--- title: Natalie Wood: Photos of the Star and Hollywood Powerhouse, 1963 description: Photos of Natalie Wood in the early '60s, when she had made the leap from actress to movie star and to formidable Hollywood player. canonical: https://time.com/3881444/natalie-wood-rare-and-classic-photos-of-a-hollywood-legend/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-11T15:38:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:34.611Z og:title: Natalie Wood: Photos of the Star and Hollywood Powerhouse, 1963 og:description: Photos of Natalie Wood in the early '60s, when she had made the leap from actress to movie star and to formidable Hollywood player. og:url: https://time.com/3881444/natalie-wood-rare-and-classic-photos-of-a-hollywood-legend/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2761275413d9f09/698848becd6848417309f202/01_05535327.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Natalie Wood, 1963 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Natalie Wood: Photos of the Star and Hollywood Powerhouse, 1963 twitter:description: Photos of Natalie Wood in the early '60s, when she had made the leap from actress to movie star and to formidable Hollywood player. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2761275413d9f09/698848becd6848417309f202/01_05535327.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE With Natalie Wood: Portraits of a Legend > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 11, 2014 3:38 PM UTC  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963.© Bill Ray by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 11, 2014 3:38 PM UTC Born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco at the height of the Great Depression, Natalie Wood (“Natasha” to close friends) was one of those rare stars who managed to combine old-school glamor, powerhouse talent and smoldering sex appeal in a single package. Her drowning death off the California coast when she was just 43 years old remains one of Hollywood’s enduring mysteries, and the source of more than two decades’ worth of rumors, investigations and speculation. Here, LIFE.com presents a selection of photographs made by Bill Ray in 1963 — a time in the 25-year-old Wood’s career when she had made the leap from actress to genuine movie star and, more importantly, to formidable Hollywood player. \[Many of the photos in this gallery were not originally published in LIFE, but appear in Bill Ray’s book, _My Life in Photography_. [Buy the book here](http://www.blurb.com/books/3264482).\] For Bill Ray, the most striking memory of the several weeks that he spent with Wood and her showbiz cohorts is, unsurprisingly, Wood herself — or, more specifically, her singular beauty. “She was divine,” Ray told LIFE.com. “Really. She was divine to look at, and to photograph. She had that wonderful face, a great body, those _amazing_ eyes — just a beautiful young woman, and a lot of fun to be around.” Ray, who was not yet on staff at LIFE, also recalls that this was a big — and for his career, perhaps pivotal — gig. At the time, LIFE published 51 issues a year, with a special double issue in late December. For the Dec. 20, 1963, issue that focused wholly on the movies, Ray scored the choice, high-profile feature on Wood — the only piece in the entire issue devoted to a single actor or actress. “This was big stuff,” he says today of the plum assignment. “You know, back then photographers were never part of the meetings where these sort of assignment decisions were made, so to get the call for something of this magnitude — I was thrilled.” Thrilled, but hardly cowed or overawed. After all, by the time the Natalie Wood shoot came his way, Ray was a seasoned professional, having covered the likes of JFK, Elvis Presley, John Wayne and other huge names and famous faces. What comes through in so many of his photographs, meanwhile, is the sense that here was a photographer who genuinely enjoyed his work (and why _wouldn’t_ he?), while his subject was a strong young woman who had been in the public eye for so long that having her every move documented was hardly anything new. In fact, as LIFE reminded its readers in that special year-end double issue back in 1963, Natalie Wood was about as self-aware — and self-confident — an actress as one was ever likely to meet: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- One last detail that Bill Ray recalls about his time with Natalie Wood, however, casts something of a pall across his otherwise sunny memories. At some point during those several weeks, he joined Wood and a number of other people on a boat ride to Catalina Island (see slide 16 in the gallery) — the same island off the California coast near which Wood would drown in the fall of 1981\. When Ray heard about her death, he was stunned: not only because he had always liked her and remembered the time he spent with her with such fondness, but because he had been struck during that boat ride in 1963 by how uncharacteristically out of sorts she seemed. “It was obvious to me,” Ray told LIFE.com, “that Natalie did not like being out on the water at all. When I heard that she’d drowned, in basically the same place where we’d been all those years before, I wasn’t just sad — although that was part of it. I was also very, very surprised.” Five decades later, the mystery of Natalie Wood’s death endures. Bill Ray’s pictures, meanwhile, shed a clear, poignant light on a time when the star’s already impressive career felt boundless, and her life charmed. The future, it seemed then, was hers for the taking. \[To see more of Bill Ray’s photography, and to purchase prints, [visit BillRay.com](http://www.billray.com/).\] --- _Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_ ---  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "Cool and comfortable, Natalie plays a game. Friends name something, she acts it out. Here is 'slightly sensuous.'" © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "The woman who guided Natalie to stardom was her mother, Russian-born Mrs. Maria Gurdin (center). Stern, shrewd, she scrutinized scripts, haggled over fees, dressed her child in prim clothes when competitors wore sexy ones." © Bill Ray  Natalie Wood learns to play billiards with Tony Curtis, 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. © Bill Ray  Natalie Wood gets a piggyback ride from producer Arthur Loew, Jr., who stops when Paul Newman invites them to go go-cart racing, 1963. © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "Gowned in satin, bathed by spots, fussed over by attendants, Natalie glows with the glamor that a true star, and the movies themselves, has never lost." © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "Natalie, a shrewd businesswoman, enjoys presiding over her high-powered cabinet. These veterans find that Natalie, a veteran herself, is as knowledgeable as they are." © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "Natalie's big brown-black eyes grow larger with delight seeing costumes sketched by Edith Head for Sex and the Single Girl." © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "Natalie is preparing for two other films and taking singing lessons from producer Herb Greene. He stretches her slim throat to get the belting voice needed for Inside Daisy Clover." © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. © Bill Ray  Caption from LIFE. "Natalie Wood and Arthur Loew Jr., 1963." © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood with her father, Nick, a film prop maker, and her sister Lana, in 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood chats with Edward G. Robinson, who calls her by her real name, Natasha, in 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Michael Caine sweeps Natalie Wood off her feet, 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood, 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood in 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. Natalie Wood and friends, 1963. © Bill Ray  Not published in LIFE. 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