Vertigo Star Kim Novak Is Spending Her 91st Birthday with ‘Friends and Lots of Fudge’ (Exclusive)

Tuesday marks the 91st birthday for Kim Novak, the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo, who walked away from Hollywood over five decades ago.

“She’s spending her birthday having a picnic on her property with friends and lots of fudge,” says her longtime manager and close friend Sue Cameron.

Life is sweet these days for Novak, who lives quietly on the Oregon coast, surrounded by her beloved horses.

In honor of her 91st birthday, read on for an interview from 2021 in which Novak shared why she left Hollywood and found her true self.

How Vertigo Actress Kim Novak Spent Her 91st Birthday with 'Friends and Lots of Fudge'
Kim Novak in November 2023. Courtesy of Sue Cameron 

Over 50 years ago, Kim Novak, the enigmatic star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, walked away from Hollywood. The woman who had once been the No. 1 box office draw in the world put her belongings in a van and drove north, first to Carmel, California and then two decades later to Oregon, to live her life as an artist.

“I had to leave to survive,” she tells PEOPLE. “It was a survival issue.”

“I lost a sense of who I truly was and what I stood for,” says Novak in a rare interview to talk about her new book, Kim Novak : Her Art and Life. published by the Butler Museum of American Art.

“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,” she explains.

“I’ve never done one of those tell-all books that they wanted me to do for so long, and I thought this is the kind of book I’d like to do,” she says of her art book. “Actually, I had written my autobiography and it was almost complete but I had a house fire and the house burned down and I made no copies. I just couldn’t go through it again because I had spent so much time. But it was okay because it was a catharsis just to do it.”

After starring in Picnic (1955) with William Holden, The Man With the Golden Arm (1955) and Pal Joey (1957), opposite Frank Sinatra, and Vertigo, with Jimmy Stewart, Novak was at the height of her career but still under the control of the studio.

As she writes in her book’s introduction, “I was both dazzled and disturbed to see me being packaged as a Hollywood sex symbol. 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.”

Cohn wanted her to change her name to Kit Marlowe, telling her that audiences would be turned off by her Eastern European roots. She refused. In the late ’50s, she defied him again when she began dating singer Sammy Davis Jr. against his wishes and she fought to live her life as an independent woman.

“There was constant pressure to be seen and not heard,” writes Novak, “especially if you had a pretty face.”

“In Hollywood a lot of people assume who you are, because of the character you play, but also just because of who they expect you to be, how they expect you to dress,” she says. “It influences you because if you’re in some gorgeous sequined gown, you can’t run along the ocean and run on the beaches.”

VERTIGO, Kim Novak, 1958.
Kim Novak in “Vertigo” (1958). Everett

“I kept feeling like I was going deeper and deeper, lost in almost like a quicksand, where it’s swallowing you up, your own personality, and I’d started to wonder who I am,” she explains. “I realized needed to save myself.”

She found peace living and painting in the Rogue River Valley of Oregon and notes, “I needed the Pacific Ocean to inspire me, the animals, the beauty.”

“I wanted to live a normal life and a life with animals,” says the actress, who had always loved drawing and painting as a young girl growing up in Chicago. She was awarded two scholarships to the Chicago Art Institute before she was spotted by a talent scout on a trip to L.A. and her life changed course.

Once she left Hollywood, Novak returned to her twin passions: art and animals. “My teachers were the animals, not just dogs and cats, but other animals, horses and llamas, whom you have to meet half way, because they’re not ready to accept humans. I had to learn to win them over,” she says. “They understand a person who’s genuine so I had to become more real and that made me rely on my inner self — and that also encouraged me to paint. Everything seemed to flow from that.”

“You learn how to count on, not how you look, which is a big thing as a movie star, especially if you were recognized because of how you look,” she adds. “That can be a difficult thing when you change — but looks had nothing to do with it.”

She met second husband, Robert Malloy, an equine veterinarian, in the late ’70s, when he paid her a house call to treat one of her Arabian horses. She called him her “soul mate.” He died last December.

kim novak
Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in “Vertigo”. Richard C. Miller/Donaldson Collection/Getty

“I don’t feel 87,” says Novak. “I don’t keep tract of the time. If I did, I’d be an old lady and I’m not an old lady. I’m still riding my horse. I stay as healthy as I can.”

