Christopher Walken Silent On Natalie Wood's Death As Police Deny Robert Wagner Is A Suspect
Actor Christopher Walken has remained almost completely silent since news broke that police were reopening their investigation into the drowning of actress Natalie Wood.
Walken was one of the last people to see Wood alive before she drowned in 1981 during a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island, Calif. Also aboard the same boat were Wood's husband, actor Robert Wagner, and the boat's captain, Dennis Davern.
The Los Angeles County coroner's office at the time ruled Wood's death to be an accident, but the same office on Jan. 14 released an addendum to her autopsy report that is raising questions about that ruling.
The addendum indicated Wood had bruising on her wrists, knees, and ankles that might be more consistent with an assault on her than with an attempt by her to climb back into the boat, CBS News reported. Wagner previously said she may have fallen into the water while trying to retie a dinghy that had slipped free of the boat.
Wagner is reportedly refusing to answer any more questions now that the case has been reopened.
When asked by photographers how he felt about the 30-year-old investigation being revived, Walken responded in November 2011 by saying, “I don’t know.”
Reports have suggested Walken is willing to talk to the police, who stressed they are only in the fact-finding phase of their investigation and that they do not consider either Walken or Wagner suspects.
In his memoir, titled “Pieces of My Heart,” Wagner admitted there had been an argument on the 60-foot boat before Wood's death.
“Chris [Walken] began talking about his ‘total pursuit of a career,’ which he admitted was more important to him than his personal life. He clearly thought Natalie should live like that, too,” Wagner wrote, according to the Daily Mail.
“I got angry. ‘Why don’t you stay out of her career?’ I said. ‘She’s got enough people telling her what to do without you. ... The last time I saw my wife, she was fixing her hair in the bathroom while I was arguing with Chris.”
Davern, whose conflicting testimony was the cause for reopening the case, co-authored a memoir in 2011 in which he pointed the blame squarely at Wagner.
“The only full sentence I could completely decipher during the entire argument was ‘Get off my f---ing boat,’ said by Robert Wagner,” Davern wrote.
Walken refused to offer any more insight during an appearance on “CBS This Morning” while promoting his latest film, “Seven Psychopaths.”
“I stopped talking about that 30 years ago, and there’s so much information, books and Internet and, you know, everything. Anything you want to know, go look,” he said.
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