[7] Wagner became interested in acting, and after an unsuccessful screen test directed by Fred Zinnemann for his film Teresa (1951), was represented by Albert R.

[8] He made his uncredited film debut in The Happy Years (1950); was signed by agent Henry Willson and put under contract with 20th Century Fox.

[10] Wagner first gained significant attention with a small but showy part as a shell-shocked soldier in With a Song in My Heart (1952).

While popular, critical reception was poor and Wagner later joked his wig in the movie made him look like Jane Wyman.

Back at Fox Wagner was in Between Heaven and Hell (1956), a war movie, and The True Story of Jesse James (1957), playing the leading role for director Nicholas Ray (Jeffrey Hunter was Frank).

Trying to kick-start his career, Wagner appeared with his then-wife Natalie Wood (they married in 1957) in All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), made for MGM.

Rona signed a three-picture deal with Columbia pictures for Wagner's services, which was to start with Sail a Crooked Ship (1961) and The Interns.

He also had a deal to make one more film at Fox, which was to be Solo, the story of a jazz drummer directed by Dick Powell, or The Comancheros with Gary Cooper.

He had a larger part in The Condemned of Altona (1962), a commercial and critical disappointment despite being directed by Vittorio de Sica and co-starring Sophia Loren.

[14] Considerably more popular was The Pink Panther (1963), a massive hit, although Wagner's part was very much in support to those of David Niven, Capucine, Peter Sellers, and Claudia Cardinale.

It was directed by Blake Edwards, who wanted Wagner for the lead in The Great Race (1965), but Jack L. Warner overruled him.

[15] His return to America found him playing in the theatre for the first time with the lead role in Mister Roberts for one week at a holiday resort just outside Chicago.

[16] The disciplines of the theatre were not his forte and Wagner was glad to be back in Hollywood to find a good supporting role in the modern-day private investigator hit, Harper (1966), starring Paul Newman.

Wagner signed with Universal Pictures in 1966, starring opposite future wife Jill St. John in the films How I Spent My Summer Vacation, a made-for-TV movie released in the United Kingdom as Deadly Roulette, and Banning (1967).

In 1967, Lew Wasserman of Universal convinced Wagner to make his television series debut in It Takes a Thief (1968–1970) on ABC-TV.

Wagner's friend and agent Albert Broccoli suggested that he audition to play James Bond, but he decided it was not right for him.

He reunited with McQueen, along with Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway, in the disaster film The Towering Inferno released in the same year.

George Hamilton had a high-profile at the time and was suggested, but producer Aaron Spelling said that if he was cast "the audience will resent him as Hart for being that rich.

Sure I'd like to do a Clint Eastwood, grizzled, down-and-out guy, but there aren't many scripts like that... What has been projected for me is an international quality that can take me anywhere and get me into all kind of involvements; to do otherwise would mean a character role.

"[26] Wagner appeared in a TV movie with Audrey Hepburn, Love Among Thieves (1987) and in a miniseries with Jaclyn Smith, Windmills of the Gods (1988).

[29] Wagner's film career received a boost after his role in the Austin Powers series of spy spoofs starring Mike Myers.

He also had small roles in Wild Things (1998), Crazy in Alabama (1999), Play It to the Bone (2000), Becoming Dick (2001) and Sol Goode (2001).

[35] Despite his apparent feeling of distaste when he was working with Raquel Welch on The Biggest Bundle of Them All,[36] they reunited 50 years later on the 2017 Canadian series Date My Dad.

At some point during the first half of 1961, according to several published accounts, Wood caught him having an extramarital affair with a man in the couple's home.

After a two-year courtship, Wagner, Marshall and her two sons from her marriage to Stanley Donen moved back to America.

[48] Lana has claimed publicly that the reason behind the couple's first divorce was that Natalie caught Wagner in the arms of another man.

[55] They retain a condo in L.A.[56] On November 29, 1981, Wood died under mysterious circumstances near, within a mile of, or on the 55-foot yacht Splendour while it was moored near the isthmus of Santa Catalina Island.

[61] Following his investigation, Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled her death an accident by drowning and hypothermia.

On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office issued a ten-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report.

[68] On February 1, 2018, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department named Wagner a "person of interest" in the investigation into Wood's death.