Kim Novak

About Kim Novak

Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American actress who was one of America's most popular movie stars in the late 1950s. She is perhaps best known for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958).

Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak in Chicago, Illinois, a Roman Catholic of Czech extraction. Her father was a railroad clerk and former teacher; her mother also was a former teacher, and Novak has a sister. While in grammar school, Kim won a scholarship to the famed Chicago Art Institute.

After graduating from high school, she began a career modeling teen fashions for a local department store. She later received a scholarship at a modeling academy and continued to model part-time. She worked as an elevator operator, a sales clerk and a dental assistant. After a job touring the country as a spokesman for a refrigerator manufacturer, "Miss Deepfreeze," Novak moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to find work as a model.