Kim Novak

Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American retired film and television actress and painter.

Novak began her career in 1954 after signing with Columbia Pictures and quickly became one of Hollywood's top box office stars, appearing in such hit films as ''Picnic'' (1955), ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955) and '' Pal Joey'' (1957). She is widely known for her performances as Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller ''Vertigo'' (1958) with James Stewart. The film had mixed reviews from critics upon release, but is now recognized as one of the greatest films ever made. Other notable films include ''Bell, Book and Candle'' (1958), '' Strangers When We Meet'' (1960) and ''Of Human Bondage'' (1964).

Although still young, Novak withdrew from acting by 1966 and has only sporadically worked in films since. She appeared in ''The Mirror Crack'd'' (1980), and had a regular role on the primetime series ''Falcon Crest'' (1986–1987).TV Guide, March 5, 2013: ''Reclusive Film Legend Kim Novak Opens Up About Life, Regrets, and Her TCM Tribute''
Relinked June 20, 2014 After a disappointing experience during the filming of '' Liebestraum'' (1991), she permanently retired from acting, saying she had no desire to return. Her contributions to cinema have been honored with two Golden Globe Awards, an Honorary Golden Bear Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Novak is a painter and visual artist.

Early life

Marilyn Pauline Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933. She is the second daughter of Joseph and Blanche (née Kral) Novak (who both appeared with her in the 1962 film ''The Notorious Landlady'').Chicago Tribune, July 29, 2010: ''Kim Novak: The road from Chicago''
Relinked June 20, 2014 Both of her parents were born in Chicago to people of Czech descent. Joseph (1897-1987) was a history teacher who took a job as a freight dispatcher on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad during the Depression.

She attended William Penn Elementary, Farragut High School, and Wright Junior College. She won two scholarships to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and during the summer break in her last semester of junior college, Novak went on a cross-country tour modelling for a refrigerator company at trade shows.

Acting career

Early films and breakthrough to stardom (1954–1959)

During a stopover in Los Angeles, Novak was crowned "Miss Deepfreeze" by the refrigerator company she worked for. While there, she and two other models stood in line to be extras in two RKO films: ''The French Line'' (1954), starring Jane Russell and '' Son of Sinbad'' (1955). There, she was discovered by an agent, who signed her to a long-term contract with Columbia Pictures.Stated in live interview with Robert Osborne; aired on Turner Classic Movies March 6, 2013. From the beginning of her career, she wanted to be an original and not another stereotype. Therefore, she fought with Columbia's chief, Harry Cohn, over the changing of her name. He suggested the name "Kit Marlowe", arguing, "Nobody's gonna go see a girl with a Polack name!", but she insisted on keeping her name, saying, "I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name!" They eventually settled on the name "Kim Novak" as a compromise.

Columbia intended for Novak to be their successor to Rita Hayworth, their biggest star of the 1940s, whose career had declined; also, the studio was hopeful that Novak would bring them the same box-office success Marilyn Monroe brought 20th Century-Fox. Novak's first role for the studio was in the film noir '' Pushover'' (1954), in which she received third billing below Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey ''Phffft'' (1954) as Janis, a character who finds Robert Tracey (Jack Lemmon) "real cute". Both films were reasonably successful at the box office, and Novak received favorable reviews for her performances. In her third feature film, ''5 Against the House'' (1955), a gritty crime drama, she received equal billing with Guy Madison. It was only a minor critical and box-office success.

She then played Madge Owens in the film version of ''Picnic'' (1955), from the William Inge play, co-starring William Holden and Rosalind Russell. Its director, Joshua Logan, felt that it would be more in character for Novak to have red hair; she agreed to wear a red wig during filming. ''Picnic'' was a resounding critical and box-office triumph, and Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress, but did not win. She appeared as a mystery guest on the game show ''What's My Line?'' on February 5, 1956, to promote the film's opening at the Radio City Music Hall. Director Otto Preminger then cast her in ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955), in which she played Frank Sinatra's sultry ex-girlfriend. In a cast which included Eleanor Parker, Novak received praise for being one of the film's bright spots, and the film was a box-office hit.

