He has a crinkly, sun-scarred face out of which sprouts an uneven beard of brown and gray. He wore glasses on the "Today" show interview and donned an olive-colored cargo shirt with two unbuttoned breast pockets. He appeared as if he might have just skippered a charter cruise, and was returning after an afternoon under an unforgiving sun. He wore a white tee-shirt under his cargo attire and an ill-fitting cap.
Pressed by "Today" host David Gregory Friday morning about his claims, 30 years after the fact, that Robert Wagner was responsible for Wood's death, Davern's responses were clipped and choppy.
"Was the fight between Natalie Wood and her husband Robert Wagner what ultimately led to her death?" Gregory asked.
"Yes," Davern replied. But he would go no further.
So who is the New Jersey native who captained the yacht, Splendour, on the night Wood went missing? And is he, as Gregory postulated, a calculating "opportunist," out to sell copies of his book, with a flair for revisionist history and well-timed revelations?
"Dennis Davern, born and raised in New Jersey, was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1971," reads a bio for the book about Wood's death he co-authored. "A marina job took him to California where he became a boat captain for Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood. From 1982 to 1984 he was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and employed as a general extra actor in Hollywood. Since 1987, he has owned and operated a successful marina and boat maintenance business in Florida."related search:
dennis davern,natalie wood
