I was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 13, 1933, my birth name is Marilyn Pauline Novak. In elementary and high school, I did not get along with teachers. I didn't like being told what to do and when to do it. My first job, after high school, was modeling teen fashions for a local department store. I won a scholarship in a modeling school and continued to model part time. I worked odd jobs as an elevator operator, sales clerk, and a dental assistant. The jobs never seemed to work out so I fell back on modeling, the one job I did well. After a stint on the road as a spokesperson for an appliance company, I decided to go to Los Angeles and try my luck at modeling there. Ultimately, my modeling landed me an unaccredited role in the RKO production of The French Line (1954). 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 I was Columbia's answer to Marilyn Monroe. I was still going by my own name of Marilyn, and I was originally going to be called Kit Marlowe, but I wanted to at least keep my family name of Novak, so the I settled on Kim Novak. After taking some acting lessons, which the studio declined to pay for, I appeared in my first film opposite Fred MacMurray in Pushover (1954).
Other movies were:
Es hat mich sehr gefreut (1987)
"Falcon Crest" (1981) TV Series .... Kit Marlowe (1986-1987)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985) (TV) .... Rosa (segment "Man From The South")
Malibu (1983) (TV) .... Billie Farnsworth
The Mirror Crack'd (1980) .... Lola Brewster
Schöner Gigolo, armer Gigolo (1979) .... Helga
The White Buffalo (1977) .... Mrs. Poker Jenny Schermerhorn
Satan's Triangle (1975) (TV) .... Eva
Tales That Witness Madness (1973) .... Auriol Pageant
The Third Girl from the Left (1973) (TV) .... Gloria Joyce
The Great Bank Robbery (1969) .... Sister Lyda Kebanov (forger)
The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) .... Lylah Clare/Elsa Brinkmann
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) .... Moll Flanders
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) .... Polly the Pistol/Zelda
Of Human Bondage (1964) .... Mildred Rogers
Boys' Night Out (1962) .... Cathy
The Notorious Landlady (1962) .... Carlyle Hardwicke
Pepe (1960) .... Cameo appearance
Strangers When We Meet (1960) ... Maggie Gault
Middle of the Night (1959) .... Betty Preisser
Bell Book and Candle (1958) .... Gillian 'Gil' Holroyd
Vertigo (1958) .... Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton
Pal Joey (1957) .... Linda English
Jeanne Eagels (1957) .... Jeanne Eagels
The Eddy Duchin Story (1956) .... Marjorie Oelrichs Duchin
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) .... Molly
Picnic (1955) .... Madge Owens
5 Against the House (1955) .... Kay Greylek
Son of Sinbad (1955) (uncredited) .... Raider
Phffft! (1954) .... Janis
Pushover (1954) .... Lona McLane
The French Line (1954) (uncredited) ... Model on stairs
My favorite movies to be in were:
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). My performance was flawless, but it was was my beauty that carried the day. The film was a big hit.
Pal Joey (1957) As Linda English, I was in a film with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. The film did very well at the box-office, but was crucified by the critics. I really wasn't that interested in the role. I couldn't stand people such as the character I portrayed.
Vertigo (1958) I appeared in a dual role of Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster in Alfred Hitchcock's, now classic, with Jimmy 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 (ME) and witnesses her suicide. In the end Stewart finds that he has been duped in an elaborate scheme. Lets just say he falls desperately in Love with me, hehe!
Bell Book and Candle (1958) I played just your average, modern-day, witch, Gillian 'Gil' Holroyd, living in a New York apartment with my Siamese familiar, Pyewacket. But one day a handsome publisher, Shep Henderson (Jimmy Stewart) walks into my building and I decide I wants him--especially as it turns out he's marrying Merle Kittridge, an old poison penpal from my college days. So, I casts a spell over Shep. But my powers are in danger of being exorcised by something stronger than the bell-book-and-candle routine: Love. To bad this movie didn't fare as well at the box-office.
By the early, 1960s I was beginning to fall especially with the rise of new stars or stars that were remodeling their status within the film community.
