Kim Novak commanded the stage as she accepted the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in Italy.
Once the epitome of classic Hollywood glamor, the 92-year-old actress received the special honor in her first major public appearance in a decade.
The very same day, her new biographic documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo also premiered, revealing the dark secrets of her childhood and why she abandoned Hollywood at the peak of her career.
Kim Novak was honored with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival
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Trigger warning: this article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some.
“It’s not easy getting old. I’m feeling it’s close to the end,” the actress said in the documentary.
Netizens fixated on her appearance as she accepted the award at the age of 92.
“She’s one of the best actresses to ever grace the screen,” read one comment.
Another asked, “’Why so much cosmetic surgery? She’d be better without it.”
“A dr that makes someone look like that should lose their license,” read one comment online
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“She’s clearly had a lot of surgery to avoid looking old,” read another comment.
Kim’s face has always been a headline-maker, first for her smoldering looks and later for her altered appearance.
Critics scrutinized her looks during public outings, especially after she attended the Oscars in 2014.
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“Kim should sue her plastic surgeon!” the current US president wrote on social media at the time.
The widespread public commentary on her use of cosmetic procedures forced her to address the speculation in an open letter.
“I’m not going to deny that I had fat injections in my face,” Kim wrote in an open letter in 2014
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“After my appearance on the Oscars this year, I read all the jabs. I know what Donald Trump and others said, and I’m not going to deny that I had fat injections in my face,” she wrote.
“They seemed far less invasive than a facelift,” she continued. “It was done in 2012 for the TCM interview special. In my opinion, a person has a right to look as good as they can, and I feel better when I look better.”
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Back when she began acting, Kim was groomed by Columbia Pictures to be the rival to blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe, who brought plenty of success to 20th Century Fox.
But Kim would often recoil at the way Marilyn Monroe was packaged to the world.
Born Marilyn Pauline Novak, Kim was asked to change her name so audiences wouldn’t confuse her with Marilyn Monroe.
However, she refused to change her Czech last name or accept the name that was picked out for her by the studio.
The Hollywood star refused to go by the name the studio heads picked out for her when she was young
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“I’ve always been Marilyn Novak, not Kim Novak,” she told Deadline in an interview published last week.
“They had another name they picked out for me, and I just wouldn’t accept it. Harry Cohn [co-founder of Columbia Pictures] was livid.”
“He said, this is the name you are taking, this is who you are. I said, no, I’m not,” she continued.
“I wasn’t going to have people call me Kit Marlowe, like I was some kitten. I mean, there’s nothing kitten-like or cat-like about me, and I just couldn’t do it. And I’m so glad I didn’t, because keeping the name Novak made me real, to me.”
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She couldn’t make peace with the idea of erasing the history that came with her name Marilyn Novak and taking the made-up name of Kit Marlowe.
“I had a family, I had roots, and Kit Marlowe had no roots or a family. She was just a made-up pretender. I couldn’t do it. And I’m so glad I stood my ground,” she added.
In her new documentary, the Vertigo star spoke about how her mom tried to end her life twice
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In her new documentary, Kim spoke about being raised in Depression-era Chicago by a poverty-stricken Czech family.
“I have been feeling the need to free the memories that have been hiding in the closet of my mind,” she said in the documentary.
One of the revelations included her mother trying to end her life twice because she couldn’t afford to raise her.
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“The Depression caused so much hardship. My mother got pregnant and she could not afford a child,” she said in the documentary.
“She tried to abort me with knitting needles and it failed. So she tried to suffocate me with a pillow,” she added. “I remember fighting to stay alive. I won, I stayed alive, and made it through.”
Her father didn’t approve of her star power and never said he was proud of her
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The actress recalled how her sister even found her brother’s foetus, which her father kept in a jar in the family’s basement.
“The foetus, his only son, in the basement. He kept him,” she added.
Kim said her father was never happy about her stardom and hadn’t seen most of her movies.
When she was around 21 years old, she experienced Hollywood studio heads trying to mold her into someone they could control for their own success.
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“Every part of my life was controlled,” she said.
Harry Cohn “called me ‘the fat Pollack,’” she added.
Kim addressed how she left Hollywood in 1966 and never looked back.
“When I left I was at the top of my game,” she said.
“Hollywood swallowed people whole,” she said, referring to the tragic passing of Marilyn Monroe, whose passing at the age of 36 was ruled as a result of possible self-harm.
“I didn’t want that to happen to me,” Kim added.
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After her Bel Air home was destroyed in a mudslide, she moved to Big Sur and dived into art. She said painting was her “survival mode.”
In 2021, she spoke to People about her decision to put all her possessions in a van, drive north, and leave Hollywood behind forever.
“I had to leave to survive,” she told People. “It was a survival issue.”
“I lost a sense of who I truly was and what I stood for,” she continued. “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.”
Kim shared her concerns about the upcoming biopic starring Sydney Sweeney
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Kim spoke about her concerns about the upcoming biopic about her real-life romance with Sammy Davis Jr.
The film titled Scandalous! will see Sydney Sweeney playing Kim, while British actor David Jonsson will be playing the late star.
“I don’t think the relationship was scandalous,” Kim told The Guardian.
“He’s somebody I really cared about. We had so much in common, including that need to be accepted for who we are and what we do, rather than how we look,” she added. “But I’m concerned they’re going to make it all s****l reasons.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with self-harm or suicide ideation, help is available: International Hotlines
“Imagine leaving Hollywood and still being unforgettable at 92,” a fan said online
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