Natalie Wood: What has Christopher Walken said about Hollywood star's death?

Walken was on the yacht the night Wood drowned

A documentary about the death of Hollywood star Natalie Wood has aired in the US, reigniting conversation about the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.

Wood died on 29 November 1981 after disappearing from a yacht she was on with her husband, Robert Wagner, and friend Christopher Walken.

In the documentary, titled Natalie Wood: What Remains, Wood’s daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, questions her stepfather about the evening.

Wagner claims that, upon returning to the boat following an off-shore meal with the others, he had an argument with Walken about Wood.

It was here when he says that Wood excused herself. Wagner later found her missing from their room before her body was found in the water.

The death was ruled an accident, but in 2018, Wagner was said to be a “person of interest” relating to the case.

“Nobody heard anything,” an emotional Wagner tells his stepdaughter in the documentary, adding: “That night has gone through my mind so many times.”

What has Walken said about the incident? The actor is absent from the documentary – and has rarely spoken about Wood’s death – but there have been brief mentions made in the past.

Five years after Wood died, Walken told People: “I don’t know what happened. She slipped and fell in the water. I was in bed then. It was a terrible thing.”

He added: “Look, we’re in a conversation I won’t have. It’s a f***ing bore.”

Heavy notes that the next time Walken spoke about the incident was in 1997, in which The Hollywood Reporter said he described Wood’s death as “an accident” in Playboy Magazine.

“What happened that night only she knows, because she was alone,” he said.

“She had gone to bed before us, and her room was at the back. A dinghy was bouncing against the side of the boat, and I think she went out to move it. There was a ski ramp that was partially in the water. It was slippery – I had walked on it myself.

‘What happened that night only she knows, because she was alone,’ Christopher Walken said of Wood’s tragic death in 1997 (Getty Images)

“She had told me she couldn’t swim; in fact, they had to cut a swimming scene from Brainstorm [the film they were shooting at the time of Wood’s death]. She was probably half asleep.”

He added: “The people who are convinced that there was something more to it than what came out in the investigation will never be satisfied with the truth. Because the truth is, there is nothing more to it.”

Natalie Wood: What Remains is available to stream on HBO Go in the US. A UK release date has yet to be announced.