Lana Wood

Wood was born Svetlana Lisa Gurdin{{cite book|author=Danny Morgenstern, Manfred Hobsch|title=James Bond XXL|year=2006|publisher=Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf|page=740}}Birth registration at [http://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/svetlana_gurdin_born_1946_3182952 californiabirthindex.org]; accessed June 24, 2015. to Russian immigrant parents, Maria Zudilova (1908{{efn|Wood's mother was born on January 26, 1908, according to the earliest available records.Tatuloff, Alexander (September 17, 1934). [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-8BVN-8YJ Declaration of Intention, no. 89199]. U.S. District Court Naturalization Index, 1852-1989. Sometime in the mid-1930s, she shaved four years off her age—giving her birthdate as February 8, 1912, perhaps because her fiancé was younger—and maintained this lie for the rest of her life.Finstad, 2001, p. 6.}}–1998) and Nicholas Zacharenko (1912–1980). They had each left Russia as child refugees with their parents following the Russian Civil War, and they grew up far from their homeland. Her father's family left Vladivostok after her grandfather, a chocolate-factory worker who joined the anti-Bolshevik civilian forces, was killed in a street fight in 1922;Finstad, 2001, p. 14. they settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, with their relatives, then moved to San Francisco. Lana's maternal grandfather owned soap and candle factories in Barnaul; he left Russia with his family in 1918 after his eldest son was killed by the Red Army, and settled in a Russian community in Harbin, China.[https://www.today.com/news/natalie-woods-russian-roots-wbna4325330 Natalie Wood's Russian roots] excerpts from Natalie Wood: A Life by Gavin Lambert, 2004. Maria married Alexander Tatuloff there in 1925,Tatuloff, Alexander (September 17, 1934). [https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-8BVN-8YJ Declaration of Intention, no. 89199]. U.S. District Court Naturalization Index, 1852-1989. and they had a daughter, Olga Viripaeff (1928–2015),{{cite web |title=EXCLUSIVE: Natalie Wood's Sister Blames Captain Dennis Davern For Her Death |url=http://rumorfix.com/2011/11/exclusive-natalie-woods-sister-blames-captain-dennis-davern-for-her-death/ |website=rumorfix.com |date=November 2011 |access-date=July 27, 2015}}{{Cite web |title=Olga Viripaeff's Obituary on San Francisco Chronicle |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=olga-viripaeff&pid=174972316&fhid=3068 |website=San Francisco Chronicle|date = May 30, 2015}} before divorcing in 1936.[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/458157299 "Interlocutory Divorce Decrees Granted"]. The San Francisco Examiner. March 17, 1936.

When Nicholas and Maria married in February 1938, she brought her daughter Olga, then known as Ovsanna, to the household, sharing joint custody with her ex-husband in El Cerrito, California. The couple had two daughters together; the first was Natalie, known as "Natasha", the Russian diminutive. The family settled in Santa Monica, near Hollywood, and changed their surname to Gurdin. Svetlana, known as "Lana", was born there. RKO executives David Lewis and William Goetz changed the surname of her elder sister, making her Natalie Wood, after she started her acting career as a child. She was named after director Irving Pichel's friend Sam Wood.Lana Wood, Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister, p. 8. When Lana made her film debut in The Searchers (1956), her mother was asked under what last name Lana should be credited. Maria agreed to use "Wood" for Lana, building on Natalie's recognized work.

Through her paternal cousin Kaisaliisa Zacharenko, Wood is distantly related by marriage to baseball player Tim Lincecum.{{cite news|title=Obituaries|newspaper=The Town Talk|date=May 27, 2005|page=C4}}

File:Lana Wood - 1966.jpg

In her early career, Wood usually played in films in which Natalie appeared. Starting in the 1960s, her own career took off. After appearing on the short-lived drama series The Long, Hot Summer, she landed the role of Sandy Webber on the soap series Peyton Place. She played the role from 1966 to 1967. She turned down the Karen Black role in Five Easy Pieces (1970), a decision she now cites as the worst mistake she has made in her career. She was cast as a Bond girl, Plenty O'Toole, in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971). In 1970, Wood was approached by Hugh Hefner and she agreed to pose for Playboy. The Playboy pictures appeared in the April 1971 issue, along with Wood's poetry.

