1953–1958: Early films and breakthrough In San Francisco, after the refrigerator company tour ended, Novak and two other models decided to travel to Los Angeles, to check out the film industry. In Los Angeles, Novak was discovered by an agent, who signed her to a long-term contract with
Columbia Pictures. From the beginning of her career, she wanted to be an original and not another
stereotype. Therefore, Novak fought with Columbia's CEO,
Harry Cohn, over the changing of her name. Cohn suggested the name "Kit Marlowe", arguing, "Nobody's gonna go see a girl with a
Polack name!", but Novak 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. She then co-starred in the
romantic comedy 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 second billing after
Guy Madison but above
Brian Keith, all three above the title. It was only a minor critical and box-office success. Novak 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. Logan says Harry Cohn suggested Novak appear in the film but did not insist upon it: the director tested her for the role several times and was delighted with her performance, feeling she was close to her character.
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 that included
Eleanor Parker, Novak received praise for being one of the film's bright spots, and the film was a box-office hit. " in
Pal Joey (1957) 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 the musical
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 co-starred opposite
Frank Sinatra (again) 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.
1958: 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 roles of Madeleine Elster and Judy Barton. 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 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. She received a raise to $3,000 a week and told the press, "I don't like to have anyone take advantage of me." with Novak on the set of
Vertigo (1958) 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." 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." Novak surprised film critics.
Bosley Crowther, writing for
The New York Times, described her as "really quite amazing", and 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 Eagels." 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."
1958–1965: Career decline and other ventures '' (1959) Novak again worked with Stewart in
Richard Quine's
Bell, Book and Candle (also 1958), a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft also starring
Jack Lemmon and
Ernie Kovacs 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 the film as her best. 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 storyline 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 sanctuary after leaving Hollywood. Novak made an independent five-picture deal, with producer
Martin Ransohoff and
Filmways Pictures to co-produce, but it proved to be a bad choice owing to clashes with personalities over scripts. Their first endeavor, the comedy ''
Boys' Night Out'' (1962), was unsuccessful. After her Hollywood house survived the big
Bel Air Fire of 1961, it was finally lost a few years later when it was swept away with most of her belongings in a mudslide in 1966. During the interim, she made
W. Somerset Maugham's drama
Of Human Bondage (1964) with
Laurence Harvey in Ireland. This third film adaptation of the famous story went over schedule and budget, and it also failed. The sex comedy
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with
Dean Martin followed for director
Billy Wilder. Actor
Peter Sellers had originally been selected and begun filming, but he had suffered a heart attack, so
Ray Walston substituted at the last minute. The film had problems getting released because of conflicts with the
Legion of Decency. The film opened to scathing reviews and while it made money, it did not help Novak's career. Years later it was rediscovered and acclaimed for its forward thinking and got rave reviews, particularly for Novak's performance as "Polly the Pistol". Novak starred in the historical comedy
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) in England with British actor
Richard Johnson. Inspired by the similar movie
Tom Jones, it drew negative reviews but was a moderate success at the box office. Novak married Johnson in 1965 and divorced him in the spring of 1966. The divorce was amicable and they remained friendly. In 1965, Novak was cast as the female lead in the occult-themed mystery
Eye of the Devil, co-starring
David Niven,
Donald Pleasence and
Sharon Tate. The film's premise intrigued Novak, but she found the filming difficult and unpleasant. Novak was forced to leave the film after she fell off a horse, resulting in serious injuries which took time to recover from and she was replaced by
Deborah Kerr.
1966–1991: Acting sporadically By the end of 1966, she was emotionally drained and no longer wanted to live the life of a Hollywood movie star, in the glare of the spotlight with the press scrutinizing her every move. When a mudslide took her Bel Air home and cost her entire life's savings in bulldozer fees, she moved away from Hollywood to
Big Sur. From then on, acting became a job and was no longer a career of choice. Novak preferred to concentrate on her first love, the visual arts, often writing poetry to accompany her paintings, and even writing some song lyrics.