Novak's next project, ''The Eddy Duchin Story'' (1956), cast her as Marjorie Oelrichs, the wife of pianist Eddy Duchin, played by Tyrone Power. Because the two leads did not get along during filming, Novak nearly considered backing out of the production, but decided against it. At the time of its release, the film was a critical and box-office hit, with many suggesting that Novak's advertisements for No-Cal diet soda contributed positively to the film's success. Offered a choice for her next project, she selected the biopic ''Jeanne Eagels'' (1957), in which she portrayed the stage and silent-screen actress who was addicted to heroin. Co-starring Jeff Chandler, the film was a largely fictional account of Eagels' life. The film drew negative reviews, but turned a profit at the box office. Eagels' family sued Columbia over the way Eagels had been depicted in the movie.

After appearing in a series of successful movies, Novak became one of the biggest box-office draws of 1957 and 1958. Columbia then placed her in a film adaptation of '' Pal Joey'' (also 1957), based on the 1940 novel and Broadway play, both written by John O'Hara. Playing Linda English, a naive showgirl, she again co-starred opposite Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. Released in October, the film received favorable reviews; ''Variety'' called the film "strong, funny entertainment," although Novak's performance has generated a mixed reaction, partly because of noticeable lack of on-screen charisma. The movie was a box-office hit and has been considered one of Novak's better performances.

''Vertigo''

Director Alfred Hitchcock was working on his next film, ''Vertigo'' (1958), when his leading actress, Vera Miles, became pregnant and had to withdraw from the complex role of Judy Barton."Obsessed with ''Vertigo''" (1996), directed by Harrison Engle, documentary included on many DVD releases Hitchcock approached Harry Cohn to offer Novak the female lead without even requesting a screen test. Though Cohn hated the script, he allowed Novak to read it because he considered Hitchcock to be a great director. Novak loved it, as she could identify with the character and agreed to take part in the film without meeting Hitchcock. At the same time, she was striking for more money from Columbia, and refused to show up for work on the ''Vertigo'' set to protest against her salary of $1,250 a week. Novak hired new agents to represent her and demanded an adjustment in her contract. Cohn, who was paid $250,000 for Novak to do ''Vertigo'', suspended her, but after a few weeks of negotiations, he relented and offered her a new contract worthy of a major star. She was now receiving $3,000 a week and explained to the press, "I don't like to have anyone take advantage of me."

Novak finally reported for work, and according to Hitchcock, she had "all sorts of preconceived notions" about her character, including what she would and would not wear. Before shooting began, she told the director she did not like the grey suit and black shoes she was slated to wear, thinking them too heavy and stiff for her character. Novak later recalled, "I didn’t think it would matter to him what kind of shoes I wore. I had never had a director who was particular about the costumes, the way they were designed, the specific colors. The two things he wanted the most were those shoes and that gray suit." Indeed, Hitchcock explained to Novak that the visual aspect of the film was even more important to him than the story, and insisted on her wearing the suit and the shoes that he had been planning for several months. Novak learned to make it work for her, as she saw it as a symbol of her character. Nonetheless, Hitchcock allowed Novak the freedom to develop the character herself. As she later recalled: "It excites me to work on dual personalities because I think I have many myself. And I think that I was able to use so much of me in that movie. At first I was feeling insecure because I kept saying, "Is this right? How do you want me to play this character?" Hitchcock said: "I hired you and that's who I want, what you bring to this role. But what I do expect from you is to stand where I want you to, wear what I want you to and speak in the rhythm that I want you to." And he worked a long time with me to try to get the right rhythm." The role took on a personal significance for her, as she felt she went through the same thing as her character when she arrived in Hollywood:

