Natalia Zakharenko is the real name of this Hollywood star actress (“West Side Story” film had 11 Academy Award nominations). Her grandparents had to leave the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, because of the “Russian Revolution”.
Although born in the US, Natalie spoke Ukrainian and even Russian with strong Ukrainian accent. According to “Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood” book by Suzanne Finstad, for one of her Hollywood roles she had to “fine-tune her Russian dialect.. to lose her parents’ Ukrainian accent.”