Harry Belafonte and
the Kingston Trio recorded some of her folk songs in the 1960s. The last film Novak made in the '60s was the Western comedy
The Great Bank Robbery (1969), opposite
Zero Mostel,
Clint Walker, and
Claude Akins. After nearly four years that she described as a "self-imposed vacation", Novak agreed to take part in two projects. She returned to the screen with a role in the horror
anthology film
Tales That Witness Madness (1973). Novak also starred as Las Vegas chorus girl Gloria Joyce, a character with whom she could identify, in the made-for-TV movie,
The Third Girl From the Left (1973), with her real-life boyfriend at the time,
Michael Brandon. Novak admitted a preference for TV films as she thought they were faster to shoot than features. She described movie scripts of that time as offensive, saying she disliked the unnecessary sex she found in most of them. In 1975, Novak took part in the ABC movie ''
Satan's Triangle because she was intrigued by the story, which dealt in the supernatural. Novak had a small role in The White Buffalo (1977), a Western starring Charles Bronson, and she ended the decade by playing Helga in Just a Gigolo'' (1979), opposite
David Bowie. Both films were flops, but Novak was not blamed due to her minor roles in them. In 1980, Novak played fictional actress Lola Brewster in the British mystery-thriller ''
The Mirror Crack'd, based on the story by Agatha Christie. She co-starred alongside Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, and Elizabeth Taylor. She enjoyed making the film and got along with her co-stars and the film was moderately successful. Novak did not appear in any feature films during the remainder of the 1980s. Her acting credits during the decade included the ensemble television movie Malibu (1983) and the pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985). Producers of the successful primetime soap opera Falcon Crest offered Novak a role in their series similar to her character in Vertigo''. She appeared as the secretive "
Kit Marlowe" in 19 episodes from 1986 to 1987. It was Novak's idea to name her character Kit Marlowe, as it was the stage name that Columbia had wanted her to use when she started in the business. The former Marilyn Pauline Novak wryly described this turn of events as effectively being Cohn's revenge on her from beyond the grave. In 1989, Novak appeared along with James Stewart as a presenter at the
61st Academy Awards. Asked in the press room about a possible comeback, Novak said that if someone sent her a script she really wanted to do, with a part she felt she could not turn down, she would be happy to go back to work on the big or little screen. At the same time, Novak turned down plenty of offers for movies, as well as an opportunity to appear in a second season of
Falcon Crest, to write her autobiography, tentatively titled
Through My Eyes. Novak decided to re-establish contact with her agent and seek challenging roles after she realized she was not satisfied artistically. She said at the time, "I feel that I didn't live up to what I should have done with it. In other words, I'm glad I made the move away from Hollywood: I don't regret that. I know that was a major thing and a good thing. But by the same token, it was like unfinished business." She returned to film with the leading role of Rose Sellers in the drama
The Children (1990) opposite
Ben Kingsley and
Britt Eckland. Director
Mike Figgis offered Novak the role of a terminally ill writer with a mysterious past in his thriller
Liebestraum (1991) opposite
Kevin Anderson and
Bill Pullman. Novak loved the script and thought it was going to be an important picture. However, her collaboration with Figgis was tense and the two had conflicts from the beginning. Novak agreed to do the film under the impression she was going to play the whole character, but Figgis felt she was unable to play the flashback role the way he wanted, and hired actress Sarah Fearon for those scenes. Novak later said she was hurt and distraught, as "It was such a painful thing for me because it took me right back to Harry Cohn and all that time. And back into saying, Look, for God's sake, haven't you heard it enough? We don't want you to do anything. Just be 'Kim Novak.' That movie pained me more than any movie in the world could do." Novak was supposed to do a comedy with the French director
Claude Berri, also starring
Peter Falk, and a remake of
Bell, Book and Candle with
Sharon Stone. In 2004, she told the
Associated Press:I got so burned out on that picture that I wanted to leave the business, but then if you wait long enough you think, "Oh, I miss certain things." The making of a movie is wonderful. What's difficult is afterward when you have to go around and try to sell it. The actual filming, when you have a good script—which isn't often—nothing beats it.
