Later Years and Death
In 1969, Wood appeared in Love Feast (also known as Pretty Models All in a Row), the first of two films produced by a Marine buddy, Joseph F. Robertson, portraying a photographer using his position to engage in sexual antics with models. He had a smaller role in Robertson's second film, Mrs. Stone's Thing, as a transvestite who spends his time at a party trying on lingerie in a bedroom.
In 1970, Wood made his own pornographic film, Take It Out in Trade, a softcore take on Philip Marlowe detective films, and Necromania the following year.
In the 1970s, Wood worked with friend Stephen C. Apostolof, usually co-writing scripts, but also serving as an assistant director and associate producer. His last known on-screen appearance was in Apostolof's Fugitive Girls (aka Five Loose Women), where he played both a gas station attendant called "Pops" and a sheriff on the women's trail.
In 1978, Wood's depression had worsened, and with it a serious drinking problem. Evicted from his Hollywood apartment on Yucca Street, Wood and his wife, Kathy O'Hara, moved into the North Hollywood apartment of friend Peter Coe. On December 10, only days after the move, Wood died of a heart attack while watching a football game alone in Coe's bedroom. In Nightmare of Ecstasy, it was reported Wood yelled out "Kathy, I can't breathe!", a plea his wife in the living room ignored for 90 minutes before finally going in to find him dead; apparently, he frequently feigned heart attacks and screamed for help as a way of teasing her, and at one point she even shouted at him to shut up.
Wood was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. Wood's wife Kathy died on June 26, 2006, having never remarried. They had one daughter, Kathleen.
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