In her new memoir, actor Lana Wood alleges that Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted her sister, Natalie Wood, in 1955, the Associated Press reports.
Lana Wood makes the claim in Little Sister: My Investigation Into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood, which is scheduled for publication by Dey Street Books next Tuesday.
Lana Wood writes that she was in the car when her mother dropped off Natalie Wood, then known for her roles in Tomorrow Is Forever and Miracle on 34th Street, at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles to meet Douglas.
“It seemed like a long time passed before Natalie got back into the car and woke me up when she slammed the door shut,” she writes. “She looked awful. She was very disheveled and very upset, and she and Mom started urgently whispering to each other.…Something bad had apparently happened to my sister, but whatever it was, I was apparently too young to be told about it.”
In a 2001 biography of Natalie Wood, author Suzanne Finstad wrote that the actor had been raped at the age of 16 by a “powerful, married movie star.” Finstad did not name the alleged assailant in her book.
Douglas died in 2020. Natalie Wood died in 1981, drowning near Santa Catalina Island while on a boat trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken. Her death was initially ruled accidental, but was later attributed to “undetermined factors.” An investigation into her death is still open.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
