Kim Novak is still loving retirement on her 91st birthday
Kim Novak boasts a career spanning nearly 40 years, with Golden Globe Awards to her name – and on February 13, Novak celebrated her 91st birthday. Nine decades and change around the son, and she carefully chose to spend this remarkable occasion in very select company: with good friends and great chocolate!
Novak kicked off her career in 1954 and quickly rocketed to the top as one of Hollywood’s most popular stars. She gave excellent performances in Picnic and Pal Joey, but gained unprecedented prominence with Alfred Hitchcock‘s Vertigo, regarded as one of the greatest films in all of movie history. By 1960, Novak had herself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Novak had her 91st birthday all planned out. Her longtime manager and dear friend Sue Cameron shared, “She’s spending her birthday having a picnic on her property with friends and lots of fudge.” Now living on the Oregon coast, Novak’s usual company includes great views, peace and quiet, and her treasured horses, according to PEOPLE.
That’s exactly how Novak prefers it. After being an iconic part of Tinsel Town, Novak left Hollywood in 1966 to spend her days in Big Sur painting, raising horses, and every now and then making another movie. For Novak, the move and lifestyle changes were both necessities.
“I had to leave to survive,” she explained to PEOPLE back in 2021. “It was a survival issue.”
Novak’s workflow slowed down after her ’66 departure. Her next few projects after that point included The Mirror Crack’d (1980) and Falcon Crest, but after a disappointing run with Liebestraum (1991), she stepped back from acting in earnest, voicing no desire to return. The lifestyle had been eating away at her long before that point, though.
“I fought all the time back in Hollywood to keep my identity so you do whatever you have to do to hold on to who you are and what you stand for,” explained Novak. Ultimately, Novak united the on-screen artist she was with the artist she became using a very different medium and composed Kim Novak: Her Art and Life.
“I was both dazzled and disturbed to see me being packaged as a Hollywood sex symbol,” she wrote in the book. “However, I did win my fight over identity. I wouldn’t allow [Columbia Pictures chief] Harry Cohn to take my bohemian roots away by denying me my family name. Novak. I stood my ground and won my first major battle.” This is in reference to Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn demanding she change her name to Kit Marlowe, asserting audiences wouldn’t like her Eastern European name. Novak refused.
“There was constant pressure to be seen and not heard,” she added, “especially if you had a pretty face.” Now, she enjoys total control of a long, successful life.
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