German orphan in Tomorrow Never Dies 1946.

In that year alone (and remember, she JUST arrived in Hollywood as a child) she was working with Orson Welles and Stanwyck.

When NATALIE was 12 she was working alongside Jimmy Stewart in The Jackpot, and Charles Laughton in The Blue Veil.

She’s remarkable in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. Lane would never never never be able to pull off a performance like that. Natalie had comedic flair, which Lane noticeably lacks.

There really is no comparison.

"and Charles Laughton in The Blue Veil."

Along with DL icon Vivian Vance.

That picture at R129. Wow.

Natalie is a timeless beauty, horrible fashion notwithstanding.

In that r129 pic it looks like Ali and Dyan are laughing at her...

Here's Natalie modeling the Edith Head costumes from "Penelope".

[quote]R136 She’s remarkable in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.

Oh please. Pauline Karl wrote, “This is sketch comedy, and the problem is Wood can’t do it.”

R141, Poor Natalie. Pauline Kael was relentless with her criticisms towards her.

"Clever little Natalie Wood ... [the] most machine-tooled of Hollywood ingénues." (Gypsy)

"brassy and mechanical, with wind-up emotions"

"Natalie Wood, so perfectly banal she destroys all thoughts of love." (West Side Story)

"[Ali Macgraw] is a truly terrible actress, of the nostril school. (Did she study under Natalie Wood?)" (Convoy)

Aside from Gypsy which o love I always found her dull

She was awful in Splendor in the Grass! Especially in the clip shown in the original post.

Her acting in that film r144 was really unfortunate.

“I don’t care WHAT you DO... I haven’t got any PRIDE!”

She was a perfectly nice person, I imagine... she just wasn’t inherently a performer. There have always been stars like that; perfect little plastic dolls that don’t challenge the public to connect with anything real.

She’s an odd choice to obsess over, but the Natalie Wood stan here is deeply devoted!

At the time of her death, she was about to make her stage debut in Anastasia in Los Angeles with Wendy Hiller.

she slept her way to the bottom.

and married gays.

wacko nat

Natalie and Barbra at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Los Angeles,1963.

The hatred for Natalie here in DL makes me want to drop out of ever looking at this site again. Natalie was a fine enough actress; she was great in SPLENDOR and GYPSY. In my group I don't know a single one who dislikes her. You are all out of your minds.

[quote]R140 Here's Natalie modeling the Edith Head costumes from "Penelope".

Another bomb. Which kept her off the screen for three years.

THANK GOD!

[quote]R150 The hatred for Natalie here in DL makes me want to drop out of ever looking at this site again.

Oh jebus - -

I love her. She's one of the few actresses that got more beautiful as she aged.

R107 Bloom and Simmons don't belong in that list. They were both English and classy. And Claire Bloom has an intelligence that no-one else in this thread had.

[quote] The hatred for Natalie here in DL makes me want to drop out of ever looking at this site again

Aren't you a delicate little snowflake?

R150 why don’t you just go and take a swim?

It will relax you....

R154, Claire did not exhibit much intelligence when choosing husbands.

Rod Steiger, Hillard Elkins and Philip Roth all caused her much misery.

R157 beat me to it!

The word for Natalie Wood (after “pretty”) was “innocuous”.

[quote] [R107] Bloom and Simmons don't belong in that list. They were both English and classy. And Claire Bloom has an intelligence that no-one else in this thread had.

Excuse me?!

Who cares what Pauline Kael thinks?

She’s notorious for being wrong.

She’s obviously got a beef with Natalie. I mean, some of the movies are fluffy. This isn’t Shakespeare.

She’s just another troll on DL, as far as I’m concerned.

[quote]R161 She’s notorious for being wrong.

Like when?

She knew utter shit when she saw it. Sometimes the public didn’t agree, but then, the public’s usually brainless.

R157, R158. I hadn't heard of Claire Bloom's second husband but perhaps she chose her husbands for their fiery, dangerous talent. But she put her intelligence into her performances whereas I think the subject of this thread was rather like a Siamese cat, decorative, ornamental and empty-headed.

Really r163? For all her intelligence you’d think she would have been in better movies. Her IMDB list is unimpressive to say the least. Take away the accent and lofty script and she’s just another pretty brunette.

Siamese are considered a highly intelligent breed, by the way.

Thanks, r140.

R165, that article doesn’t prove Kael was “wrong” about any films, only that there were other critics who disagreed with her.

As usually happens among critics.

R163, Hillard "Hilly" Elkins was a very well known agent turned producer of theatre, films and television.