From my point of view, when I first read those lines where she says, "I want you to love me for me," and all the talking in that scene, I just identified with it so much because going to Hollywood as a young girl and suddenly finding they want to make you over totally, it's such a total change and it was like I was always fighting to show some of myself, feeling that I wanted to be there as well. It was like they'd do my hair and go and redo a bunch of things. So I really identified with the fact of someone that was being made over with the resentment, with wanting to. Needing approval and wanting to be loved and willing, eventually, to go to any lengths to get that by changing her hair and all of these different things. And then when Judy appears, it's another story and then when she has to go through that change. I really identified with the movie because it was saying, "Please, see who I am. Fall in love with me."

Novak described Hitchcock as a gentleman, but found the experience of working with him to be strange. "I don't know if he ever liked me. I never sat down with him for dinner or tea or anything, except one cast dinner, and I was late to that. It wasn't my fault, but I think he thought I had delayed to make a star entrance, and he held that against me. During the shooting, he never really told me what he was thinking." The director was actually frustrated to have her instead of Vera Miles, as Novak learned later. "Hitchcock didn’t like having me in his picture and he felt I was ruining it. It was only after the film was finished that I heard how much he thought I’d wrecked his picture. I felt I did a lot of good work in that movie, and I got some of the best notices of my career. But Hitchcock couldn’t blame himself, so he blamed me." Novak got along well with her co-star, James Stewart, who supported her during the filming of the movie. "He treated me so well. I learned a lot about acting from him. When we had emotional scenes, he had to prepare himself first by somehow going deep inside of himself, and you knew to leave him alone when he was like that. And when it was over, he wouldn't just walk away. He allowed himself to slowly come out of it. He'd hold my hand and I would squeeze his hand so that we both had time to come down from the emotion."

The film had mixed reviews at the time of its release in 1958, and broke even at the box office, but has since been re-evaluated and is widely considered one of the director's best works. In the 2012 British Film Institute's ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll, ''Vertigo'' was voted as the best film of all time, displacing Orson Welles' ''Citizen Kane'' from the position it had occupied since 1962. Novak received mixed reviews for her performance, but she managed to surprise film critics. While Bosley Crowther, writing for ''The New York Times,'' described her as "really quite amazing," the ''Variety'' review noted that she was "interesting under Hitchcock’s direction" and "nearer an actress than she was in either ''Pal Joey'' or ''Jeanne Eagles."'' The consensus regarding her performance also changed with time. Film critic David Thomson thought it was "one of the major female performances in the cinema" and film director Martin Scorsese called it "extraordinary," adding that Novak's work was "so brave and emotionally immediate." However, Novak was disappointed by her performance when she watched the film in 2013. "I was really disappointed. Both characters were exaggerated. They'll always remember me in ''Vertigo'', and I'm not that good in it, but I don't blame me because there are a couple of scenes where I was wonderful."

Novak again worked with Stewart in Richard Quine's ''Bell, Book and Candle'' (also 1958), a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft, that proved to be a box-office success. She then starred opposite Fredric March in the acclaimed romantic drama ''Middle of the Night'' (1959), which she has described as not only her favorite of her films, but also cites her performance in ''Middle of the Night'' as her best.

Career slowdown and other ventures (1960–1965)

Novak starred opposite Kirk Douglas in the romantic drama '' Strangers When We Meet'' (1960), which drew mixed reviews but was a success financially. Richard Quine was the director, as well as her fiancé at the time. The studio planned to give them the house that was built as part of the story line during the filming as a wedding gift, but their wedding never occurred. Instead, during the last film that Quine and she made together, the British mystery/comedy ''The Notorious Landlady'' (1962) with Jack Lemmon and Fred Astaire, she discovered and purchased her future home by the sea near Big Sur in central California. It became her retreat and emotional salvation after leaving Hollywood.

She made an independent five-picture deal, with producer Martin Ransohoff

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