From Hollywood royalty to homeless: Natalie Wood's former Bond girl sister Lana, 71, reveals she is living in a motel room with five family members

  • Actresses Lana and her sister Natalie Wood were once Hollywood royalty
  • Lana played Plenty O'Toole with Sean O'Connery's in Diamonds Are Forever and starred in other hits like The Fugitive and Bonanza
  • She also had affairs with the leading men of her day including Connery, Alain Delon, described as the most beautiful man on the planet, and Warren Beatty
  • Today the 71-year-old is living in a small motel room with five family members
  • Revealed she was kicked out last month after rising rents and spiraling medical bills for herself and her daughter meant she couldn't make rent
  • After the champagne and red carpets of her heyday, Wood is now forced to live on cheap fast food and dig for bargains at Goodwill
  • Wood's life was forever tinged with sadness after her sister drowned during a boat trip with then-husband Robert Wagner and co-star Christopher Walken
  • The actress spent years demanding the one-time Hollywood heartthrob talk to detectives investigating her sister's drowning 

Former Bond girl Lana Wood, and her movie star sister, were once Hollywood royalty.

Wood had fame, fortune, and a string of affairs with the most sought after leading men of her day. 

She rose to stardom when she played Plenty O'Toole alongside Sean Connery in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever.

But today, her life could not be more different. 

The 71-year-old is homeless, and is sharing a motel room outside Los Angeles with her daughter Evan, her son-in-law, three grandchildren, and their two dogs.

'It has been very difficult for the kids,' Wood told Inside Edition. 'They feel like they have no privacy.'

Natalie Wood's former Bond girl sister, Lana Wood, has revealed she's living in a motel room with five family members

Natalie Wood's former Bond girl sister, Lana Wood, has revealed she's living in a motel room with five family members

Wood says she was evicted from her long-time family home she rented in California, on a month-to-month basis, last month.

She told Vanity Fair she woke up one morning 'to find a 'Foreclosure' sign tacked to the front door; we had to get out.'

The former actress said that rising rents were compounded by her own medical issues and those of her daughter who suffers from Hodgkin's lymphoma and lung disease.

In desperation, Wood even penned a Facebook post pleading for help.

'I have just been evicted from my home where I've lived for seven years,' she wrote. 'I got ten days to move, don't have moving money, don't know if there's anything available, have no one to take in a family of six. 

'My daughters COPD has worsened and her cancer is back. 

'My grandchildren are hysterical. I have to somehow remain calm, and not kill myself.' 

 Former Bond girl Lana made a name for herself playing Plenty O'Toole across from Sean Connery (pictured)

 Former Bond girl Lana made a name for herself playing Plenty O'Toole across from Sean Connery (pictured)

She and her sister Natalie (left with her in 1963 ) were once members of the Hollywood elite 

She and her sister Natalie (left with her in 1963 ) were once members of the Hollywood elite 

Lana was incredibly close with her sister Natalie
Lana was incredibly close with her sister Natalie

Lana (left in 1971) was incredibly close with her sister Natalie (right in 1964) and was devastated when she drowned while yachting with her husband

When asked what happened, she simply said: 'Real life.'

From dining on caviar and champagne in her James Bond heyday, Wood is now forced to survive on cheap fast food as her motel room does not even come with its own kitchen.

Instead of couture, red carpet gowns, today she hunts for bargains at Goodwill.

But it's the mounting medical bills that keep Wood, who needs two knee replacement surgeries, up at night.

'I don't know how much more we can take,' she said.

Yet, many decades ago, no-one could have predicted that Wood's life would turn out as it has.

In the 1960s, Wood was and up-and-coming young actress who landed a role in popular soap Peyton Place, before her breakout role as Plenty O'Toole across from Sean Connery in Diamonds Are Forever.

Wood would go star in hit films such as The Fugitive, Bonanza, Mission Impossible, and Starsky and Hutch, although she always remained in her sister Natalie's shadow.

'I was always an actress; Natalie was the star,' is how Lana summed up their relationship. 

Lana Wood's private life was equally as glamorous.

From the red carpets, champagne lifestyle of the 1960s and 1970s, Lana's life took a downturn and she says she is now homeless

From the red carpets, champagne lifestyle of the 1960s and 1970s, Lana's life took a downturn and she says she is now homeless

The former star is sharing a motel room with several family members and her two dogs

The former star is sharing a motel room with several family members and her two dogs

She ended up marrying five times - a not unusual amount for Old Hollywood - and that's before we even start on the high-profile men she shared encounters with along the way.

There was a fling with Sean Connery — he was Bond to her Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever in 1971. Alain Delon, once described as the most beautiful man on the planet, was a former squeeze. Then there was Warren Beatty.