"In 1953, he opened his own management company, where he represented James Coburn, Robert Culp, Steve McQueen, Mel Brooks, Herbert Ross, Charles Strouse, and Lee Adams.

Elkins turned to Broadway theatre producing in 1962 with the Garson Kanin play Come on Strong. The following year, he saw former client Sammy Davis, Jr. performing at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, and approached him about starring in a musical version of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy. When Davis expressed interest, Elkins approached Odets to adapt his 1937 hit play and write the book for the musical (revised by William Gibson when Odets died in August 1963) and hired Strouse and Adams to compose the score. The 1964 Broadway production, directed by Arthur Penn, earned Elkins Tony Award nominations for Best Musical and Best Producer of a Musical. Additional Broadway credits include Oh! Calcutta!, The Rothschilds, and Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, the latter two with his then-wife Claire Bloom (they married in 1969 and divorced in 1972).

Elkins reunited with director Penn for his first film production, Alice's Restaurant (1969) with Arlo Guthrie. This was followed by the Golden Globe-nominated film A New Leaf (1971), screen adaptations of Oh! Calcutta! (1972) and A Doll's House (1973), and Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979).

For television, Elkins produced the documentaries Pippin: His Life and Times (1981), Sex, Censorship and the Silver Screen (1996), An Evening with Quentin Crisp (1999), and Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool (2005)."

Claire Bloom also became one of the notches on Richard Burton's belt.

When she reunited with Burton for "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold", Elizabeth was fearful that they might also reunite their affair.

[quote]R168 Elkins turned to Broadway theatre producing in 1962 with the Garson Kanin play Come on Strong.

Starring Miss Carroll Baker.

It appears to have one of the ugliest posters ever created.

And why does it say the actors appear “in person”? How else would they perform a stage play?? By telephone?

I don’t think her acting was much worse than many of her contemporaries. She was famous at a time when a lot of films were full of melodramatic nonsense.

Yes, R169, Burton and Bloom were together in 'The Lady's Not For Burning’ (1949) and 'Hamlet' (1950) on stage and paired off for 'Alexander the Great' (1956), 'Look Back in Anger' (1959) and, as you say 'Spy Who Came in from the Cold' (1965).

R170, My guess is the producers wanted to confirm that it was a stage production and not a movie.

In her autobiography, Claire's description of her marriage and subsequent divorce from Philip Roth is pretty harrowing.

Like plenty of other actresses, Natalie Wood got better. She's excellent in that TV Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

She had a delicate beauty, like Audrey Hepburn, but Audrey had grace, something lacking in Natalie.

Ultimately, she's a little dull. Not bad, just dull. And dullness is anathema to the gays.

I'm not a lesbian or a heterosexual so my strongest memory of this skinny, black-eyed dead movie star was that she was so frequently chosen to play passive females who were ill-used by their menfolk.

She did a lot of whining on screen.

I saw it last night. HBO’s 2020 documentary. Enjoyable.

This poster image is more dishonestly fake than the 1967 poster for GWTW when poor Vivien suddenly sprouted breasts.

Natalie was beautiful, but the last time I saw her she looked a little bloated.

She was fantastic.

[quote] She didn't have a campy bone in her body,

Well, that's easily disproved.

Or, if you prefer...

R181 Is "Daisy Clover' supposed to be a rip-off of Judy Garland? A mentally-fragile teenager surrounded by homosexuals and insane people in California?

I think it would be hard for her to be any LESS campy than she is here, especially at 1:39 and following.

[quote] Pia Zadora has a Golden Globe award.

Natalie Wood had [italic]multiple[/italic] Golden Globe awards. And she also had three Oscar nominations.

This woman looks like Natalie Wood

A physiognomist would love your picture R149.

Nose pointing downward (on the left) and nose pointing upward (on the right).

I’ve said this before but her beauty is the type that’s not nearly as celebrated today, in an age where beauty is measured by cheekbones, sharp jawlines and straight skinny noses. She was more “all American pretty” (yes I know she’s Russian, but you know what I mean) which everyone wanted to be back then but not so much today.

Is it true her real cultural name was Natalia Obolenskaya?

R181 Some have speculated that Daisy and her mother were loosely based on Marilyn Monroe and Gladys Baker, not Garland.

R149 OMG. I reckon Irene Sharaff taught Barbra how to pose for cameras.

'Hold your head up and glare at a spot one foot above than the cameraman's lenses!

Natalie, Elizabeth, Audrey, and their mates.

I never realized Natalie and Liz Taylor were so close. Liz was six years older than Natalie.

Liz and Nat and those jerks.

