Kim Novak

Almost by chance, Marilyn Pauline “Kim” Novak entered the Studio System, when tycoon Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, signed her with the intention of making her a commercial rival to Rita Hayworth. Constantly tormented by the despotic producer – who mistreated and threatened her with various forms of blackmail and intimidation – the actress, thanks to her strong temperament, often resisted the studio’s dictates, following her instincts and intellectual honesty. In that era of racial segregation, she did not give up her relationship with actor, singer, and dancer Sammy Davis Jr., publicly accompanying him and causing scandal and outrage in Hollywood circles.
Worldwide fame came with Vertigo (1958): Hitchcock had the gift of turning his actresses into divinities around whom the plots of his films unfolded. That same year, Novak starred again alongside James Stewart in the sophisticated romantic comedy Bell, Book and Candle, directed by Richard Quine, her partner at the time. Between spells, enchantments, the purring of the cat Pyewacket, and an extraordinary Jack Lemmon, the film remains a delightful gem of wit and fun. At the peak of her celebrity, however, Novak realized that the splendor of stardom was fleeting, and that an abyss might lie just beyond it. By the late 1960s, she began a slow but irreversible retreat from the screen, devoting herself instead to family life and her great passion for painting.