Kim Novak – Photos and Quotes

“I never met Harry Cohn until he decided to change my name. My real name is Marilyn Novak and much to my horror, I discovered I was to be billed as ‘Kit Marlowe.’ Jack Lait, then the publicity head, had the whole campaign ready. ‘Can’t you see it?’ he said to me. ‘When you were a little girl, they called you kitten?’” – Kim Novak, talking about her early days with Columbia Pictures.

 

“They dreamed up about 50 different names for me. Most of all they wanted to call me Kit Marlow, but I objected. ‘What’s wrong with Novak?’ I said. ‘It’s a perfectly good Bohemian name.’ They let me keep it. As for Kim – well, that’s really funny. There are a lot of Kims in this business: Kin Hunter, Kim Stanley. When I was in Philadelphia on a publicity tour, a TV announcer introduced me as ‘that well-known star of stage and screen, Kim Hunter. Now tell us, Miss Hunter,’ he continued, ‘the name of your favorite starring films.’ ‘First of all,’ I said, ‘my name is Kim Novak, not Kim Hunter. Second, I’ve had a speaking part in only one picture.’ You should have seen his expression!” — Kim Novak

Source: Lloyd Shearer (1955)

Photo: Wallace Seawell (1955)

 

“It was magical. I found him to be the most desirable man. If he hadn’t had a girlfriend and a wife at the same time….He was able to turn it off and go back [to his dressing room] and I would be left in such a feeling of passion.” — Kim Novak

Source: Susan King (2004)

Photo: Picnic (1956). With William Holden.

 

“I was good in my first picture and got wonderful reviews. I was afraid I might not be able to live up to it. I felt it could never happen again. Today I’m worried because I didn’t enjoy it on my way up, and now maybe I’m on my way down.” — Kim Novak

Source: Time Magazine (1957)

Photo: Jeanne Eagels (1957)

 

“The more I work, the more I can take. But I guess I couldn’t keep this pace the rest of my life. And I pull my own strings, no matter what you read about the studio setting out deliberately to mold a new star to replace Rita Hayworth. If they were going to do that, they’d have dyed my hair red.” — Kim Novak

Source: Gay Pauley (1957)

Photo: Pal Joey (1957)

 

“I loved acting, which was never about money, the fame. It was about a search for meaning. It was painful.” — Kim Novak

Photographer: Peter Basch

 

“I accepted the fact of not having enough love as a child. But when I started getting into the Hollywood years, I had so much pain there. I couldn’t go into it, and I had almost blackouts of persons. And I realized that obviously there were some heavy-duty blocks. I found that every time I started to work on it, I got real emotional.” — Kim Novak

Source: Myra Forsberg (1990)

 

“I certainly didn’t have any experience as a trained actor. But I have a keen, keen imagination. I love living fantasies, so all I did was put myself into [the character]. It was definitely giving of myself. I didn’t have any technical ability at that time. If I had tried to act, I wouldn’t have been remembered at all today.” — Kim Novak

Source: Susan King (2004)

 

“Directors like Hitchcock were confident enough directing on the technical aspects, but they didn’t try to mess with your mind. When I worked with some directors who weren’t as good, they try to tell you everything you were supposed to be thinking. That didn’t work for me. I had a hard time with that. As much as I am vulnerable, I am also strong-willed in a funny way, and I needed to express my own sense of creativity.” — Kim Novak

Source: Susan King (2004)

Photo: Vertigo (1958). With Alfred Hitchcock.

 

“It was real to me; everything that was happening was real. Both of us were just acting off each other and the situation. He was amazing.” — Kim Novak

Source: Susan King (2004)

Photo: Vertigo (1958). With James Stewart.

 

“I had some amazing roles when I first started out. Then they kind of typecast you. They start putting you in all the same kind of things and didn’t go down well for me. I wasn’t in it for the money or the fame; to me was all about the expression of something I could give that maybe no one else could in quite the same way. I felt like I had a real purpose.” — Kim Novak

Source: Susan King (2004)

Photo: Peter Basch

 

“In the early films, I had no experience. I was just doing it. I think I had an innate talent and a relationship with the camera, and because of my sincerity and my honesty it read through, and that’s what got me through those movies. But then I don’t think I developed that much more with it, and part of it was the roles, but part of it was me. A lot of it was me.” — Kim Novak

Source: Myra Forsberg (1990)

Photo: Peter Basch

 

“I had a lot of resentment for a while towards Kim Novak. But I don’t mind her anymore. She’s OK. We’ve become friends.” — Kim Novak

Source: Tom Shales (1996)

 

Artist: N/A. Year: 1968. Oil on canvas. 30 x 24 inches. Created as a prop for the film The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968).