KIM NOVAK

After starring in some of the biggest movies of the ’50s and ’60s, Kim Novak turned her back on Hollywood to paint. “Even while I was acting, I used to draw the characters I was going to play,” says the Vertigo actress, 88. “I would sketch who I was going to become. That’s how I got to know my characters. And it was wonderful because I got to know them from the inside out.” Kim turned down $2 million for her autobiography decades ago, but in February she published a book of her art.