Lana Wood

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Lana Wood
Lana Wood - 1966.jpg
Publicity photo of Wood in the ABC television series Peyton Place, 1966
Born
Svetlana Gurdin

(1946-03-01) March 1, 1946 (age 75)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
OccupationActress, producer
Years active1947–present
Spouse(s)
Jack Wrather Jr.
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​
(m. 1962; annulled 1963)​
Karl Brent
​
​
(m. 1964; div. 1965)​
​
​
(m. 1966; annulled 1966)​
Stanley William Vogel
​
​
(m. 1968; div. 1968)​
Richard Smedley
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​
(m. 1972; div. 1976)​
Allan Balter
​
​
(m. 1979; div. 1980)​
Partner(s)Alan Feinstein (1980s)
Children1 (deceased)
RelativesNatalie Wood (sister)
Natasha Gregson Wagner (niece)

Lana Wood (born Svetlana Gurdin; March 1, 1946)[1] is an American actress[2] and film producer.[3] She played Sandy Webber on the TV series Peyton Place and Plenty O'Toole in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. Her sister was film star Natalie Wood.

Early life[]

Wood was born Svetlana Gurdina[1] to Russian immigrant parents, Nikolai Stephanovich Zakharenko (1912–1980) and Maria Stepanovna Zakharenko (née Zudilova, 1908–1998).[a] 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 1918; 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 also 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.[6] Maria married there, and in 1928 with her first husband had a daughter, Olga Tatulova,[7] who died in May 2015.[8]

When Nikolai and Maria married, she brought her daughter Olga to the household. The couple had two daughters together; the first was Natalia, known as "Natasha", the Russian diminutive. The family settled in Santa Monica, California, near Hollywood, and changed their surname to Gurdin. Svetlana, known as "Lana", was born there.

Her parents changed the surname of her elder sister, Natalie to "Wood", after she started her acting career as a child. She was named after her director Irving Pichel's friend Sam Wood.[9]

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.

Career[]

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. 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. She was cast as a Bond girl, Plenty O'Toole, in the James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

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. She turned down the Karen Black role in Easy Rider (1969), a decision she now cites as the worst mistake she has made in her career. 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. Lana is a character in the Steve Alten book Meg: Hell's Aquarium (2009). Wood wrote a memoir, Natalie, A Memoir by Her Sister (1984).

Personal life[]

Wood with her sister Natalie Wood 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.[10]
  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. For most of the 1980s she cohabited with Alan Feinstein.[11] Feinstein was at Natalie's funeral with her.[12]

Her sister Natalie Wood was married to actor Robert Wagner until her drowning death on November 29, 1981.

TV and filmography[]

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Wood's mother was born on January 26, 1908, according to the earliest available records.[4] 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.[5]

Bibliography[]

  • Wood, Lana (1984). Natalie Wood: A Memoir by Her Sister. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-12903-0.
  • Finstad, Suzanne (2001). Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood. New York: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0609809570.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Birth name per californiabirthindex.org; accessed June 24, 2015.
  2. ^ Paul, Louis (2008). "Lana Wood". Tales From the Cult Film Trenches; Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. pp. 300–306. ISBN 978-0-7864-2994-3.
  3. ^ "Lana Wood". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2009. Archived from the original on November 18, 2009.
  4. ^ Tatuloff, Alexander (September 17, 1934). Declaration of Intention, no. 89199. U.S. District Court Naturalization Index, 1852-1989.
  5. ^ Finstad 2001, p. 6.
  6. ^ Natalie Wood's Russian roots excerpets from Natalie Wood: A Life by Gavin Lambert, 2004
  7. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Natalie Wood's Sister Blames Captain Dennis Davern For Her Death". rumorfix.com. rumorfix.com. November 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  8. ^ "Olga Viripaeff's Obituary on San Francisco Chronicle". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  9. ^ Lana Wood, Natalie: A Memoir About Natalie Wood by Her Sister, p. 8
  10. ^ "Late Star's Niece Dies After Massive Heart Attack". RadarOnline.
  11. ^ Profile, sun-sentinel.com, July 20, 1985.
  12. ^ 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.

External links[]

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