Kim Novak

Kim Novak Biography

Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American actress. She began her career in 1954 at age 21, and came to prominence almost immediately with a leading role in the film Picnic (1955). Other films from this period of her career include Pal Joey (1957), the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo (1958), Middle of the Night (1959), The Notorious Landlady (1962), and Of Human Bondage (1964). After a decade in the entertainment industry, Novak withdrew from the public eye in 1965 and appeared in films only sporadically until 1991, when she prematurely retired from acting following a tempestuous experience with director Mike Figgis on the set of Liebestraum, her last film to date.

Novak has been married to equine veterinarian Robert Malloy since 1976. The couple resides on a ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon where they raise horses and llamas. Novak is also an accomplished artist, and has exhibited several of her oil paintings in art galleries since retiring from acting.

Early life

Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak, in Chicago, Illinois, to Joseph and Blanche (ne Kral) Novak. Both her parents were of Czech descent. Her father worked as a dispatcher on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad and both her parents had been teachers.

While attending David Glasgow Farragut High School, she won a scholarship to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but wound up going to Wright Junior College instead. During the summer break following her sophomore year, Novak went on a cross-country trip modeling for a refrigerator company at trade shows. While stopping by Los Angeles, Novak and two other models stood in line to be extras in The French Line (1954), a film starring Jane Russell. It was here that she was discovered by an agent, who signed her to a long-term contract with Columbia Pictures.

Career

1950s

Novak made her film debut in the film noir Pushover (1954), starring Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey. Though the movie was only moderately successful, Novak received good reviews for her performance. She then played the role of Janis in the romantic comedy Phffft!, opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Soon afterward, she had her first starring role in 5 Against the House (1955), a crime drama.

In 1955, Novak had a supporting role in the highly successful The Man with the Golden Arm, with Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Parker. Her next role was as the lead character Madge Owens in Picnic, opposite William Holden. The film proved to be a breakthrough for the young actress; she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer and was nominated for the BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. The film was also very successful at the box office.

In 1956, she played opposite Tyrone Power in The Eddy Duchin Story. In 1957, she worked with Sinatra again in the box office hit Pal Joey, which also starred Rita Hayworth. That same year, she portrayed 1920s film star Jeanne Eagels in the eponymous biopic, with Jeff Chandler.

In 1958, Novak appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Vertigo, playing the role of a brunette shopgirl, Judy Barton, who masquerades as a sophisticated blonde woman as part of an elaborate murder scheme. The film was poorly received at the time of its release, but has since been re-evaluated and is widely considered one of the director's best works. However, the consensus regarding Novak's performance remains mixed. For example, film critic David Shipman wrote that Novak's acting was "little more than competent", while David Thomson thought it was "one of the major female performances in the cinema".

That same year, she again worked with James Stewart in Bell, Book and Candle, a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft, that proved to be a box office success. The following year, she starred opposite Fredric March in the acclaimed Middle of the Night (1959), which she has described as her favorite film that she has been in. Novak also cites her performance in Middle of the Night as her best. In 1960, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in Strangers When We Meet, also featuring Walter Matthau and Ernie Kovacs.

1960s

Though still young, Novak saw her career begin to decline in the early 1960s, due largely to the fall of the studio system in which she had been brought up. In 1962, she produced her own movie in association with Filmways Productions. Boys' Night Out, in which she starred with James Garner and Tony Randall, proved to be a critical and financial failure. She was paired with Jack Lemmon for a third and final time that year in a mystery-comedy, The Notorious Landlady.

In 1964, she played a vulgar waitress in a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's drama Of Human Bondage, opposite Laurence Harvey, and a sultry barmaid in Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid, with Dean Martin and Ray Walston.

After playing the title role in 1965's The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, Novak took a break from Hollywood acting. "I left. I just walked away," she recalled in 2012. She continued to act, although infrequently, with the intervals in between her periodic returns growing increasingly long. Novak began to prefer personal activities over acting.