I loved Natalie Wood. I cried when she died and I was a kid.

R194 Natalia's mink coat is to DIE for!

And she's got a Lap Dog as well.

My favorite movies of hers were:

Miracle on 34th Street, West Side Story, Love with A Proper Stranger, This Property is Condemned and Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice, If you haven't seen that you must. Natalie was underrated with comedy. I like Gypsy. Majorie Morningstar was interesting and Inside Daisy Clover was weird and see seemed so miscast but its worth a look to analyze.

[quote]R189 Is it true her real cultural name was Natalia Obolenskaya?

No. It was Natalia Rulalenska.

She was miscast in "Marjorie Morningstar" too.

When she died, she had been cast in a major stage production of Anastasia at the Ahmanson. I can't remember whether rehearsals had started.

She told friends she was very excited about it.

She told friends she was very excited about it.

R200 The Crown Princess Anastasia would NOT wear a dress that displays her breasts in such a blatant lewd fashion.

She was a Grand Duchess, not a Crown Princess. And even if Russia had styled their Czar's daughters as Princesses, she would not have been a Crown Princess. That's a female heir apparent or the wife a male heir apparent. She was neither.

^. I knew one of you Czarophiles would correct me but I'm sure that showing off the royal boobies is slutty and inappropriate

During Napoleon's regime, his wife and the ladies of the court would attend formal balls wrapped tightly in dresses of wet gauze. Plus jewels, of course.

European aristocracy and royalty showed their boobies. Russia and England were much more inhibited.

R200, Rehearsals were to begin in December, just days after her death. There were concerns about whether Natalie's speaking voice would be strong enough for the stage.

[quote]R203 The Crown Princess Anastasia would NOT wear a dress that displays her breasts in such a blatant lewd fashion.

Not to mention she was much too old for the part (??) The character’s 27.

[quote]R203 The Crown Princess Anastasia would NOT wear a dress that displays her breasts in such a blatant lewd fashion.

Not to mention she was much too old for the part (??) The character’s 27.

[quote]R207 There were concerns about whether Natalie's [bold]speaking voice [/bold]would be strong enough for the stage.

I misread this as [italic]shrieking voice[/italic]

: o

I am surprised they let Lana participate.

love her but hated her character in Love and the Single Girl. What a terrible film.

The composer Giacomo Puccini was praised for bringing dramatic subtlety into grand opera. He was also condemned for choosing stories about females who were naive, subservient and foolish women who ‘loved not wisely, but too well’.

His characters (Liù in ‘Turandot’, Mimi in ‘Boheme’, and Cio-Cio-San in ‘Madam Butterfly’) were designed for sadistic men who take pleasure in seeing women suffer.

I think the same can be said for Natalie Wood’s roles in ‘Inside Daisy Clover’, ‘Splendour in the Grass’, ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘West Side Story

"love her but hated her character in Love and the Single Girl. What a terrible film."

Oh, dear!

There´s something unkosher about her.

I bet Barbra would look so different if she had Natalie’s nose. Like Jennifer Grey different.

I bet Natalie would have looked so different if she'd had Barbra's nose.

^^ well, it could have lent her some desperately needed personality.

R215, Six years after that encounter with Babs, Natalie starred with Elliott Gould in "Bob&Carol&Ted&Alice".

Natalie and Anthony Perkins

Natalie and Tab Hunter

Natalie Tab and Tony

Natalie gets a Modern Screen Award.

Modern Screen Award! My sides... surely they could throw one of those G's way?

Sparkle, Natalie, sparkle!

Natalie interviewed at the 1966 Golden Globe Awards.

Which critic once commented that her butt was so twitchy in her 1961 film with Warren Beatty that they should have called it "Splendor in the Ass"?

r225 Natalie was the poster child for projecting that 1950's veneer of perky, girlish innocence over smouldering sexuality just below the surface.

R216 but she also has a weak chin/weird mouth /overbite. It’s not JUST her nose.

Her prettiest feature were her eyes (color, not necessary shape).

Buck would never have wanted her as a mother.

Natalie, Warren, and Jill St John, 1963

Natalie wasn't camp, darling. Here's what camp is. And she's good, too.

R232 Oh, Natalie could be campy...

"Alright, Daisy, let's go for a take."

R232 That shimmering dress with the leg-split looks like one of those by Kenny for his mother Edna Everage.

It fails to disguise the fact that the wearer has lost her figure.

I bet that Natalie Wood would have got breast implants.

I occasionally watch that show 'Botched' and every episode there are Natalie Wood-wannabes wanting their botched boob-jobs corrected..