Kim Novak doesn't care if you think she’s a ghost. For decades, the woman who famously played two versions of the same tragic blonde in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was exactly that—a phantom haunting the misty memories of Old Hollywood. She vanished in 1966. Poof. Gone. People assumed she was bitter, or maybe just broken by the same studio system that chewed up Marilyn Monroe.
But here we are. Kim Novak at 90 (well, she’s actually 92 now, heading toward 93) isn't just surviving; she’s having a full-blown renaissance.
Last year, she showed up at the Venice Film Festival to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award. She wore black. She looked vibrant. Honestly, she looked like a woman who had successfully pulled off the greatest heist in cinematic history: she stole her own life back from the people who tried to turn her into a mannequin.
The Oregon Escape and the "Survival" Issue
Most people want to know what she’s been doing for the last half-century. It’s not a mystery, really. She’s been in Oregon. Specifically, she lives on a ranch in the Rogue Valley. No glitz. No red carpets. Just horses, llamas, and a lot of mud.
"I had to leave to survive," she’s said in recent interviews. It sounds dramatic, but for her, it was literal. Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn used to call her a "fat Polack." He tried to control her name, her hair, even who she dated (his interference in her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr. is the stuff of Hollywood legend). By the time she walked away, she didn't know where the characters ended and Marilyn Pauline Novak began.
✨ Don't miss: Chrissy Lampkin: Why Her Real Age is the Least Interesting Thing About Her
Living in the Pacific Northwest changed that. She traded scripts for oil paints. You've probably seen the photos of her from the 2014 Oscars—the ones where the internet was incredibly cruel about her face. That moment almost sent her back into permanent hiding. But instead of retreating, she stayed on her ranch, kept painting, and waited for the world to catch up to the fact that aging is a thing that happens to humans.
Why Kim Novak at 90 is Different from the Rest
There is a new documentary out called Kim Novak’s Vertigo. It’s not just a clip show. The director, Alexandre O. Philippe, actually got her to open up about her bipolar disorder. This is a big deal. For a woman from an era where "nervous breakdowns" were hushed up by studio fixers, her being this blunt is refreshing.
She paints for about eight hours a day. It’s her therapy. If you look at her art, it’s not "pretty" celebrity hobby stuff. It’s surreal, occasionally dark, and very "Hitchcockian." She uses it to process the fires that have literally followed her—she’s lost houses to fires and floods multiple times.
- The 1966 Big Sur Fire: Destroyed her home and many early belongings.
- The 2000 Oregon Fire: Burned her house to the ground, including the only draft of her autobiography.
- The Recent Comeback: Receiving the Golden Lion at Venice in 2025.
Basically, she’s the ultimate survivor. While other stars of her era stayed in Los Angeles trying to stay 25 forever, Novak leaned into the "solitary artist" life. She drives an electric car to get her own groceries. She rides a horse named Poet. She’s basically living the life every exhausted millennial dreams about.
🔗 Read more: Charlie McDermott Married Life: What Most People Get Wrong About The Middle Star
The Biopic Controversy and Sydney Sweeney
You can't talk about Kim Novak at 90 without mentioning the drama surrounding the new biopic Scandalous. It’s directed by Colman Domingo and stars Sydney Sweeney as a young Kim Novak.
Kim isn't thrilled.
She’s been pretty vocal about the fact that "pretending isn't as good as the real thing." It’s a classic Novak move—unfiltered, a little prickly, and totally honest. She doesn't feel the need to be "agreeable" anymore. When you’ve outlived almost everyone you worked with, you earn the right to say exactly what you think about a 20-something playing you in a movie about your own scandals.
What We Can Learn From the "Rebel of Hollywood"
If there’s an actionable takeaway from Kim Novak’s current life, it’s about the power of the "Hard No."
💡 You might also like: Charlie Kirk's Kids: How Old They Are and What Really Happened
She said no to the studio. She said no to the expectations of how an actress should age. She even said no to the "glamour" by moving to a place where her best friends are rescue dogs and llamas.
Kim Novak at 90 shows us that your "legacy" doesn't have to be the work you did when you were 22. It can be the life you built after you quit. She considers herself a painter who used to act, not an actress who happens to paint. That’s a massive psychological shift.
If you’re looking to follow her lead, start by checking out her artwork. The Butler Institute of American Art has some of her pieces on permanent display. It’s a way to see the woman behind the "Madeleine Elster" mask.
Also, watch the new documentary. It’s a masterclass in how to look back on a complicated life without drowning in regret. She’s at peace with the fact that she’s "close to the end," as she put it in Venice. But she’s going out on her own terms, with paint under her fingernails and the Oregon wind in her hair.
Steps to Explore the Novak Legacy:
- Watch "Kim Novak’s Vertigo": Look for the 2025 documentary that premiered at Venice; it features her own voice memos and personal archives.
- Visit her Art Gallery: Check out the official kimnovakartist website to see her surrealist oil paintings—they explain her headspace better than any interview.
- Revisit "Strangers When We Meet": Everyone watches Vertigo, but this 1960 film shows her real acting range before the industry tried to flatten her into a stereotype.