Her first attempt at a comeback came in a dual role as a young actress, Elsa Brinkmann, and an early-day movie goddess who was murdered, Lylah Clare, in producer-director Robert Aldrich's The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine. The film was a critical and commercial failure. After playing a forger, Sister Lyda Kebanov, in The Great Bank Robbery (1969) opposite Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Claude Akins, Novak stayed away from acting for another four years.

1970s

In 1973, she returned to the screen with a role in the horror anthology film Tales That Witness Madness (1973). She also starred as Las Vegas chorus girl Gloria Joyce in the made-for-TV movie, The Third Girl From the Left (1973), with her real-life boyfriend at the time, Michael Brandon. Her next role was as Eva in Satan's Triangle (1975).

Novak had a small role in The White Buffalo (1977), a western starring Charles Bronson. She ended the decade by playing Helga in Just a Gigolo (1979), opposite David Bowie.

1980s

In 1980, Novak played Lola Brewster in the British mystery-thriller The Mirror Crack'd, based on the story by Agatha Christie. She co-starred alongside Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor. Novak did not appear in any feature films during the remainder of the 1980s. Her acting credits during the decade included the ensemble television movie Malibu (1983) and the pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985). She appeared as the secretive "Kit Marlowe" in 19 episodes of the successful primetime soap opera Falcon Crest (1986 to 1987). (Kit Marlowe was the stage name that Columbia had wanted Novak to use when she started out in the business.)

1990s

In 1990, Novak returned to film with the leading role of Rose Sellers in The Children opposite Ben Kingsley. A British-German coproduction, the film only had a limited release.

In 1991, she played the role of a terminally ill writer with a mysterious past in the thriller Liebestraum opposite Kevin Anderson and Bill Pullman. However, owing to battles with director Mike Figgis over how to play her character, most of her scenes were cut. "I know he thinks I'm a total bitch," Novak later told Hollywood Life magazine in 2005. "That role was fabulous, full of depth. When I interpreted it the way I thought was evident in the incredible script, he said, 'We're not making a Kim Novak movie, just say the lines. If you continue to play the role this way, I'm going to cut you out of the movie,' and he pretty much did that." In the interview, Novak admitted she was "unprofessional" not to obey her director.

Since then, Novak has usually cited the Liebestraum experience as the reason for her decision to retire from the film industry. In 2004, she told the Associated Press:

I got so burned out on that picture that I wanted to leave the business, but then if you wait long enough you think, "Oh, I miss certain things." The making of a movie is wonderful. What's difficult is afterward when you have to go around and try to sell it. The actual filming, when you have a good script"?which isn't often"?nothing beats it.

2000s and beyond

In 2007, Novak told another reporter she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."

Novak appeared for a question-and-answer session about her career on July 30, 2010, at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, where the American Cinematheque hosted a tribute to her coinciding with the August 3 DVD release of "The Kim Novak Collection."

In a televised interview with TCM host Robert Osborne on March 6, 2013, Novak broke down in tears while discussing Liebestraum. As she nearly sobbed in front of the audience, Novak said "I couldn't do a movie after that. I've never done a movie after that. I just couldn't do a movie after that." The interview was an eye-opener for many fans who had wondered why Novak made so few films. Acknowledging that she never reached her acting potential, Novak revealed to the audience that she is bipolar and "was never cut out for a Hollywood life." However, in another interview with a fashion website three weeks later, Novak said: "Who knows what the future holds? It would take an awful lot to lure me out there, but I would never say never."

Honors

For her contribution to motion pictures, Novak was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 1995, Novak was ranked 92nd by Empire Magazine on a list of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In 1955, she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female. Two years later, she won another Golden Globe-for World Favorite female actress. In 1997, Novak won an Honorary Golden Bear at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2005, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen named his first It Bag The Novak.

Novak was honored in a handprint and footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in April 2012.

Novak was named guest of honour at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. She introduced there a new restored version of Vertigo. She also took part in the closing ceremony to present the Grand Prix Award to the Coen brothers for Inside Llewyn Davis and received a standing ovation at her entrance.

Personal life

Novak's first marriage was to English actor Richard Johnson, for thirteen months (March 15, 1965April 23 1966). The two have remained friends. She had previously dated Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ramfis Trujillo, and been engaged to director Richard Quine. In the early 1970s, Novak dated actor Michael Brandon.

