8/17 Robert Conrad Talks with Lana Wood - and YOU!

Lana Wood was born in Svetlana Nikolaevna Zakharenko Russian on March 1, 1946. She is an American actress and producer. She was born to Russian émigré parents, Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko, and is the sister of actress Natalie Wood. Her first major role was at age 9 in the John Wayne western The Searchers. She was a regular on the soap opera Peyton Place. She is best known for her role as Plenty O'Toole in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. She appeared in a number of small films and television guest roles throughout the 1970s and 1980s.



Early in her adult career, Lana Wood played bit parts in Natalie's films; but, in the 1960s, her own career took off. One of her roles was in the beach party film The Girls on the Beach (1965). After appearing in the short-lived drama series, The Long, Hot Summer, she landed the role of Sandy Webber in the prime-time soap Peyton Place, which she played from 1966 to 1967.



In 1971, Lana appeared in the April 1971 Playboy issue, along with her poetry. Even though Natalie strongly disapproved Lana's posing nude, the publicity was a major reason for her being cast as Bond girl Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). In a scene with Sean Connery, she appeared wearing only a flimsy pair of see-through panties.[1]



Wood has more than 20 other films and over 300 television shows to her credit, including The Fugitive, Bonanza, Mission: Impossible, Police Story, Starsky and Hutch, Nero Wolfe, Fantasy Island, and Capitol. Some of her other film roles have been in the Disney film Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972) and the western Grayeagle (1977). After appearing in the horror film Demon Rage (1982), she retired from acting, concentrating on her career as a producer.



In 1984, Wood published the controversial tell-all book Natalie, A Memoir by Her Sister, which reached #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List. In 2004, she produced the biopic The Mystery of Natalie Wood. She recently returned to acting and has several projects in production. Lana is a character in the new Steve Alten book "Meg: Hell's Aquarium".