Courtesy Paramount Pictures
Hollywood actress and Oscar-nominee Natalie Wood turned down the title role in Robert Rossen's 1964 psychodrama Lilith. Wood deemed the lead character too similar to the role she played in Splendor in the Grass. Actress Jean Seberg was cast and garnered more praise for her performance than any other role in her film career.
Natalie never regretted not playing Lilith, perhaps because she was pleased with Jean's success in the role.
In a letter written to her parents in April 1966, Jean mentioned the box-office success of her current film Moment to Moment. "[It] has done pretty well--better than Judith with Sophia Loren, and better than Natalie Wood's picture [This Property is Condemned]--but I don't want to do another movie where I am without support from a well-known actor. It's too much responsibility alone." Three years later Seberg made Ondata di Calore, aka Dead of Summer, without the benefit of a strong leading man.
Author Gavin Lambert noted in his biography, Natalie Wood - A Life, that on November 16, 1981, Natalie "...watched Mike Wallace's profile of Jean Seberg, whom she liked and admired. It might seem to throw light (or more darkness) on the last weeks of Natalie's life that she watched a program about a deeply troubled actress."
Natalie must have wondered what happened to the beautiful and talented Jean Seberg.
Wood died thirteen days later at the age of 43. With the reopening of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, many are wondering again what happened to the beautiful and talented Natalie Wood.
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