Natalie Wood (RIP)

November 1981 - Until confirming with Graham Senjack, yesterday, I was unsure if I actually had my facts right regarding the following episode. I have not really spoken to Graham for 26 years and at no time have we ever discussed this matter. I showed Graham a photograph that I still have in my possession, taken just outside St. Tropez. As soon as he saw the picture he confirm to me, without prompting or hesitation, exactly who took it. Five of us were strolling across a private beach, myself, Graham, Rob Hayes (Earle’s mate) Dave Beaumont and Mark Larn, I knew Dave and Mark from London, we just randomly bumped into them on the beach one day, as one does. It was 90 something degrees, ridiculously hot! Lying on the beach in front of us was this very sick looking man, red like a lobster, he was barley conscious; although we were all clueless about what to do, we tried to help. Managing to bring him round we gave him water and he started to tell us of his plight. His wife ran off with some guy with a big yacht, this poor man was tramping around the Mediterranean looking for the yacht so he could persuade his wife to come back with him. A very attractive middle-aged woman approached us, we were expecting to be turfed off the beach, but she was cool, she also looked very familiar. Hey “I saw you guys from the house, is everything ok”? We told her about the guy, she then went off and returned with a Frenchman who did what she told him. They took the sick man back to her huge beach villa, then she came back, with ice-cold cokes for us and chatted for a while; a lovely woman. I felt as if I knew her; I was too embarrassed to ask the question, so I didn’t. How would someone like me know someone like her? I asked her to take a photo of the five of us leaning against an upturned boat; she did this then wandered back to her villa. Some weeks later it was announced that Natalie Wood was found dead, face down in the sea just off the coast of California, after falling from her husbands (Robert Wagnor) boat, under suspicious circumstances. I recognized her from “West Side Story” which was and still is my favourite movie.