Editing Ed Wood (section)

==Personal life==

===Relationships and marriages===

Wood was in a long-term relationship with actress and songwriter [[Dolores Fuller]], whom he met in late 1952. She was in the process of divorcing her first husband Donald Fuller, with whom she had had two sons. Wood and Fuller shared an apartment for three years, and Wood cast her in three of his films: ''Glen or Glenda'', ''Jail Bait'' and, in a very brief cameo, in ''Bride of the Monster''. Fuller later said she initially had no idea that Wood was a [[crossdresser]] and was mortified when she saw Wood dressed as a woman for the first time in ''Glen or Glenda''. The couple broke up in 1955 after Wood cast another actress for the lead role in ''Bride of the Monster'' (Wood originally wrote the part for Fuller but later reduced her part to a brief cameo appearance) and because of Wood's excessive drinking. Fuller relocated to New York City where she embarked on a successful songwriting career, writing for famous singers like [[Elvis Presley]] and [[Nat King Cole]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-dolores-fuller-20110511-story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514195216/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/11/local/la-me-dolores-fuller-20110511|url-status=live|archive-date=May 14, 2011|title=Dolores Fuller dies at 88; actress dated director Ed Wood|last=McLellan|first=Dennis|date=May 11, 2011|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=June 4, 2013}}</ref> Fuller died on May 9, 2011, at age 88.

In 1956, soon after his breakup with Fuller, Wood married actress Norma McCarty. McCarty appeared as Edie, the airplane stewardess, in ''Plan 9 from Outer Space'', and was recently divorced with two sons, Mike and John McCarty, from her earlier marriage. The marriage took Wood's friends by surprise; one night, Wood called everyone to the sound stage for what they thought was a cast party, but when everyone was present, Wood brought out a huge wedding cake and a preacher, and announced he was getting married. The marriage ended approximately one month later after McCarty discovered that Wood was a crossdresser, and while it has been reported that their marriage was [[annulled]],{{sfn|Grey|1994|p=57}} according to film archivist Wade Williams, they neither annulled the marriage nor legally [[divorce]]d. McCarty died on June 27, 2014, at age 93.<ref name="Rudolph Grey 1992 pg. 57"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/norma-mccarty-dead-ed-woods-726040 |title=Actress Norma McCarty, Ed Wood's Wife, Dies at 93 |date=August 18, 2014 |last=Barnes |first=Mike |website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]] |quote=But film archivist Wade Williams, who told ''THR'' that he now owns the copyright to five Wood films, said he had close ties to all three and that McCarty legally remained Wood's wife until the filmmaker's death in December 1978.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2014/film/news/norma-mccarty-dead-1201285478/|title=Norma McCarty, Actress and Wife of Ed Wood, Dies at 93|last=Holman|first=Jordyn|date=August 18, 2014|publisher=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|access-date=March 3, 2015}}</ref>

Wood moved in with [[Paul Marco]] for a short while after McCarty left him. Later in 1956, Wood met Kathy O'Hara in a bar one night where he was drinking with [[Bela Lugosi]]. O'Hara fell in love with Wood immediately; they were married in Las Vegas a short while later, and Wood always considered O'Hara his legal wife despite the fact that his first marriage had not been legally annulled. Wood and O'Hara remained together until Wood's death in December 1978.<ref name="variety">{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2006/scene/markets-festivals/kathy-wood-1200339794/|work=Variety|date=July 16, 2006|title=Kathy Wood |access-date=September 25, 2011 }}</ref> O'Hara never got along with his mother Lillian, calling her "a strict disciplinarian" who damaged Wood psychologically from early childhood. Wood occasionally sent money to his mom in the mail without O'Hara's knowledge.<ref name="Rudolph Grey 1992 pg. 116">Rudolph Grey, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992). pg. 116. ISBN 978-0-922915-24-8.</ref> O'Hara died on June 26, 2006, due to [[esophageal cancer]]. She was 84 years old.<ref>{{cite web |last1=L.A. Times Archives |title=Kathleen O'Hara Wood |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-05-me-passings5.1-story.html#:~:text=Kathleen%20O'Hara%20Wood%2C%2084,1994%20film%20%E2%80%9CEd%20Wood.%E2%80%9D |website=Los Angeles Times |date=July 5, 2006 |access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>

===Alleged daughter===

Wood was shocked to learn he had fathered a child out of wedlock after World War II with a young woman he had dated while he was in the Marines. According to Conrad Brooks, Wood and his wife Kathy only met the woman (also named Kathy) in 1967 when she was already 21 years old. Born on May 23, 1946, she had been living in Lancaster, California, and had managed to trace her father's whereabouts. Wood's mother Lillian said she had been contacted by the girl back in 1963 when she sent his mother a photo and introduced herself to Lillian as her granddaughter. Lillian said she sent the girl a watch for her graduation in 1964, but never heard back from her.

There is a photo of the young woman in Rudolph Grey's biography on Wood.<ref name="Rudolph Grey 1992 pg. 115"/>
She visited the Woods and stayed over at their house for a couple of days, but apparently the two women did not get along well. In fact, Wood's wife physically threw her out of the house on the second day when she found her sleeping on their sofa.<ref name="Rudolph Grey 1992 pg. 115"/>

Wood's wife Kathy never believed that the girl was Wood's daughter, saying in an interview, "There was never any proof, only the woman's statement on a birth certificate." Wood told Kathy that the woman he had sex with in 1946 used to sleep around regularly "with 10 or 20 other Marines at the base", so he probably wasn't the girl's father. She said, "She's ''not'' your daughter, that bitch lied to you! The father could have been anyone. There's only her accusation."<ref name="Rudolph Grey 1992 pg. 115"/>

Actress [[Valda Hansen]] said, "I met Ed's daughter at his house in the Valley. She looked just like him. Beautiful, delicate. Green eyes, dark chocolate brown hair. She was very sweet." Art director Bob Derteno, who worked with Wood on ''Orgy of the Dead'', said that Wood later travelled to attend his daughter's wedding in New York and was later told that he had become a grandfather.

===Cross-dressing===

In Rudolph Grey's 1992 biography ''Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood Jr.'', Wood's wife Kathy O'Hara recalls that Wood told her that his mother dressed him in girls' clothing as a child.{{sfn|Grey|1994|p=16}} O'Hara stated that Wood's cross-dressing was not a sexual inclination, but rather a neomaternal comfort derived mainly from [[Angora wool|angora]] fabric (angora is featured in many of Wood's films).{{sfn|Grey|1994|p=141}} Even in his later years, Wood was not shy about going out in public dressed in drag as "Shirley", his female alter ego (a name that appeared in many of his screenplays and stories).{{sfn|Craig|2009|p=108}} In his partly autobiographical film ''[[Glen or Glenda]]'', the heterosexual Wood takes pains to emphasize that a male cross-dresser is not automatically also a [[homosexual]]. In a 1996 interview, [[American International Pictures]] co-founder [[Samuel Z. Arkoff|Sam Arkoff]] said Wood came into his office for the first time dressed as a woman.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/IWASATEENAGESTUDIO I Was A Teenage Studio (1996) Sam Arkoff interview ]</ref>  Wood directed many of his pornographic films in drag, but usually would not take the time to shave, which made for a bizarre sight, according to his friends. Wood always swore that he had never had a single homosexual relationship in his life, and was even considered quite a womanizer by many of his acquaintances. He once said that if he could have anything in life, it would be reincarnation as a blonde woman.<ref>Rudolph Grey, Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992). p. 140. ISBN 978-0-922915-24-8.</ref>