The actress, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, has made her first public appearance in over a decade.
In 1958, Kim Novak rose to prominence playing Judy Barton/Madeleine Elster in the legendary director’s psychological thriller, based on the 1954 novel D’Entre Les Morts (Among the Dead) by Boileau-Narcejac.
It starred James Stewart as a former San Francisco police detective who retired after an incident caused him to develop an extreme fear of heights, accompanied by vertigo.
He is then hired as a private investigator to investigate the strange behavior of an acquaintance’s wife – played by Kim.
Although Vertigo received mixed reviews when it was released, it is now considered Hitchcock’s greatest work and one of the best films of all time.
Originally signed to Columbia Pictures in 1954, Kim – born Marilyn Pauline Malloy – became one of Hollywood’s top box office stars after appearing in Picnic, The Man with the Golden Arm and Friend Joey.
After Vertigo, she appeared in Bell, Book and Candle, Strangers, When We Meet, and Kiss Me, Stupid.
But in 1966, she gave up acting after growing tired of living a life in the spotlight and facing constant press scrutiny.
After a mudslide destroyed her Bel Air home and the cleanup cost her life savings, she moved to Big Sur and retreated from the public eye.
In the following years, she appeared on screen sporadically, most notably in The Mirror Crack’d and Falcon Crest in the 1980s.
However, while filming the film LIEBESTRAM in 1991, she retired from acting altogether, later saying she was left “burned out.”
She then turned her attention to other artistic pursuits and became a painter.
Now, 34 years later, she has been honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.
On Monday, the 92-year-old made a rare public appearance at the event, where he was presented by director Guillermo del Toro, whose film Frankenstein premiered at the festival a few days ago.
Speaking about the award, Kim said in a statement that she was “deeply touched.”
“To be recognized for my body of work in this lifetime is a dream come true. I treasure every moment I spend in Venice. It will fill my heart with joy,” she shared.
A look into Kim’s career is also detailed in the new documentary “Kim Novak” by Vertigo, which also premiered in Venice yesterday.
Her manager Sue Cameron, who is also the film’s executive producer, said that The Project has been “a dream of mine for over 15 years.”
“I wanted her to be able to experience all the stardom again,” she explained.
“I think it’s truly a masterpiece and really captures who Kim is. Nobody knows who she really is, nobody knows what she went through, the disasters in her childhood, and we embrace all of that.”
In 2021, Kim spoke to People about her decision to leave Hollywood, saying, “I had to leave to survive… losing my sense of who I really was and who I stood for. I fought all the time in Hollywood to maintain my identity, so you do whatever you have to do to hold on to who you are and what you stand for.”
Since retiring from acting, she has faced a series of difficult events, including losing her home in a fire in 2000, leaving behind a punctured lung, broken ribs, and nerve damage after a horse riding accident in 2006, and facing a breast cancer diagnosis in 2010.
She is also facing intense scrutiny for her changing appearance following claims that she has undergone extensive cosmetic surgery.
She presented two awards at the Oscars in 2014. She had “fat injections in her cheeks” up front, but was then subjected to cruel comments online.
“It really threw me over the backside and it hit me hard,” she previously shared.
Addressing her “terrorists” in an open letter, she wrote: “So why did I do it? I trusted someone who did what I thought was best. I should have known better, but what do you do? We do some stupid things in our lives.”
Throughout her career, Kim has previously received two Golden Globe Awards, an honorary Golden Bear, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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