Ominous, tragic deaths and Hollywood have been known to go hand in hand, as some of the most infamous legends of the last century have died in eerily ways.
However, what isn’t a usual occurrence is that a psychic is involved way before the event happens.
Unfortunately, in the case of Natalie Wood, this is how her story began and ended.
If you don’t know about the tragic case of Wood, then you’re going to want to read this.
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Thrown into the limelight in the 1940s by her fame-hungry mother, Wood was a child star like no other.
With dozens of titles under her belt from the age of seven until adolescence, the actress was known as a professional in the industry from the start.
The West Side Story star landed her first role after taking her mother’s strange advice and jumping into the lap of director Irving Pichel, who quickly scooped her two uncredited roles before directing her in Tomorrow is Forever.
It wasn’t long before she starred in the famous Miracle on 34th Street, which was one of the most popular movies of 1947.
However, her personal life remained dark.
It was around this time that her mother decided to enlist the help of a psychic to predict Wood’s future and the result wasn’t what anyone could have expected.
Instead of prophesying fame and fortune, she predicted death.
But it’s the cause of death which is important to remember.
She was told that she would die in ‘dark water’, which led to a lifelong fear of water, even their swimming pool at home.
With such a fear of drowning, it was reported that Wood never learned how to swim.
Fast-forward time to 1981 and Wood was dining on a boat with her husband, Robert Wagner and her co-star Christopher Walken near Catalina Island.
At some point during the night, Wood fell into the water and drowned to death.
However, her case was re-opened and many had suspicions that Wagner played some role in her death as Wood was so terrified of water.
The case regained attention in 2013 when the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office changed the cause of death to be 'drowning and other undetermined factors’, but Wagner never faced charges for her untimely death and there was no evidence tying Walken to any crime.
According to the LA Times, the revised report found signs of abuse from the night of her drowning and CBS News even reported that Wagner was considered a ‘person of interest’ when the case was reopened in 2018.
However, the psychic’s prediction ultimately came true, one way or another.
Whether this was due to the prediction being told to the actress which left her scarred and afraid to learn how to swim, or whether it was just a terrible tragedy, we’ll never know.
Britt Jones