Wood was born Svetlana Lisa Gurdin[3][4] to Russian immigrant parents, Maria Zudilova (1908[a]–1998) and Nicholas Zacharenko (1912–1980).

Her father's family left Vladivostok after her grandfather, a chocolate-factory worker who joined the anti-Bolshevik civilian forces, was killed in a street fight in 1922;[7] they settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, with their relatives, then moved to San Francisco.

Lana's maternal grandfather owned soap and candle factories in Barnaul; he left Russia with his family in 1918 after his eldest son was killed by the Red Army, and settled in a Russian community in Harbin, China.

[11] When Nicholas and Maria married in February 1938, she brought her daughter Olga, then known as Ovsanna, to the household, sharing joint custody with her ex-husband in El Cerrito, California.

RKO executives David Lewis and William Goetz changed the surname of her elder sister, making her Natalie Wood, after she started her acting career as a child.

[14] Wood has been married six times: Between marriages, Wood dated actors Dean Stockwell, Adam West, Eddie Fisher, Warren Beatty, Sean Connery, Alain Delon and Ryan O'Neal, as well as talent agent Guy McElwaine,[16] producer Jerome Hellman and composer Leslie Bricusse.

She has long been at odds with both Wagner and his third wife Jill St. John, her feud with the latter dating back to when both appeared in Diamonds Are Forever.