Kim Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak on February 13, 1933, in Chicago, Illinois, to a former teacher turned transit clerk and his wife, a former teacher. She did not get along well with teachers throughout elementary and high school, admitting she didn't like being told what to do and when to do it.
After high school, Kim modeled teen fashions for a local department store, won a scholarship in a modeling school, and continued to model part-time. She worked odd jobs as an elevator operator, sales clerk, and dental assistant before falling back on modeling, the one job she did well.
Kim's modeling career led her to Los Angeles, where she landed an uncredited role in the RKO production of The French Line (1953). A talent agent arranged for a screen test with Columbia Pictures, and she won a small six-month contract. Kim was initially going to be called "Kit Marlowe" but wanted to keep her family name of Novak, so the studio settled on Kim Novak.
Kim took acting lessons, which the studio declined to pay for, and appeared in her first film opposite Fred MacMurray in Pushover (1954). She then appeared in Phffft (1954) with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday, which brought her a lot of fan mail.
Her next film was 5 Against the House (1955),followed by Picnic (1955),which won two Oscars for editing and set decoration. Kim's performance in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) was flawless, but it was her beauty that carried the day.
In 1957, Kim played Linda English in the hit movie Pal Joey (1957) with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth. The film did well at the box office but was condemned by the critics. Kim risked her career when she started dating singer/actor Sammy Davis Jr., which alarmed studio executives.
Kim appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) with James Stewart, which became a classic. She then appeared in Bell Book and Candle (1958),which was only a modest success. By the early 1960s, Kim's star was beginning to fade, and she landed the role of Mildred Rogers in the remake of Of Human Bondage (1964).
Kim broke off her engagement to director Richard Quine and embarked on a brief dalliance with basketball player Wilt Chamberlain. She then married Richard Johnson, but the marriage failed the following year.
Kim stepped away from the cameras for a while, returning in 1968 to star in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968),which was a resounding flop. She then appeared in The Great Bank Robbery (1969) and 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).
In a personal development, Kim met equine veterinarian Robert Malloy in October 1974 and married him 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.
Kim appeared to good effect in Satan's Triangle (1975),Just a Gigolo (1978),The Mirror Crack'd (1980),and Malibu (1983). In 1986 and 1987, she played 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.
Her last film was Liebestraum (1991),in which she played a terminally ill woman with a past. Kim has ruled out any plans for a comeback and says she just isn't cut out for Hollywood.
