Robert Wagner: Director of Attention

How interesting that it takes Robert Wagner 27 years to discuss the night his wife Natalie Wood apparently falls overboard and drowns off the coast of Santa Catalina near Los Angeles.

According to the story, after a night of drunken partying with actor Christopher Walken on the couple’s yacht, tensions between Wagner and Walken explode. Wagner, already jealous of Walken, a rising star, suspects Walken and his wife are having an “emotional affair” on the set of Brainstorm, the film Walken and Natalie Wood are shooting. Wagner loses his temper when Walken suggests Wood should star in more films instead of caring for two young children. Wagner smashes a bottle of wine on the table, forcing Walken to retreat to his cabin.

Wagner says he later puts his head around the door of his cabin to see Natalie getting ready for bed, after which Walken and Wagner return to the deck to try to cool down. When Wagner retires to his cabin around midnight, his wife is missing. Also missing is the yacht’s dinghy.

Wagner’s theory is that Natalie hears the dinghy banging loosely against the Splendor and goes out to fix it. He suggests she slips on the swim step, knocks herself unconscious and rolls into the water. The dinghy just floats away.

It is widely reported that Wagner blames himself for Natalie’s death and never completely recovers.

And so what about Wagner’s earliest memories?

Not unlike Wagner’s intention to confront an alleged competitor Christopher Walken, Wagner’s earliest recollections reveal Wagner’s ongoing quest to best his seminal rival, Robert J. Wagner, Sr. In four of his memories, we observe the father-son struggle for authority. In one memory, we learn what Wagner's idea of success and authority looks like.

In memory #1 Wagner ridicules his father’s response to Wagner’s accidental act of “blowing out all the outlets in the house.” As if to say “Sure, I blew out every outlet in the house; but Dad blew his cool,” Wagner explains “[Dad] came ‘roaring’ out, ‘grabbed’ me, ‘put me over his knee,’ and spanked me with a hair brush …and then ‘threw me off his lap’ for this ‘terrible thing’ I had done!” In Wagner’s telling of the event, his father is made to look the fool.

In memory #2, Wagner expresses disgust at being tagged “his father’s little package.” When the train transporting Wagner to California leaves the station, Wagner “rips off” a handwritten destination tag attached to his jacket, thereby declaring independence from his dad and signaling he will not be “[mis]handled” by the man who pays a paltry $10.00 to assure his son’s safe “delivery” to California.

In memory #3, Wagner’s challenge is more passive. According to Wagner, his father opens a checking account so Wagner can pay his expenses on the trip to California. In visiting a souvenir shop along the way, however, Wagner uses money to buy an antique gun; with the justification he wants protection from “marauding Indians” who might attack the train. Wagner’s purchase is guaranteed to provoke anger in his dad, especially considering the gun is in all probability not an antique, most likely overpriced, and useless for protection purposes. Wagner challenges his father by spending money the way he chooses to spend it.

In memory 4, Wagner recalls the moment he realizes his picture of success and authority. Watching Gable, Astaire, Scott, and Grant walk together down the fairway, Wagner decides exactly what he wants in life: to be one of them - handsome, successful, respected, and in demand.

Finally, in memory #5, Wagner shoots out all the lights in the tunnel of the country club at Bel-Air, thereby “embarrassing [his] dad by being a smart ass.” Wagner’s deliberate act has him maneuvering his father to lose control. As expected, his father “closes his fists and goes after Wagner – ‘again’ – but a couple of other men [hold] him back.” Ironically, Wagner’s reprehensible behavior comes across as more measured and controlled than his father’s! In the end, Wagner one-ups his dad by coming out the “victim winner.”

Unfortunately, however, Wagner’s rivalry with Christopher Walken brings forth a totally different outcome. Although Wagner’s angry outburst one-ups Walken in the short run, Wagner’s maneuvering of the opportunity to confront Walken, coupled with the threesome’s excessive partying and their eventual breakdown in communication, leads ultimately to Natalie’s tragic death. A friend of Wagner recalls, “[Wagner] went through the inquest in a daze and after that he took to his bed for eight days in a catatonic state, blaming himself for [Natalie’s] death. He’s never entirely recovered, but how can you?”

Perhaps trumping his alleged rival at the cost of losing his wife silenced Wagner for 27 years. In hindsight, had Wagner and his father been able to confront and resolve their issues long ago, history may have been written differently. As it turns out, however, Wagner’s need to challenge a suspected or perhaps imagined rival got the best of him – literally.