Kim Novak wins Golden Lion lifetime achievement award

Wins?

That seems excessive.

The Golden Lion is probably older than her latest face.

Good for her! What a survivor.

I have always loved Kim Novak.

Love me some Kim.

10 minute ovation you can zip through..

She's 92. That she can travel to Venice and deliver an interesting acceptance speech is mighty fine in my book.

She was born 92 years ago. Her face is not 92.

Sweet Story.

She comes across very well in that speech.

Kim is a legend and a very underrated actress. Nice to see her getting so much love at 92.

I was surprised how moved I was by her speech.

I remember reading that she's a great animal lover.

Great tits

I'm really happy for her. She was treated so cruelly after appearing at the Academy Awards about ten years ago.

Her fashion, shoes, and plastic surgery were made fun of, she was badly hurt and spoke out about it.

Good for her for having the courage to be in the public again. There was an excellent interview with her on TMC a while back. She's a wonderful person and really made an impact in film.

It would have been funny if she had fallen off the stage a la Vertigo.

In the end, she won at life over Liz Taylor and Sophia Loren.

Why Sophia Loren?

1958

Susan Lucci has the right idea: you get the fat sucked out- not pumped in.

Sophia's still with us R17..

[quote]In the end, she won at life over Liz Taylor and Sophia Loren.

Sophia has two very loving and accomplished children. And grandkids too.

And Kim has an Oregon ranch with horses, llamas, dogs and cats.

Kim got out of Hollywood when the film offers stopped and went on to live a peaceful life in some of the most beautiful locations on earth. That's how you do it. She didn't want to end up life Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.

What a great warm embrace for Kim Novak at this stage of her life.

Brava Venice!

I really wish the Oscars would give Kim an honorary Oscar before she dies.

R27, I don’t know about that. She’s never been nominated and it’s not like she has performances that everyone universally agrees are fantastic but overlooked. She was present and she was mostly competent.

I think an honorary award from Venice is about right for someone with her talent.

An honorary Oscar? Not over my dead body.

I would say that Kim had a more memorable career than Glenn Close.

And certainly just as memorable as Lauren Bacall who did receive that honorary Oscar.

VERTIGO, bitches, on every expert Best Films of Hollywood list. And she played two roles!!

Of the name-above-the-title actresses working in the 1950s, I guess we're now down to just Kim, Sofia, Eva Marie Saint, Shirley McLaine, Brigitte Bardot, Leslie Caron and Shirley Jones. Anyone else?

Ann Blyth whose starring role in 1946's Mildred Pierce and later MGM musicals outdate them all, r33.

Oh, and Oscar winner Joanne Woodward, too.

pre-date = outdate

Oh dear.

And Vera Miles though she may not have had a career as prominent as the other ladies.

And Robert Wagner if we're considering the men.

That Skylar Kimbel was nothing but trouble from the first day she set foot in the valley!

I wouldn't include Vera Miles in that list. Mamie Van Doren, Nancy Olson are also still with us but they weren't big stars.

So I guess it does come down to: Ann Blyth, Sofia, Kim, Shirley M, Shirley J, Brigette, Leslie, Eva.

Oscar winner (and multiple nominee) Joanne Woodward was at least as big a star as Ann Blyth, Eva Marie Saint and Shirley Jones.

R39 Oooops sorry, it's Joanne, Ann Blyth, Sofia, Kim, Shirley M, Shirley J, Brigette, Leslie, Eva.

Joanne Woodward carried the film "The Three Faces of Eve" (1957) and won best actress Oscar.

I wish her well, but she was a presence - not an actress. The idea that she gave a great performance in Vertigo doesn't really hold for me. She possessed a still, vacant quality which Hitchcock, Robert Burks, and George Tomasini could mould into whatever they liked through editing and camerawork. Even the relatively limited Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren gave Hitchcock far more to work with.

And me, r41. Don't forget about me!!

I'm a name-above-the-title actress who worked in the 1950s.

This makes up for that Oscar debacle, Good for her,

R43 Thanks. Yes, the list has to include Carroll Baker. She starred in "Baby Doll" 1956.

