Natalie Wood acted in American films.
Natalie Wood ( born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko ; July 20 , 1938 -- November 28 or 29 , 1981 ) was an American film and television actress . Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban , middle-class teenagers filmed in CinemaScope . The Searchers is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision Western film directed by John Ford , based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May , set during the Texas -- Indian Wars , and starring John Wayne as a middle-aged Civil War veteran who spends years looking for his abducted niece ( Natalie Wood ) , accompanied by his adoptive nephew ( Jeffrey Hunter ) .