dual personalities

Tag: Natalie Wood

November 4, 2016

“You ever been in a chickie-run?”*

by chuckofish

The Star of the Month for November on TCM is Natalie Wood. Every Friday this month they will be showing her movies, including a few favorites of mine.

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Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with James Dean

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Love With the Proper Stranger (1963) with Steve McQueen

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The Searchers (1956) with Jeffrey Hunter

Natalie’s career was a little uneven, but she was in some great movies, both as a child (Miracle on 39th Street) and as a teenager and an adult. It was a sad day indeed when she drowned at age 43 in 1981.

I am happy to toast her tonight and watch a movie with one of her dreamy co-stars.

And this news made me very happy:

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For those of us who have trouble sleeping at night, here are some no-brainer suggestions from the National Sleep Foundation:

  • Practice yoga, meditation or deep breathing before bed, to help you feel more relaxed.
  • Avoid TV or computers before bed, These devices can stimulate your brain and make it more difficult to fall asleep.
  • Enjoy a soothing mug of chamomile tea.
  • Take a shower or bath.
  • Perform leg exercises, such as squats, to promote blood flow to the legs.
  • Count sheep or breathe deeply. Or imagine yourself already asleep.
  • Earlier in the day, make time to exercise.
  • If there’s something you’re worried about it, think through it during the day.

I particularly like that last one. I mean seriously. Thanks.

Have a good weekend! Don’t forget to turn your clocks back on Saturday night!

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*Buzz Gunderson in Rebel Without a Cause

3 Comments
July 20, 2012

Happy birthday, Natalie Wood

by chuckofish

Doesn’t everyone love Natalie Wood?

Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents. She made her film début a few weeks before turning five during a fifteen-second scene in the 1943 film Happy Land. In 1947 she appeared in two favorites of mine, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Miracle on 34th Street. A few years later at age 15 she starred with James Dean in the classic Rebel Without a Cause, uttering the immortal line, “I love somebody. All the time I’ve been… I’ve been looking for someone to love me. And now I love somebody. And it’s so easy. Why is it easy now?” Somehow she made you believe it.

And the next year she appeared in John Ford’s The Searchers with John Wayne. Indeed, she had quite a career, despite not really being a very good actress. Frequently the studio powers-that-be had her playing Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Italians–I suppose because of those big brown eyes–and she was never very good at faking accents. But there was just something about Natalie you had to like.

She died much too young (and tragically) in 1981. Rest in peace, Natalie. May light perpetual shine upon you.

Natalie with Steve McQueen in “Love With the Proper Stranger”–a good Friday movie pic, don’t you think? Steve is better than usual in this movie, and he is always great.

7 Comments