(I knew her daughter Blanche BTW)

Besides, the notorious BABY DOLL, Baker also co-starred in GIANT and opposite Clark Gable in BUT NOT FOR ME, all big hits from the 1950s.

It's "Sophia."

Ahem.

I still look pretty good in a dress.

If we're counting child stars...Margaret O'Brien is still around

Never cared for her but Picnic is one of my favorite movies.

Gale Gordon just did a Law & Order.

I was waiting for her to throw out the award to the audience.

[quote]Gale Gordon just did a Law & Order.

It's great that he's still working but Gale Gordon was never a movie star.

Did she bury the lead about being bipolar?

Her real name was Marilyn.

I wonder why she changed it?

R50 yes, Margaret O'Brien was a genuine movie star, not just a child actress, People forget just how popular she was in the mid-1940s.. She was even among the Top 10 bankable actors in 1945 and 1946, when she was only 8 and 9 years old.

[quote]1945: 1) Bing Crosby, 2) Van Johnson, 3) Greer Garson, 4) Betty Grable, 5) Spencer Tracy, 6) Humphrey Bogart, 7) Gary Cooper, 8) Bob Hope, 9) Judy Garland, 10) Margaret O'Brien

[quote]1946: 1) Bing Crosby, 2) Ingrid Bergman. 3) Van Johnson, 4) Gary Cooper, 5) Bob Hope, 6) Humphrey Bogart, 7) Greer Garson, 8) Margaret O'Brien, 9) Betty Grable, 10) Roy Rogers

Her Wiki page says she revealed being bipolar in April 2012 at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

So it's: Joanne Woodward, Ann Blyth, Sophia Loren, Kim Novak, Shirley MacLaine, Shirley Jones, Brigette Bardot, Leslie Caron, Eva Marie Saint. Margaret O'Brien, Carol Baker, June Lockhart.

Men: Pat Boone, Robert Wagner

These two need to do a remake!

Love June Lockhart but she always a supporting player (even to Lassie) never a star.

And does Pat Boone's filmography go back as far as all the ladies on the survivor list? RJ Wagner's certainly does.

Clint Eastwood is a name-above-the-title movie star whose filmography dates back to 1955. Sure he didn't really hit his stride until those 1960s spaghetti westerns, but his eventual movie stardom surpassed Pat Boone's and Robert Wagner's.

Debra Paget played leading lady roles. She's 92 or 93, I believe

Debra Paget is a good one! Her lead credits go all the way to starring roles as a contract ingenue at Fox in the early 1950s, including Bird of Paradise opposite Louis Jourdan and Stars & Stripes Forever and Prince Valiant opposite Robert Wagner. And then The 10 Commandments in 1956.

Clint Eastwood, however, didn't star in any major films until he finished his TV run on Rawhide and made A Fist Full of Dollars in 1964. He doesn't belong on our list.

Honorary Oscars used to be given to people who weren't ever nominated--all the time. More recently it seems to have become a consolation prize for not having won despite having been nominated and losing.

R56 Harry Cohn changed it.

She’s recovered nicely from the rape that occurred when they used the music from “Vertigo” in “The Artist”.

Vera Miles was a hell of a lot bigger star than Mamie Van Doren.

Mamie Van Doren...

[quote]And does Pat Boone's filmography go back as far as all the ladies on the survivor list?

"April Love" and "Bernadine" were both 1957 and big hits. Boone was an over-the-title star.

But hey, looks like we have to include Terry Moore.

Well, Tippi Hedren is still alive...

And let's not forget Connie Stevens...

I guess they were 1960s. Like Paula Prentiss and Dolores Hart.

Tippi no. She was 1960s.

But Connie Stevens did get star billing (not over the title billing) for Rock-A-Bye Baby with Jerry Lewis in 1958. And "The Party Crashers" in 1958.

Same for June Lockhart...did get star billing for a few films.

But they were not major film stars at that time.

R73 I know. Just trying to dig up some names.

I can't believe no has mentioned Gabrielle Carteris, she was in the original The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari playing Dr. Caligari's MeeMaw...

