Robert Wagner
| Robert Wagner | |
 Robert Wagner (1967) | |
| Background information | |
| Born as: | Robert John Wagner Jr. |
| Born | Feb 10, 1930 Detroit, Michigan |
| Spouse(s): | Natalie Wood
(1957 - 1962) div (remarried) Natalie Wood (1972 - 1981) her death Marion Marshall (July 21, 1963 - October 14, 1971) div Jill St. John (May 26, 1990 - ) |
| Children: | 2 |
| Occupation: | Actor (1950–present) |
| Nationality: | American |
Robert John Wagner Jr. (born February 10, 1930) is an American actor. He is known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief (1968–1970), Switch (1975–1978), and Hart to Hart (1979–1984). He later had recurring roles on Two and a Half Men (2007–2008) and NCIS (2010–2019).
In films, Wagner is known for his role as Number 2 in the Austin Powers trilogy of films (1997, 1999, 2002), as well as for Prince Valiant (1954), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), The Pink Panther (1963), Harper (1966), The Towering Inferno (1974) and The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979).
Early life
Wagner was born in Detroit, to Thelma Hazel Alvera (née Boe; 1898–1993), a former telephone operator, and Robert John Wagner Sr. (1890–1964), a traveling salesman who worked for the Ford Motor Company. He had one older sister, Mary Scott (1926–2023).
Wagner's mother came from La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her parents were both immigrants from Norway, who married in La Crosse in 1887. Wagner's father was a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan. His parents were from Germany.
The family moved to Bel-Air, an upscale area of Los Angeles, in 1937.
Career
- Wikipedia article: Robert Wagner Career
Personal life
In his memoirs, Wagner said he had had affairs with Yvonne De Carlo, Joan Crawford, Elizabeth Taylor, Anita Ekberg, Shirley Anne Field, Lori Nelson, and Joan Collins. He also claimed a four-year romantic relationship with Barbara Stanwyck after they acted together in the movie Titanic (1953). According to Wagner, because of their age difference—he was 22, she was 45—they kept the affair secret to avoid damaging their careers. He is also rumored to have had affairs with men, although Wagner identifies as heterosexual.
In 1956, when he was 26 years old, Wagner became involved with 18-year-old actress Natalie Wood. They were married on December 28, 1957, in Scottsdale, Arizona. At some point during the first half of 1961, according to several published accounts, Wood caught him having an extramarital affair with a man in the couple's home. They announced their separation on June 20, 1961, and divorced on April 27, 1962.
While working on location in Europe, Wagner reconnected with an old friend, actress Marion Marshall. After a two-year courtship, Wagner, Marshall and her two sons from her marriage to Stanley Donen moved back to America. Wagner and Marshall married on July 21, 1963, at the Bronx Courthouse. They had a daughter, Katie (born May 11, 1964). They separated in June 1970 and divorced on October 14, 1971.
Wagner was engaged to Tina Sinatra from June 1970 until January 1972. Immediately afterward, Wagner rekindled his romance with Wood. They remarried on July 16 aboard the Ramblin' Rose, anchored off Paradise Cove in Malibu. They had a daughter, Courtney (born March 9, 1974). Following Wood's death in 1981, Wagner became the legal guardian of her daughter by producer Richard Gregson, Natasha, who was 11 at the time. He also gradually cut ties with his former sister-in-law, Lana Wood. Lana has claimed publicly that the reason behind the couple's first divorce was that Natalie caught Wagner in the arms of another man.
On Valentine's Day in 1982, Wagner started a relationship with actress Jill St. John, whom he had known since the late 1950s. After eight years together, they tied the knot on May 26, 1990, in Pacific Palisades. This marriage marks the fourth for both Wagner and St. John, and it has outlasted all six of their previous marriages combined. The couple shared the screen in six films from 1967 to 2014—most of which were low-budget—along with starring in the pilot episode of " Hart to Hart, " and they performed together in a 1996 stage production of "Love Letters."
Wagner became a first-time grandfather in 2006 when Katie Wagner, his daughter with Marshall, gave birth to her son, Riley John Wagner-Lewis.
In 2007, Wagner and St. John sold the Brentwood ranchette they had lived in since 1983 for a reported $14 million. The couple now resides in Aspen, Colorado, where they built a vacation home in 1995. They retain a condo in Los Angeles.
Death of Natalie Wood
On November 29, 1981, Wood died under mysterious circumstances near, within a mile of, or on the 55-foot yacht Splendour while it was moored close to the isthmus of Santa Catalina Island. Wood had been on board the Splendour alongside Wagner, Christopher Walken, who was co-starring with her in the motion picture Brainstorm (1983), and Dennis Davern, the Splendour's captain. No explanation has ever been provided for the absence of Walken's wife, Georgianne. According to Wagner, Wood was not on the yacht when he went to bed, and, according to his spokesman, he thought Wood had taken off on a small inflatable boat by herself, as she had done before. Wood's body was found about a mile away from the yacht, while the inflatable boat was discovered beached nearby. The autopsy report revealed that Wood had 39 fresh bruises on her body, including an abrasion on her left cheek.
In his heartfelt memoir,* Pieces of My Heart*, Wagner shared that he had a disagreement with Wood before her sudden disappearance but had since calmed down and settled in for the night. The autopsy revealed that Wood's blood alcohol level was 0.14%, alongside traces of two medications in her system: a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller, both known to enhance the effects of alcohol. Interestingly, two witnesses on a nearby boat reported hearing a woman call for help during that fateful night. After a thorough investigation, Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi concluded that Wood's tragic death was an accidental result of drowning and hypothermia.
Wagner, Walken, and Davern initially told detectives that Wood had left in a dinghy to go ashore; the case was reopened in November 2011 after Davern publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and that Wood and Wagner had an argument that evening. He alleged that Wood had been flirting with Walken, that Wagner was jealous and enraged, and that following Wood's disappearance, Wagner had prevented Davern from turning on the search lights and notifying authorities. According to Davern, Wagner was responsible for Wood's death, and he believed that Wagner had intentionally kept the investigation into Wood's death "low-profile."
In 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood's death certificate, changing the cause of her death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors". The amended document included a statement that the circumstances of how Wood ended up in the water are "not clearly established." On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office issued a ten-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report, stating that she may have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water and drowned.
On February 1, 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department identified Wagner as a "person of interest" in the ongoing investigation into Wood's death. Robert Wagner has firmly denied any involvement in this tragic event. On May 27, 2022, Lieutenant Hugo Reynaga shared that, despite extensive efforts, all leads in the case have been exhausted, and it remains open and unsolved, highlighting the complexity of this situation.
Filmography
- Wikipedia article: Robert Wagner Filmography
External links
- Robert Wagner at the Internet Movie Database
- Robert Wagner at the Turner Classic Movie Database
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Robert_Wagner ]
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