Novak has been married to equine veterinarian Dr. Robert Malloy (born 1940) since March 12, 1976. The couple resides on a ranch, where they raise horses and llamas. Novak has two stepchildren.

On July 24, 2000, her home in Eagle Point, Oregon, was partially destroyed by fire. Novak lost scripts, several paintings, and a computer containing the only draft of her unfinished autobiography. Of the loss Novak said:

I take it personally as a sign that maybe I"?m not supposed to write my biography; maybe the past is supposed to stay buried. It made me realize then what was really valuable. That"?s the day I wrote a gratitude list. We"?re safe and our animals are safe.

In December 2001, her home in Oregon was robbed of more than US$200,000 worth of firearms and tools. Three men were arrested and charged with burglary, theft, and criminal conspiracy.

In 2006, Novak was injured in a horse riding accident. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, and nerve damage but made a full recovery within a year.

Novak is a photographer, poet, and artist who paints in watercolor and oil as well as sculpts and designs stained glass.

In October 2010, her manager, Sue Cameron, reported Novak had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Cameron also noted that Novak is "undergoing treatment" and "her doctors say she is in fantastic physical shape and should recover very well." Upon completion of treatment, Novak was declared cancer-free.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	The French Line	Model	Uncredited
1954	Pushover	Lona McLane
1954	Phffft!	Janis
1955	Son of Sinbad	Harem Girl	Uncredited
1955	5 Against the House	Kay Greylek
1955	Picnic	Marjorie "Madge" Owens
1955	The Man with the Golden Arm	Molly
1956	The Eddy Duchin Story	Marjorie Oelrichs
1957	Jeanne Eagels	Jeanne Eagels
1957	Pal Joey	Linda English
1958	Vertigo	Judy Barton
1958	Bell, Book and Candle	Gillian "Gil" Holroyd
1959	Middle of the Night	Betty Preisser
1960	Strangers When We Meet	Margaret "Maggie" Gault
1962	The Notorious Landlady	Mrs. Carlyle "Carly" Hardwicke
1962	Boys' Night Out	Cathy
1964	Of Human Bondage	Mildred Rogers
1964	Kiss Me, Stupid	Polly the Pistol
1965	The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders	Moll Flanders
1968	The Legend of Lylah Clare	Lylah Clare/Elsa Brinkmann/Elsa Campbell
1969	The Great Bank Robbery	Sister Lyda Kebanov
1973	Tales That Witness Madness	Auriol	Segment 4" "Luau"
1973	The Third Girl From the Left	Gloria Joyce	Television film
1975	Satan's Triangle	Eva	Television film
1977	The White Buffalo	Mrs. Poker Jenny Schermerhorn	Alternative title: Hunt to Kill
1979	Just a Gigolo	Helga von Kaiserling
1980	The Mirror Crack'd	Lola Brewster
1983	Malibu	Billie Farnsworth	Television film
1987	Es hat mich sehr gefreut		Alternative title: I Have Been Very Pleased
1990	The Children	Rose Sellars
1991	Liebestraum	Lillian Anderson Munnsen

Television series
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Rosa	Segment: "Man From The South"
1986-1987	Falcon Crest	Kit Marlowe	29 episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title of work	Result
1957	BAFTA Awards	Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Television Series	Picnic	Nominated
1997	Berlin International Film Festival	Honorary Golden Berlin Bear		Won
1957	Golden Apple Award	Most Cooperative Actress		Won
1955	Golden Globe Award	Most Promising Newcomer - Female		Won
1957	Golden Globe Award	World Film Favorite - Female		Won
1958	Laurel Awards	Top Female Star		Third place
1959	Laurel Awards	Top Female Star		Nominated
1960	Laurel Awards	Top Female Star		Nominated
1961	Laurel Awards	Top Female Star		Nominated
1962	Laurel Awards	Top Female Star		Nominated
1963	Laurel Awards	Top Female Star		Nominated
1956	Photoplay Awards	Most Popular Female Star		Won