Terry Moore 1948.

Vera Miles, of course, was originally going to star in Vertigo.

[quote]It's great that he's still working but Gale Gordon was never a movie star.

It's actually a little spooky that he's still working, considering that he was 89 when he died 30 years ago.

Debra Paget was A-list for just a few years so I'm sure the young'uns here won't remember her at all or certainly not consider her in the same breath as Kim or Eva Marie. Yet....she was a big star, briefly. Her film career probably lasted twice as long as Pat Boone's.

Terry Moore was another of those Fox starlets and co-starred in Come Back, Little Sheba, probably her most respectable credit.

Connie Stevens was really more of a TV star who was thrown a few bones by Warner Bros. to shut her up.

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought Jack Warner moved his burgeoning movie stars like Connie, Tab Hunter, and others to TV after they'd had big screen hits, and he basically screwed up their careers by doing that. Just to build up Warner Bros. Television, at the time.

(Troy Donahue, as well.)

[quote]It's actually a little spooky that he's still working, considering that he was 89 when he died 30 years ago.

That's what I love about Gale Gordon, he's a trouper.

Harry Cohn wanted to change Marilyn Novak's name to Kit Marlowe. She knew she couldn't keep Marilyn but she fought him for Novak and settled on Kim because she thought the name had a certain innocence about it.

Do you think Kim really had an affair with Sammy Davis, Jr. or were they just simply friends?

She would have had a bigger career as Kit Marlowe.

If you take her word for it, she told Robert Osborne in that interview at the TCM film festival they were just friends. That's a great interview, btw.

I'd bet that Sammy had a huge crush on her but she only wanted a friendship. And enjoyed how much it pissed off Harry Cohn.

[quote]Terry Moore was another of those Fox starlets and co-starred in Come Back, Little Sheba, probably her most respectable credit.

Don't forget that she also-co-starred with me!

Did Sammy date Kim before or after he lost his eye?

It might have been why he lost his eye.

Funny to think that Harry Cohn put Kim under contract to threaten Rita Hayworth who was giving him so much trouble and no sooner than Kim became a star, she was even more trouble.

She had a long relationship with director (former actor) Richard Quine.

She was also said to be at the Festival for a documentary on herself. Any news on that?

This must be it.

Ann-Margret and Pat Boone talk about the upcoming Cinecon 61 Classic Film Festival

Ann looks teeny compared to that heffer doing the interview.

I'm sure A-M has had a ton of plastic surgery but the look is somehow very different from what other ladies have had done. She looks robust!

She was dull, wooden window-dressing. With the right director and editor they could shape a performance. When those guys died off, she wisely retired.

R97, Ann-Margret has had extensive facial surgery after a mis-hap in Lake Tahoe. God bless her.

[quote]On Sunday, 10 September 1972, while performing at Lake Tahoe, she fell 22 feet (6.7 meters) from an elevated platform to the stage and suffered injuries including a broken left arm, cheekbone, and jawbone. She required meticulous facial reconstructive surgery that required wiring her mouth shut and putting her on a liquid diet. Unable to work for ten weeks, she returned to the stage almost back to normal.

Currently in production is a movie called "Scandalous!," focusing on the Kim-Sammy Davis, Jr. affair. Sydney Sweeney is playing Kim.

[quote] Debra Paget was A-list for just a few years so I'm sure the young'uns here won't remember her at all or certainly not consider her in the same breath as Kim or Eva Marie. Yet....she was a big star, briefly. Her film career probably lasted twice as long as Pat Boone's.

Debra was not as big as those two. She never won an Oscar like EMS and never starred in a famously revered movie like KN (Vertigo). She worked for some famous directors like DeMille and Fritzy but never really became A-List Hollywood. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Debra Paget but I believe that's the truth.

Fritzy?

I think that is Fritz Lang.

Cowect.

How did Ann-Margret and Pat Boone get into the thread? Not that I mind as they are more interesting than Ms. Novocaine.

For R100

R105, Pat Boone was first mentioned as a current survivor in R59. I added the clip of Pat and Ann-Margret at R95. I think they both still look great.

