Lana Wood’s most memorable role might be the sexy Bond girl Plenty O’Toole from Diamonds Are Forever, but she’s aware the most significant part she’s played has been fighting for the truth about the tragic drowning of her sister, Natalie Wood.
“For the past 30 years, it’s eaten at my soul, not knowing what happened to someone you dearly love,” says Lana of the mysterious death of Natalie in 1981, after arguing with her husband Robert Wagner (known as R.J.).
“I was shaken to my very core. But as I’ve said, it’s far easier to believe the best and simplest explanation, to believe nobody close to Natalie would ever harm her. I want to believe the best, but inconsistencies keep hitting me in the face.”
Related: Natalie Wood drowning case reopened after 30 years
Now, with police reopening the case thanks to new information, Lana, 65, may finally get the closure she craves.
As she explains, she’s always had questions about the official explanation for her sister’s death — that the glamorous actress drowned accidentally after slipping while trying to retie the dinghy to prevent it banging against the side of their motor cruiser The Splendour.
Natalie was found dead wearing just a nightgown, down jacket and socks about a kilometre away from the motor cruiser. “She never would have gone out late at night to tie the dingy,” says Lana.
Yet there has been another compelling factor for Lana. Ten years after Natalie’s death, The Splendour’s captain Dennis Davern started calling her, guilt-ridden he had not told police everything he knew.
“He was overwrought and said they [Natalie and R.J.] were having a horrible argument the whole weekend, and there was too much drinking going on. I don’t know what the fight was about, there were a lot of things coming into play, and a flirtation [rumoured between Natalie and Walken] may have broken the camel’s back.”
“Dennis heard and saw them on the back deck. He tried once to help, but R.J. told him to go away.”
She claims Dennis told her Robert knew Natalie was in the water and would not let him turn on the searchlight, saying “leave her there, teach her a lesson”.
“I don’t think this is anything R.J. planned,” Lana says, her voice rising. “As angry as I get, the fact is I have known Wagner since I was nine, he was my family. It’s difficult to point the finger.”
Thirty years on, Lana’s hurt hasn’t faded. If anything, understandably, it’s intensified. “My mum, as dear as she was, was rather flighty and involved with Natalie’s career, so Natalie was my sister, my mother and best friend,” she says of their bond.
“When I was born, Natalie [eight years older] was already a child star, so I never knew her as anything other than a well-loved actress. She was a kind, wonderful person. She loved being a mother and her relationship with R.J. was passionate. It was — I can’t live with or without you.”
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Would Lana like to see someone charged if the captain’s story can be verified? “I don’t care whether anyone is punished,” she says. “I think living with [the knowledge of] something like this is punishment enough. I just want Natalie to have a voice.”
Read more of this story in the January issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
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