Wood has more than 20 other films and over 300 television series to her credit, including The Fugitive, Bonanza, Mission: Impossible, Wild, Wild West, Police Story, Starsky & Hutch, Nero Wolfe, Fantasy Island, and Capitol. After appearing in the horror film Satan's Mistress (1982), she retired from acting, concentrating on her career as a producer, but since 2008 she has returned to acting in a number of low-budget films. Wood is a character in the Steve Alten book Meg: Hell's Aquarium (2009).

She wrote a memoir, Natalie, A Memoir by Her Sister (1984), and another, Little Sister (2021), in which she claimed veteran actor Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted her sister Natalie when she was just 16.{{Cite news|date=2021-11-05|title=Kirk Douglas assaulted Natalie Wood, her sister alleges|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59170667|access-date=2021-11-05}}

File:Natalie Wood and Lana Wood 1956.jpg in 1956]]

Wood has been married six times:

1. Jack Wrather Jr. – (1962–1963; annulled when she was 16 years old)
2. Karl Brent – (1964–1965; divorced)
3. Stephen Oliver – (1966–1966; annulled)
4. Dr. Stanley William Vogel (1968–1968; divorced)
5. Richard Smedley – (1972–1976; divorced) one child, Evan Taylor Smedley Maldonado (August 11, 1974 – July 18, 2017), by whom she has three grandchildren.{{cite web |work=RadarOnline |title=Late Star's Niece Dies After Massive Heart Attack |date=July 19, 2017 |url=http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/natalie-wood-sister-lana-wood-daughter-dead-cancer-massive-heart-attack-life-support/}}
6. Allan G. Balter (1979–1980; divorced)

Between marriages, Wood dated actors Dean Stockwell, Adam West, Eddie Fisher, Warren Beatty, Sean Connery, Alain Delon and Ryan O'Neal, as well as talent agent Guy McElwaine,{{cite book|last=Wood|first=Lana|title=Little Sister: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood|year=2021|publisher= HarperCollins|isbn=978-0063081628}} producer Jerome Hellman and composer Leslie Bricusse.{{cite web|title= Bond girl Lana Wood reveals why affair with Sean Connery ended |url=https://nypost.com/2021/11/23/bond-girl-lana-wood-reveals-why-sean-connery-affair-ended/|author=Ibrahim, Samantha|work=New York Post|date=November 23, 2021}} For most of the 1980s she was in a relationship with Alan Feinstein.[http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1985-07-20/features/8501300164_1_natalie-wood-feud-feelings Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710185436/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1985-07-20/features/8501300164_1_natalie-wood-feud-feelings |date=July 10, 2015 }}, sun-sentinel.com, July 20, 1985. Feinstein was at Natalie's funeral with her.[https://calisphere.org/item/de67e7cc4e902da3cbdff421a96f17ac/ Lana Wood, sister of Natalie Wood, is comforted by then boyfriend Alan Feinstein as she leaves Natalie Wood's funeral service, which was held at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery on December 2, 1981. Daughter Evan Smedley holds her mother's hand.]

Wood's sister Natalie was married to actor Robert Wagner until her drowning death on November 29, 1981. She has long been at odds with both Wagner and his third wife Jill St. John, her feud with the latter dating back to when both appeared in Diamonds Are Forever.{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/insider-vol-52-no-14/|title=Insider|author=Perry Graham, Nancy|date=October 11, 1999|work=People}}

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• {{cite book |author=Wood, Lana |title=Natalie Wood: A Memoir by Her Sister |url=https://archive.org/details/nataliememoirbyh00wood |url-access=registration |publisher=New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons |year=1984 |isbn=0-399-12903-0}}
• {{cite book |author=Finstad, Suzanne |title=Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood |publisher=New York: Three Rivers Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0609809570}}

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• {{IMDb name|0939836}}
• {{TCMDb name|208959}}
• [http://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2015/03/an-interview-with-actress-lana-wood.html Interview with Lana Wood at Classic Film & TV Cafe]

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Category:1946 births

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:21st-century American actresses

Category:Actresses from Santa Monica, California

Category:American film actresses

Category:American child actresses

Category:Film producers from California

Category:American people of Russian descent

Category:American television actresses

Category:Television producers from California

Category:American women television producers

Category:Living people

Category:Russian Orthodox Christians from the United States

Category:American women film producers