1992–present: Retirement After her retirement from acting, Novak made only rare public appearances and turned down most offers she received. In 1996,
Vertigo was given a restoration by
Robert A. Harris and
James C. Katz and re-released to theaters. Novak enjoyed their work so much, she agreed to make appearances at screenings of the film, something she had refused when Universal asked her in 1984. In 2003, Novak was presented with the
Eastman Kodak Archives Award for her major contribution to film. Prior honorees include
Greta Garbo,
Audrey Hepburn,
James Stewart,
Martin Scorsese, and
Meryl Streep. During that time, Novak received several offers to do some major films and to appear on high-profile television shows. She made an appearance on
Larry King Live in 2004, where she stated she would consider returning to the screen "if it was the right role." In 2010, Novak was the recipient of a special tribute from the
American Cinematheque in Hollywood, where her films were shown at
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. She made a rare personal appearance with a Q&A onstage between a showing of
Pal Joey and
Bell, Book and Candle, earning a two-minute-long standing ovation upon her entrance. In April 2012, Novak was honored at the
TCM Classic Film Festival, where she introduced a screening of
Vertigo. She joined in conversation with
Robert Osborne for a Q&A session in which she discussed her career and personal life. The hour-long interview aired on TCM as
Kim Novak: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival on March 6, 2013. Novak broke down in tears while discussing
Liebestraum. As she nearly sobbed in front of the audience, Novak said, "I couldn't do a movie after that. I've never done a movie after that. I just couldn't do a movie after that." "I don't think I was ever cut out to have a Hollywood life," Novak also commented. "Did I do the right thing, leaving? Did I walk out when I shouldn't have? That's when I get sad." Also during the TCM Festival, Novak was honored in a handprint and footprint ceremony at
Grauman's Chinese Theatre. That same year, Novak received the San Francisco Cinematic Icon Award from the
San Francisco Museum and Historical Society. After years of seclusion, Novak started to make public appearances more frequently as she felt her body of work was being more appreciated. In 2013, she was recognized as the guest of honor by the
Cannes Film Festival and attended the
2013 Festival, where she introduced a new restored version of
Vertigo. She also took part in the festival's closing ceremony as a presenter, earning a standing ovation upon her entrance. In 2014, she was a presenter at the
86th Academy Awards. That same year, she appeared at the TCM Classic Film Festival, where she unveiled her painting
Vertigo / Vortex of Delusion commissioned by the TCM network as part of their 20th anniversary. Novak also introduced a screening of her 1958 movie,
Bell Book and Candle, during the Festival. Also in 2014, Novak was invited by
Cunard Line to be a speaker on board during a New York-to-London cruise on
RMS Queen Mary 2. She introduced screenings of
Vertigo and
Bell, Book and Candle, and did a Q&A session with Hollywood expert Sue Cameron, who is also her manager. That same year, Novak appeared with both of her art mentors, Harley Brown and Richard McKinley, for a solo show of her paintings at the
Butler Institute of American Art. In 2015, Novak attended the
22nd Febiofest international film festival, where she received the Kristián Award for her contribution to world cinema and also had an exhibition of her paintings at the
Strahov Monastery. She hosted special screenings of
Vertigo featuring live performances of
Bernard Herrmann's score by members of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the
2015 Toronto International Film Festival and by members of the
San Francisco Symphony at the
Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in 2016. Also in 2016, Novak was invited by Turner Classic Movies to be a guest on their Caribbean Cruise where she sold five of her paintings and was able to raise nearly $7,000 for the prevention of teenage suicide with the auction of a framed
giclée of her. In 2018, Novak joined in conversation with
Larry King for a Q&A session at the
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, in celebration of
Vertigo's 60th Anniversary. That same year, she was the recipient of a special sold-out tribute from the
Castro Theatre. In 2020, Novak gave a rare interview for
CBS News Sunday Morning. That same year, she appeared in the first documentary devoted to her,
Kim Novak : The Golden Age Rebel. In 2024, American actress
Sydney Sweeney was cast as Novak in
Scandalous!, directed by
Colman Domingo, which would recount her relationship with singer-actor
Sammy Davis Jr. In 2026, Novak disapproved the casting, stating "Sweeney looks sexy all the time" and "[she] sticks out so much above the waist", as well as expressions concerns the film would focus solely on the sexual side of her and Davis' relationship. In 2025, Novak received the
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the
Venice Film Festival, where she also presented a new documentary about her, ''
Kim Novak's Vertigo'', directed by
Alexandre O. Philippe. ==Honors==