Electric Connection
Natalie Wood was only 43 years old when she boarded Splendour on Thanksgiving weekend in 1981. She was in the middle of filming Brainstorm, in which she played Christopher Walken's wife. Although it was later said by the film's assistant director David McGiffert that Wood and Walken weren't "lovey-dovey," the pair had undeniable chemistry. "... They just had a current about them, an electricity," said McGiffert.
Cruising the Pacific
Wood and Wagner invited Walken along on a short weekend trip to sail around Catalina Island, about twenty-two miles off the coast of Los Angeles. Wood and Wagner spent as much time as they could on Splendour. Wood once said that the yacht allowed them some much-desired privacy. "It's easy with the boat," she said.
That was 1979. Only two years later, Wood's body would be drifting in the water less than a mile away from the retreat that had once allowed her to escape the public eye.