Biographie

Pallbearers at her funeral were Rock Hudson, Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, Elia Kazan, Gregory Peck, David Niven and Fred Astaire.

She was cast as Maggie in La chatte sur un toit brûlant (1976) quite unexpectedly, without campaigning for the role. Wood explained that when Laurence Olivier would come to Hollywood, she would often be seated with him at the table at formal sit-down dinners. When Olivier decided to make a version of the Tennessee Williams play, he thought of casting Wood, his dinner companion, and her husband, Robert Wagner, in the husband-wife roles of Brick and Maggie. Naturally, they accepted.

Don Henley wrote the song "Dirty Laundry" to express his outrage at the tabloid press for their treatment of her after her death.

She suffered from a deep fear of drowning after having barely survived an accident when she was a little girl, during the filming of The Green Promise (1949). Her fear was so great that Elia Kazan had to lie - promising a double - and trick her into doing the scenes at the water reservoir in La fièvre dans le sang (1961).

Spoke Russian and English.

You get tough in this business, until you get big enough to hire people to get tough for you. Then you can sit back and be a lady.

In so many ways I think it's a bore to be sorry you were a child actor - so many people feel sorry for you automatically. At the time, I wasn't aware of the things I missed, so why should I think of them in retrospect? Everybody misses something or other.

I felt a little funny when we were going to do the bed scene, all four of us, in Bob et Carole et Ted et Alice (1969). I'm open to suggestions, I'm no prude, but four is a crowd in my book. Fortunately, Dyan Cannon was there. The thought of another woman being in there in the bed helped get me through it. It's not like it sounds. It's just that I don't think I could have done it if it had been me and three men.

[on being a child actor] I spent practically all my time in the company of adults. I was very withdrawn, very shy, I did what I was told and I tried not to disappoint anybody. I knew I had a duty to perform, and I was trained to follow orders.

[shortly before her death] You know what I want? I want yesterday.

Bob et Carole et Ted et Alice (1970) - $250,000 + 10% of the net profits.

Les plaisirs de Pénélope (1968) - $750,000

La Grande Course autour du monde (1966) - $7,000 (Director Blake Edwards and co-star Jack Lemmon each gave her half of his respective salary)

Une vierge sur canapé (1965) - $750,000

West Side Story (1962) - $250,000