“Pieces of my Heart”
“Pieces of my Heart”
Pieces of my Heart - A Life by Robert Wagner and Scott Eyman Published by Harper Entertainment
by Scott Eyman
The Washington Post Review by John DiLeo:
There won’t be too many more first-person accounts coming from those who knew and worked with Hollywood’s golden-age stars, and for that reason Robert Wagner’sautobiography, Pieces of My Heart, is a treasure.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Wagner dreamt of becoming a movie star from an early age. Once he entered the business, he compensated for a difficult relationship with his father by collecting an amazing contingent of surrogate dads, including Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra and especially David Niven and Spencer Tracy. What impressed the kid about these role models was not just their talent but their ability to lead successful personal lives with interests outside the biz, such as Astaire’s passion for horses and Gable’s love of hunting. With palpable pleasure and deep fondness, Wagner evokes all these larger-than-life figures as generous mentors whose lessons have stayed with him. Wagner was also chummy with Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn, had a satisfying one-night stand with Joan Crawford and kept a four-year affair with Barbara Stanwyck secret because of their 23-year age difference.
Most readers will be waiting for the arrival in this narrative of Natalie Wood, whom Wagner married twice. Theirs was one of Hollywood’s great true-life romances, and Wagner’s portrait of Wood is adoring and poignant. Their first marriage (1957-62) failed because Wood’s stardom eclipsed her husband’s. Their 1972 remarriage was a more mature union and, with their three daughters, apparently idyllic.
But we know what’s coming: Wood’s accidental drowning in 1981. Wagner reconstructs what he remembers of that mystifying night aboard their yacht, but no one will ever know what really happened. He pulled himself together for his children and later found marital contentment with Jill St. John. With admirable strength and honest self-awareness, Wagner makes plain that there’s much more to him than his handsome face.
