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Kim Novak on Turning 90 and How She Wants to Be Remembered

Kim Novak hopes to be remembered for staying true to herself and her standards. She also describes her legacy as her art, including her films and ongoing painting.

By DocumentaryTube Team 2 min read
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Kim Novak has answered the question directly: she hopes people remember that she stayed true to herself and lived by high standards. She has also described her legacy as her art—both her films and the perspective she continues to put into her painting.

How Kim Novak wants to be remembered

Asked by The Guardian how she would like to be remembered, Novak said: “I would like them to think that I was true to myself. That I kept my standards high and lived by them.” The answer puts personal integrity at the center of her legacy, not celebrity alone.

That wish connects to her account of resisting Hollywood’s efforts to shape her into a studio image. She told the Guardian, “I needed to fight to keep my own sense of who I was.” She also identified with Judy and Madeleine in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, characters who are pressured to change who they are.

What she means by “my legacy is my art”

In a September 2025 interview with the Associated Press, Novak offered a complementary answer: “My legacy is my art.” She explained: “You have my old movies, but you also have my new perspective on life. I do it all in my work and I want that to be my legacy.” Her wording joins her screen performances to her ongoing creative life rather than setting them against each other.

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Painting is central to that life. In the Guardian interview, Novak said, “Art is the thing that saved me, I paint at least eight hours a day.” She also said she wanted to create many more paintings.

From Hollywood to a life centered on painting

Novak left Hollywood in the 1960s and turned toward painting and a more private life. She became widely known for films including Vertigo, Picnic, The Man with the Golden Arm, Pal Joey and Bell, Book and Candle. The AP reported that she was the world’s top box-office star from 1958 through 1960 and described her as the first woman to start her own production company.

On February 13, 2023, Novak turned 90. A birthday story syndicated by People and hosted by Yahoo reported that she spent much of her time painting and riding horses at her Oregon home. That story’s indexed excerpt also said she had not watched many recent films; the accessible excerpt does not establish further details about her remarks.

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Her 2025 return to Venice—and the documentary

At 92, Novak returned to public events in Venice in 2025 to receive the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The occasion also included the out-of-competition premiere of Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo. The Venice Biennale listing describes it as a 77-minute, English-language US documentary and names Dogwoof as its world-sales representative; that festival listing does not establish a current streaming or retail release.

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The AP reported that Novak found the Venice experience emotionally meaningful and looked forward to returning home to paint. The documentary and the honor brought her celebrated screen work into view, while her own account of legacy remained broader: her art includes both the old movies and the perspective she continues to express in her work.

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