Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood played Judy in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause and was nominated for best supporting actress; the award went to Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden. Debbie Reynolds and Carroll Baker had been strong candidates for the part. Ray cast Wood and Sal Mineo, both under age, as Judy and Plato in spite of concerns about child protection law, and the film gave Wood her first adult role, opposite James Dean as Jim Stark. Earlier she had been Susan Walker in Miracle on 34th Street. John Ford's The Searchers, Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story stand under her name here as well.