Kim Novak

Kim Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933 with the birth name of Marilyn Pauline Novak. She was the daughter of a former teacher turned Transit clerk and his wife, also a former teacher. Throughout elementary and high school, Kim did not get along well with teachers. She even admitted that she didn't like being told what to do and when to do it. Her first job, after high school, was modeling teen fashions for a local department store. Kim, later, won a scholarship in a modeling school and continued to model part-time. Kim later worked odd jobs as an elevator operator, sales clerk, and a dental assistant. The jobs never seemed to work out so she fell back on modeling, the one job she did well. After a stint on the road as a spokesperson for an appliance company, Kim decided to go to Los Angeles and try her luck at modeling there.

Ultimately, her modeling landed her an uncredited role in the RKO production of The French Line (1953). The role encompassed nothing more than being seen on a set of stairs. Later a talent agent arranged for a screen test with Columbia Pictures and won a small six month contract. In truth, some of the studio hierarchy thought that Kim was Columbia's answer to Marilyn Monroe. Kim, who was still going by her own name of Marilyn, was originally going to be called "Kit Marlowe". She wanted to at least keep her family name of Novak, so the young actress and studio personnel settled on Kim Novak.

After taking some acting lessons, which the studio declined to pay for, Kim appeared in her first film opposite Fred MacMurray in Pushover (1954). Though her role as "Lona McLane" wasn't exactly a great one, it was her classic beauty that seemed to capture the eyes of the critics.

Later that year, Kim appeared in the film, Phffft (1954) with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday. Now more and more fans were eager to see this bright new star. These two films set the tone for her career with a lot of fan mail coming her way.

Her next film was as "Kay Greylek" in 5 Against the House (1955). The film was well-received, but it was her next one for that year that was her best to date.

The film was Picnic (1955). Although Kim did a superb job of acting in the film as did her co-stars, the film did win two Oscars for editing and set decoration.

Kim's next film was with United Artists on a loan out in the controversial Otto Preminger film The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Her performance was flawless, but it was was Kim's beauty that carried the day. The film was a big hit.

In 1957, Kim played "Linda English" in the hit movie Pal Joey (1957) with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. The film did very well at the box office, but was condemned by the critics. Kim really didn't seem that interested in the role. She even said she couldn't stand people such as her character. That same year, Novak risked her career when she started dating singer/actor Sammy Davis Jr. . The interracial affair alarmed studio executives, most notably Harry Cohn, and they ended their relationship in January of the following year.

In 1958, Kim appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's, now classic, Vertigo (1958) with James Stewart. This film's plot was one that thoroughly entertained the theater patrons wherever it played. The film was one in which Stewart's character, a detective, is hired to tail a friend's wife (Kim) and witnesses her suicide. In the end, Stewart finds that he has been duped in an elaborate scheme.

Her next film was Bell Book and Candle (1958) which was only a modest success.

By the early 1960s, Kim's star was beginning to fade, especially with the rise of new stars or stars that were remodeling their status within the film community.

With a few more nondescript films between 1960 and 1964, she landed the role of "Mildred Rogers" in the remake of Of Human Bondage (1964). The film debuted to good reviews. In the meantime, Kim broke off her engagement to director Richard Quine and embarked on a brief dalliance with basketball player Wilt Chamberlain.

While filming The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), she had a romance with co-star Richard Johnson, whom she married, but the marriage failed the following year.

Totaled two cars in 1966--one in an August 26 accident and another on December 6th.

Kim stepped away from the cameras for a while, returning in 1968 to star in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968). It was a resounding flop, perhaps the worst of her career. However, after that, Kim, basically, was able to pick what projects she wanted.

After The Great Bank Robbery (1969) in 1969, Kim was away for another four years until she was seen with then-boyfriend Michael Brandon in a television movie called The Third Girl from the Left (1973), playing a veteran Las Vegas showgirl experiencing a midlife crisis.

Dated Porfirio Rubirosa, Kerwin Mathews, Sammy Davis Jr., Wilt Chamberlain, David Hemmings and Michael Brandon (who co-starred with her in The Third Girl from the Left (1973)).

In a personal development, Novak met equine veterinarian Robert Malloy in October 1974 and the couple married in 1976. Subsequent films were not the type to get the critics to sit up and take notice, but afforded her the opportunity to work with strong talent.

She appeared to good effect in Satan's Triangle (1975), Just a Gigolo (1978), The Mirror Crack'd (1980) and Malibu (1983).

Was the original choice to play Marion Wormer in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).

As a starlet with Columbia Pictures, she resisted pressure to change her name to Kit Marlowe. Years later, the name was used for the character she played on the television series Falcon Crest (1981). (She did agree to change her first name from Marilyn to Kim, as the public associated her given name with Marilyn Monroe).

Is portrayed by Terri Lynn in Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess (1983)

In 1986 and 1987, Kim played, of all people, "Kit Marlowe" in the TV series Falcon Crest (1981).

In 1990, she starred alongside Ben Kingsley in The Children (1990), a fine independent film shot in Europe. It was not widely distributed, thus few got to see Novak giving one of her most powerful performances.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#92). [1995]

In Popular (1999), the main girl's bathroom in the high school is called "The Novak" which holds all the pictures of the homecoming queens. The name is inspired by when movie stars would donate money to schools (often an alma mater). The writers found out that Kim Novak donated money to a school in the Santa Monica area (where the school/show is set), so they named this room after her.

On July 24, 2000, she watched her memento-filled house in Eagle Point, Oregon, go up in flames. A deputy fire marshal said that the blaze was probably the result of a tree that fell across an electrical power line. Included in the loss were scripts to some of her movies as well as her computer, which contained her long-gestating autobiography. However, spared were her menagerie of animals, including horses and llamas, as well as the star's husband of 24 years, veterinarian Bob Malloy. She later said that the fire was a sign that she shouldn't be writing an autobiography.

In an interview with Stephen Rebello in the July 2005 issue of Movieline's Hollywood Life, Novak admitted that she had been "unprofessional" in her conduct with director Mike Figgis on how to portray her character in the film Liebestraum (1991).

Injured in a 2006 horseback riding accident that broke her ribs, punctured a lung and caused nerve damage. She made a full recovery within a year.

Diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing cancer treatment. [October 2010]

Publicly claimed that she was raped as a child. [March 2012]

Despite being divorced from him, she remained friends with Richard Johnson until his death in 2015. They were married for only one year.