Kim Novak Director Alfred Hitchcock Vertigo Hollywood Actress

Kim Novak, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on February 13, 1933. Her original name was Marilyn Pauline Novak. She was, by religion, a Czech extraction of Roman Catholic. Her performance in Vertigo (1958) directed by Alfred Hitchcock is considered to be a milestone in her career as an actress.

Before being an actress, Kim Novak worked in a variety of jobs. She worked as a dental assistant, sales clerk, and elevator operator. She was also projected at that time, as Ms. Deepfreeze, while working as a spokesman for a refrigerator manufacturing company. After graduating from high school, she began her career as a model for a local departmental store in Chicago. She received a model scholarship and parallel to the doing the variety of jobs, she continued modeling.

Eventually Kim Novak moved to Los Angeles. Here the modeling agency she worked for, arranged for her to get a tiny part in Jane Russell and Gilbert Roland starred The French Line (1954) produced by RKO. In this film she appeared as a model standing in the stairway. Naturally in this film she did not get any screen credit, but she was brought to attention of Columbia Picture talent hunter Max Arnown.

At that time Harry Cohn, chief of Columbia pictures was looking for a beauty to replace Rita Hayworth and apparently he decided after the screen test, that Kim Novak was the best candidate to replace Rita. Kim got a six-month contract with Columbia Pictures.

Since the Kim and Marilyn Monroe shared the same first name and neither Columbia Pictures nor Kim, wanted to cash in the popularity of Marilyn Monroe nor and being seen as rival to her, a decision was made to sacrifice the first name of Marilyn Pauline Novak and she finally settled to the stage name of Kim Novak.

Every possible attempt were made by the publicity department of Columbia Pictures so that they featured Kim Novak on their front covers as well as covering numerous articles about Kim in their magazines. Particular attention was paid in choosing roles for Kim so that the films allow Kims prominence without emphasizing her acting too much.

Kim Novaks first film under the banner of Columbia Picture was Pushover (1954). Here she acted opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey. Though her role deserved not much of the best quality, both fans and critics were caught by her beauty. Next she acted in Phiffft! (1954) depicting a femme fatale opposite of Judy Holiday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. This time, Kims review turned out to be positive yielding a large amount of fan mail received by her. Kim Novak won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer after playing Madge Owens in Picnic (1955) opposite William Holden, as well as received World Film Favorite. Kim Novak