These joyful images were taken by the photographer Steve Schapiro. Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner had invited him to spend the day on their boat, The Splendour, off Catalina Island in front of Los Angeles. Steve Schapiro recalls a loving couple that had married, divorced, and remarried. Not long after, tragedy struck.
On November 29, 1981, at 7:30 AM, the coast guard found the actress’s body floating off the coast. The investigation, closed after two weeks, declared death by accidental drowning. A book written by the boat’s captain, which came out last month, along an article in Vanity Fair and a segment on CBS, has cast doubt on that conclusion. The LAPD have reopened the case.
