Anecdotes

When Les diamants sont éternels (1971) aired on ABC the network had the scene where Lana, as Plenty O'Toole, walked around wearing nothing but a flimsy pair of see-through pink panties artificially altered to make it appear as though she were wearing a black bra with black panties.

Said that she had to stand on a box during most of her scenes with Sean Connery in Les diamants sont éternels (1971) because even with high heels she was too short to fit into the camera frame with him.

She got her role in Les diamants sont éternels (1971) after producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman saw her photos in a four-page layout in Playboy magazine.

Her daughter Evan suffered a massive heart attack on July 8, 2017 and was declared brain dead. Evan's death was officially recorded as July 18, the day she was taken off life support.

On Megyn Kelly Today (2017), when asked if she believes her sister was "murdered" by Robert Wagner, Wood said, "Yes.". (25 juillet 2018)

Aunt of Natasha Gregson Wagner and Courtney Wagner, and former sister-in-law of Richard Gregson and Robert Wagner. Wagner cut off contact with Lana after the drowning of Natalie Wood in 1981. The controversy of her sister's death has intensified since the 2012 official actions of the Los Angeles Coroner's Office in changing the manner of Natalie's death, on her death certificate, from "Accidental" to "Undetermined" because of the quantity and severity of the bruises described in the autopsy report. The investigation by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is ongoing.

Two of Lana's scenes as Plenty O'Toole in Les diamants sont éternels (1971) were deleted from the final film but are now available on DVD. The first scene is a deleted scene of Lana having dinner with Sean Connery. The second scene took place after Lana was thrown half naked into the pool; she returned to James Bond's apartment, soaking wet, wearing nothing but a white towel and to get the rest of her clothes and see what has become of Bond and sees him making love to Tiffany Case (Jill St. John). Before leaving, an agitated Lana took a card out of Tiffany's purse with her address on it; this second scene accounted for her death later in the film.

Dated Dean Stockwell, Adam West, Eddie Fisher, Warren Beatty, Sean Connery, Alain Delon, Ryan O'Neal, Leslie Bricusse and Jerome Hellman.

Turned down the Karen Black role in Easy Rider (1969).

Best known for playing Bond girl Plenty O'Toole, the unfortunate casino gal who, half naked, gets thrown out of a hotel window and lands in a pool in Les diamants sont éternels (1971). She was 25 then.

In two of her films her character is prominently featured being sent out of a window. In La Prisonnière du désert (1956), where she played the younger version of her older sister Natalie's character, she is sent out of a window and told to hide from the Indians who are coming to attack their range. In Les diamants sont éternels (1971) her character, Plenty O'Toole, is thrown half naked out of a hotel window to almost certain death (but survives by landing in the pool).

Her paternal grandparents were Stephan Zacharenko and Joyce Zavarin, and her maternal grandparents were Stepan Ilich Zudilov and Maria Andreevna Kuleva. She was of Ukrainian and Russian descent. Her father was an architect and her mother wanted to be a movie star.

Lana and her Les yeux du cauchemar (1982) co-star, fellow former Bond girl Britt Ekland, share two ex-lovers in common: Ryan O'Neal and Warren Beatty.

In her 2021 book "Little Sister", she revealed that Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted her sister Natalie Wood when Natalie was a teenager.

She and Natalie had a maternal-half sister, Olga Viripaeff (1928-2015), who was born in Harbin, China as Ovsanna Tatuloff. Olga lived her entire adulthood in northern California and was completely removed from the Hollywood scene.

Her father changed the family's last name to Gurdin before she was born, which is why her sister Natalie Wood carried the original family last name Zacharenko at birth while Lana herself carried the new last name.

She and sister Natalie Wood have played the love interest of Richard Beymer: she as Karen opposite Richard's Dean in Scream Free! (1969) (aka Free Grass), and Natalie as Maria opposite Richard's Tony in West Side Story (1961).

Producing film on Natalie's life for ABC. Filming in Australia. The movie is Natalie Wood - Le prix de la gloire (2004). (janvier 2003)

Is a certified scuba diver.

Does not drink alcohol.

Mother of Evan Taylor Maldonado (August 11, 1974 - July 18, 2017) with former husband Richard Smedley. Evan was married to Edward Maldonado and they had three children: Nicholas (b. 1998), Daphne (b. 2000) and Max (b. 2004).

She and sister Natalie Wood both allegedly had abortions; Lana's in Mexico in 1963 after getting pregnant by producer Guy McElwaine, per her own memoir, and Natalie's in North Carolina in 1977 after getting pregnant by FBI agent Donald G. Wilson, according to informed sources. Their mother Maria claimed to have had several abortions while living in China during the 1920s as well as a miscarriage in 1932.

Cooperated with authors Suzanne Finstad and Marti Rulli for their sensational Natalie biographies.

Lana Wood and her grandson, Max, were featured characters in Steve Alten's novel, "Meg: Hell's Aquarium". In the novel, Lana Wood was approached by an animal rights group called R.A.W. (Release of Animals to the Wild) to help facilitate the release of megalodons raised in captivity back into the ocean.

In a relationship with Alan Feinstein for most of the 1980s, though the couple never moved in together.

In July 2007, she was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina along with Betty Lynn, Jacqueline Scott, Lynn Borden, Joyce Meadows, Brett Halsey, Rick Lenz and Robert Dix.

When a fan tweeted an old picture of her smiling with Jill St. John, she asked in apparent disbelief whether it was real or photoshopped.

Daughter of Maria Gurdin and Nick Gurdin.

Attended the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Michigan. (mai 2009)

Born at 11:39 p.m.

Her paternal cousin Kaisaliisa Zacharenko (1947-2005) was married for four years to Dennis Lincecum, a distant relative of San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum.

1962 Deb star.