Kim Novak rose to fame at a time when Hollywood was changing its idea of beauty and stardom. Born Marilyn Pauline Kim Malloy, she became one of the most eye catching actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s.
She started her movie career in 1954 after signing with Columbia Pictures. Very quickly, she became a big name at the box office, starring in films like Picnic in 1955, The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955, and Pal Joey in 1957.
Her place in film history was secured with Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo in 1958, now considered one of the greatest movies ever made. She later appeared in popular films such as Bell, Book and Candle in 1958, Strangers When We Meet in 1960, and Kiss Me, Stupid in 1964.
Before Hollywood noticed her, Novak spent her last junior college summer traveling across the country. She worked as a promotional model for Detroit Motor Products Corporation, showing the Deepfreeze home freezer at trade shows.
During this tour, people started calling her “Miss Deepfreeze,” a nickname that showed she was beginning to get attention.
When the promotion ended in San Francisco, Novak and two other models decided to go to Los Angeles to look for chances in movies.
In Los Angeles, she used the name Marilyn Novak and worked as an extra in Son of Sinbad, which was filmed in 1953 and released in 1955. She later appeared in The French Line in 1953, starring Jane Russell at RKO.
Not long after, an agent noticed her and helped her sign a long term contract with Columbia Pictures. From the beginning, Novak did not want to be turned into a fake studio image, which caused tension with studio boss Harry Cohn, especially over her name.
Cohn suggested the name “Kit Marlowe,” saying no one would watch a movie starring a girl with a Polish sounding name. Novak refused, saying that even if people mixed it up, her name was still her identity. In the end, they agreed on the name Kim Novak.
Columbia Pictures promoted Novak as the next Rita Hayworth and hoped she could bring the same box office success that Marilyn Monroe brought to 20th Century Fox.
Her first leading role for the studio was in the film noir Pushover in 1954. She was billed third, after Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey.
Later that same year, she appeared in the romantic comedy Phffft. She played Janis, a cheerful character who thinks Robert Tracey, played by Jack Lemmon, is “real cute.”
Her big breakthrough came with Picnic in 1955, based on a play by William Inge. The film also starred William Holden and Rosalind Russell.
Director Joshua Logan felt the character Madge Owens would look more real with red hair, and Novak agreed to wear a red wig for the role.
Logan later said that although studio boss Harry Cohn suggested her name, the choice was not forced. After several screen tests, he was impressed by how naturally Novak fit the character.
Picnic became a major success with both critics and audiences, and it earned Novak a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer.
Hitchcock’s Vertigo in 1958 came into Novak’s career in an unusual way. The role became available after actress Vera Miles had to leave the film because she was pregnant.
Alfred Hitchcock offered the part to Novak without even asking for a screen test. Although Harry Cohn did not like the script, he still allowed her to take the role out of respect for the famous director.
Novak later said Hitchcock was polite, but the experience made her uncomfortable. She explained that she never really felt close to him. They never shared dinner or tea together, except for one cast dinner where she arrived late.
She said it was not her fault, but she felt Hitchcock believed she did it on purpose to make a dramatic entrance, and he seemed to hold that against her. During filming, he rarely explained what he wanted or what he was thinking.
Later, Novak found out that Hitchcock had been disappointed because he originally wanted Vera Miles for the role.
When Vertigo was first released, reviews were mixed and the movie did only average business at the box office. But over the years, its reputation slowly grew.
In 2012, the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound critics’ poll named it the greatest film ever made, which firmly secured Kim Novak’s place in film history.
While she was still young and at the peak of her fame, Novak mostly stepped away from acting by 1966 and appeared only from time to time after that.
Her later work included the film The Mirror Crack’d in 1980 and a regular role on the TV series Falcon Crest from 1986 to 1987.
Her personal life also attracted a lot of public attention. In the mid 1950s, Novak was linked to Ramfis Trujillo, and later in 1957, she was connected to Sammy Davis Jr.
A BBC documentary later claimed that Columbia studio head Harry Cohn used threats from the mob to force an end to her relationship with Davis.
Over the years, she also dated Michael Brandon, Wilt Chamberlain, and David Hemmings, and in 1959, she became engaged to director Richard Quine.
Novak married English actor Richard Johnson in 1965. The marriage ended the next year, but the two remained friends.
In 1966, she left Hollywood and moved to Big Sur. There, she chose a quieter life, focusing on painting, raising horses, and taking on film roles only once in a while.
She met her second husband, horse veterinarian Robert Malloy, in 1974 when he came to treat one of her Arabian horses.
They married on March 12, 1976, and later built a log home near the Williamson River in Chiloquin, Oregon. Novak chose to live a quiet life there, mostly away from the public eye, with her two adult stepchildren becoming part of her family.
(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / IMDB / Pinterest).
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