Kim Novak

Happy 90th Birthday to living legend Kim Novak, shown here in a publicity still for PAL JOEY (1957). Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933 with the birth name of Marilyn Pauline Novak. As a teenager, Novak left Chicago, where she was working as a model, and moved to Hollywood to audition to be an extra in “The French Line” (1954). She succeeded in that mission and also came to the attention of the president of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn, who offered her a contract and groomed her for a Hollywood career. She took acting lessons and, early on, was cast in films opposite well-established actors such as Fred MacMurray (“Pushover”, 1954) and Jack Lemmon (“Phffft”, 1954). In her third feature film, “5 Against the House” (1955), a gritty crime drama, she received equal billing with Guy Madison. She then played Madge Owens in the film version of “Picnic” (1955), which was a resounding critical and box-office triumph. Her next film, “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955) was also a big hit. In 1957, Novak played "Linda English" in the hit movie “Pal Joey” (1957) with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. Her strongest acting performances came opposite Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock's “Vertigo” (1958) and “Bell, Book, and Candle” (1958). Novak’s career slowed down somewhat in the 1960s, appearing in such fare as “Kiss Me, Stupid” and “The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders” (1965). Her most notable later role was that of the conniving Kit Marlowe in the 1986–87 season of the television series “Falcon Crest” (1981–90). Her last film, on the silver screen, was “Liebestraum” (1991), in which she played a terminally ill woman with a past. Novak is also an accomplished artist and enjoys riding, canoeing and expressing herself through paint, poetry and photography.

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