In 2012, Novak revealed she’d been living with bipolar disorder. “I don’t mind being open about who I am because these are all characteristics which make you who you are, especially as an artist,” she says. “Now, of course, I have medication for it but the best medicine of all is art.”

She’s proud of her favorite films, including Vertigo and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), and has fond memories, especially of her friend and costar Jimmy Stewart. Says Novak: “He didn’t let Hollywood change who he was.”

“People can remember me in movies but I want them to see me as an artist,” says Novak, whose paintings were exhibited at a 2019 retrospective at the Butler Museum in Youngstown, Ohio. “What’s great about painting is, you become the director too. No one’s telling you how to do it. You get to direct the whole thing.”

“I’ve been influenced a lot by Hitchcock in my work because he did mysteries and at first glance, I want my painting to be a mystery,” she says. “I love being the director, the producer, the actor in my paintings.”

“This is who I am. I want people to see I was not just a movie star.”

Looking back, Novak says, “I’m so glad I didn’t do the tell-all book, where you write all about your love life. That wasn’t who I was. This book tells who I am. I just needed to be free.”

Woman defends decision to tattoo boyfriend’s name on forehead, says it’s an expression of love

A woman who tattooed her boyfriend’s name on her forehead is defending her face art, suggesting that anyone who refuses to do the same, isn’t really in love.

Ana Stanskovsky, who penned a permanent love letter to Kevin on her face, insists it’s an expression of love, but online users are saying “it’s stupid” and that her “next boyfriend will hate it.”

Polish-born Ana Stanskovsky surprised her 588,000 TikTok followers by sharing a post of her newly transformed face.

In a viral TikTok clip, Stanskovsky is seen sitting in a chair, having some work done to her forehead.

The “my new face tattoo” video, which has 18.3 million views since it was first shared November 6, shows Stanskovsky getting her boyfriend’s name, penned in large black cursive letters, across her forehead.

The clip zooms in on the artist permanently inking over the stencil that reads “Kevin,” and Stanskovsky wincing in pain.

When the art is complete, she stands up to view her extreme expressions of love in the mirror.

“Done? Okay let’s see. Oh my God, I love it. Wow, Kevin’s gonna love it,” she says.

She finished the clip by asking her followers “Do you think he will like it?”

Responding to her question, one netizen jokes, “He’ll love it! Your next boyfriend will hate it though.” Another user writes, “I don’t know who Kevin is, but wherever you are…. Run!”

As the video hits the eyes of the puzzled social community, people are warning her of future regrets.

“Great decision here. I don’t see how you could ever regret this,” one fan shares.

Replying to the overwhelming suggestions of regret, Stanskovsky fired back with another clip saying she will never regret the Kevin tattoo.

Stanskvosky replies, “I know many of you said I’m gonna regret that and what if we break up and all of this stuff, all of this horrible stuff and I just wanna say this is how I’m expressing my feelings so if I love someone, I’m doing this.” She continues, “I’m loving it, I’m definitely never gonna regret that. How can I regret this? It’s beautiful.”

“A handwritten note is a precious way to express your feelings,” quips one cyber citizen.
Fans still aren’t convinced, and many think her outrageous announcement of love must be a joke.
“Wait. Wasn’t it a joke?” writes one while another says, “I was waiting for them to say it’s just a prank but
they never did.”
The influencer then tells viewers that every time she looks in the mirror she is “in love.”

“I’m in love with the tattoo and I’m in love with my boyfriend,” she said. “I think if you really love someone, you’ve just got to show it you know, you’ve just got to prove it…So I think if your girlfriend doesn’t want to tattoo your name on her face, you just need to find yourself a new girlfriend because I don’t think she loves you.”

Shocked by her comment, users jumped in saying she needs to reconsider her shows of love.

“‘if [your] girlfriend doesn’t want your name on the forehead she doesn’t love you,’” One netizen writes, quoting her. Then offering this advice to Kevin, the user continues, “dump her ASAP.”

Credit / South_agency / Getty.

Given the uncertainty of relationships, one netizen asks, “and if he breaks up with you what then?”

Stanskovsky answers: “What if we break up? I’ll just have to find myself a different Kevin.”

But one person has a better idea: “It would be better if you wrote on it that I am stupid.”

At the moment there’s been no response from Kevin.

What do you think of this woman getting her boyfriend’s name tattooed across her forehead?

There are far better ways of expressing your love, and if you insist on a grand gesture, maybe a smaller tattoo in a place it’s not so visible?

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