Pat Boone's Christian thing really ruined his career.

Sydney Sweeney as Kim Novak? Was Nicole Kidman nowhere to be found?

I am definitely young enough to play 50s Kim Novak, I just need a blonde wig

Hollywood Legend Kim Novak, 92, Opens Up About Getting Older and 'Feeling It's Close to the End' in New Documentary

Variety review.

Loved her in Pal Joey. So beautiful.

Kim Novak was somewhat like Hedy Lamarr - an extremely beautiful woman who was very interesting OFF screen, but not exactly a ball of fire ON.

Hollywood has always needed fantasy figures like them, though. They served an important function - allowing the public to enjoy the opposite of the girl next door they saw in their ordinary lives, day after day.

Pyewacket!

Harry Cohn signed Kim Novak to Columbia to serve a dual purpose. First, to keep resident movie queen Rita Hayworth in check, and second, to give Marilyn Monroe over at Fox a run for her money.

Rita, however, had already soured on showbiz and was too mixed up in her tumultuous relationships to care. Kim almost matched Marilyn in popularity, but she proved to be a wholly different kind of blonde. Where Marilyn exuded warmth, playfulness and accessibility, Kim was cool, aloof, distant. Even in her comedies when she's supposed to be fun and frivolous she seems a bit detached.

I always confuse Debra Paget with Debra Walley. Which one was Gidget?

Walley.

She was the second of three Gidgets

Other greater or lesser stars, still with us, who got their names above the title in films of the 50s:

Joan Collins

Claire Bloom

Petula Clark

Michael Craig

Tina Louise

Fabian

Abbe Lane

Anna Maria Alberghetti

R101 Princess of the NIle. An Enduring Classic.

Debra Paget more nude than any other Hollywood star had been in 1959 in Fritzy's The Indian Tomb.

I doubt you could get away with this today.

^She was good in that, though.

Debra overacted in some things but she had her moments in other things.

R69 Pat Boone was top billed despite not playing the male lead (that was Dick Sargent). It was kind of weird. Mainly, he sang, Love Letters in the Sand, etc.

Thanks for all the Debra Paget photos and references. Like I sort of said upthread, younger people can't appreciate how big a star she was because most of her filmography was silly Biblical and historical epics and fantasies that look utterly ridiculous now but were big escapist hits with audiences in the early 50s and very much in vogue in Hollywood.

No doubt she was smart to marry wealthy and get out of the changing Hollywood of the1960s.

Back to Kim. Kirk Douglas didn't like her because she had the audacity to tell him how he should play his scenes in the film about an extramarital affair they made together, Strangers When We Meet. However, they sizzle in the film, each looking better than ever. And even if they're cheating on their spouses you wish they'd end up together.

I've always loved that film ^^^^^^^^^^^ very underrated.

In the R95 clip poor Pat is getting near looking like The Crypt Keeper and Ann-Margret must be high because she laughs at everything he says.

For some reason Kim's hair changes colors in certain scenes of Strangers When We Meet. At times it looks like her signature lavender shade, then it's blonde. But it may have been the DVD I saw.

I like Kirk and he's very good in the movie but he's so intense for this type of romantic film. Wonder how it would have been with William Holden?

The new doc about Kim's life reviewed at r112 sounds wonderful but there was a fantastic hour long episode about her career made around 1966 when she left Hollywood that was a part of the TV series Hollywood & the Stars produced by the great David Wolper. who made so many of those early nostalgic TV docs about Hollywood history just before the nostalgia craze took hold in the early 70s.

Done with her participation, it's a great examination of her life and career and why she was seeking a more tranquil life, painting in Carmel, CA. I imagine it was a daring thing for her to have done back then.

It's probably still on youtube.

I like Kirk Douglas's car in that movie

Kim would have been the natural choice to play the lead in The Sandpiper--a sculptress living in a sort of glorified shack in Big Sur, raising her young son, etc. Elizabeth Taylor was a stretch.

Kim is concerned.

That plain-looking chick is going to play Kim Novak? My God.

So many awards for these people. It's fucking weird

What people?