Yet she was in love 'just once' with a mystery married man who refused to leave his wife.

Trying to unravel her romantic history adds fuel to the oft-spouted rumor that there is a curse attached to the Bond-Girl role. No sooner has an actress (and her ample cleavage) appeared by 007's side than things start going pear-shaped, the theory goes. Careers crumble, private lives disintegrate and, unless you are an Honor Blackman or a Jane Seymour, obscurity beckons.

'It is true that the Bond role didn't open the doors I maybe thought it would,' she said in 2012. 'In fact, it didn't open any doors at all.

'All I was offered were sexpot roles, and you can't be doing those for ever. I did suffer from being stereotyped. I remember once saying to a producer: 'Think of me as the girl next door.'

Wood had been renting a spacious home in California (pictured) until she was evicted last month

Wood had been renting a spacious home in California (pictured) until she was evicted last month

'He said: 'Honey, if you are the girl next door you must live in a very racy neighborhood.' 

But ten years after she appeared in Diamonds Are Forever, when she had moved into the world of TV production, Wood's world fell apart when her sister drowned in a tragedy that continues to haunt her. 

At the peak of her international fame, following roles in West Side Story and Rebel Without A Cause, Natalie never returned from a yachting trip with her husband, actor Robert Wagner, and her co-star Christopher Walken.

Witnesses say all three were very intoxicated about 10.15pm when they piloted the dingy back to the yacht, which was anchored offshore.

Wood's body was found floating in the water about a mile from the yacht about 8am the following morning and the coroner determined that she had died of a combination of drowning and hypothermia.

At the time, the death was reported as a tragic accident, but questions about the circumstances have always been asked — most vocally by Lana herself.

Lana Wood spent years demanding the one-time Hollywood heartthrob talk to detectives investigating her sister's drowning and even came face to face with the 87-year-old Hart to Hart star at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Palm Springs in California, last year where he was attending a lunch event honoring his wife and former Bond girl Jill St. John.

Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken are pictured together in sci-fi thriller Brainstorm. Walken joined Wagner and Wood's aboard Splendor to celebrate the successful completion of the the film

Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken are pictured together in sci-fi thriller Brainstorm. Walken joined Wagner and Wood's aboard Splendor to celebrate the successful completion of the the film

Eight years Natalie's junior, she adored, idolized even, her sister, but said her mother could never quite forgive the fact that she had lost her favorite daughter.

'Natalie was the embodiment of what my mum longed for in life,' she said. 'She worshipped Nat, I was the forgotten daughter. I don't even remember telling her I had the Bond role — or any role for that matter.

'After Nat died, it turned out that she was stuck with the daughter she didn't really care about that much. It's interesting how life does that.'

Lana Wood's insistence to this day that Wagner has more questions to answer over Natalie's death has driven a wedge between her and her sister's children with him, meaning she cannot turn to them for help.

But Wood said that she is certain of one thing. If her sister saw her today, she would do everything she could to 'fix' Wood's fortunes.

A family friend has set up a GoFundMe page for Wood that's already raised more than $6,000 to help get her back on her feet.

The curse of the Bond girls: Stars who flopped after starring alongside 007

MARYAM D’ABO

WHO: Cellist and sniper Kara Milovy in 1987’s Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton.

SINCE BOND: Straight-to-video erotic thrillers such as Tomcat: Dangerous Desires and bit parts in TV dramas such as Red Shoe Diaries. Now, aged 51, she is fully recovered from a brain haemorrhage in 2007.

LOIS CHILES

WHO: Astronaut Dr Holly Goodhead in 1979’s Moonraker with Roger Moore. The former model already had success in The Way We Were and The Great Gatsby.

SINCE BOND: Now 64, she took a three-year break after her brother died of cancer, but her career never recovered.

JILL ST JOHN

WHO: Diamond smuggler Tiffany Case in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever with Sean Connery. A former child star with a host  of hits to her name.

SINCE BOND: Mainly TV movies and soaps. Now 71, she married fourth husband actor Robert Wagner in 1990. They made five films together, all flops.

DENISE RICHARDS

WHO: Busty, hot-pants wearing nuclear physicist Dr Christmas Jones in 1999’s The World Is Not Enough, with Pierce Brosnan.

AFTER BOND: A series of flops. Her marriage to Charlie Sheen resulted in two daughters and an acrimonious divorce. Now 41, as appeared on reality TV shows such as Dancing With The Stars.

IZABELLA SCORUPCO

WHO: Polish/Swedish former model and singer who played scientist Natalya Simanova in Pierce Brosnan’s first outing — 1995’s GoldenEye.

AFTER BOND: Hated the spotlight and took time off to marry a professional ice hockey player. Now 41, turned down the role in LA Confidential which won Kim Basinger an Oscar.

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