Age: 93
female
Marilyn Pauline Novak (born February 13, 1933), known professionally as Kim Novak, is an American retired film and television actress. She began her career in 1954 after signing with Columbia Pictures. There, she became a successful actress, starring in a string of movies, among them the critically acclaimed Picnic (1955). She later starred in such popular successes as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and Pal Joey (1957). However, she is perhaps best known today for her "dual role" as both Judy Barton and Madeleine Elster in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Vertigo (1958). Novak was popular in box office popularity polls, and she starred opposite several top leading men of the era, including James Stewart, William Holden, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, and Kirk Douglas. Although still young, her career declined in the early 1960s, and after several years in a series of lackluster films, she withdrew from acting in 1966. She has only sporadically returned since. She later returned to the screen in The Mirror Crack'd (1980), and had a regular role on the prime time series Falcon Crest (1986–87). After a disappointing experience during the filming of Liebestraum (1991), she has permanently retired from acting, stating she has no desire to return. Description above from the Wikipedia article Kim Novak, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
The Novotný family can't longer live in Czechoslovakia and pretend that communism is great and they were doing well, it was not true and everyone knew it. They had it worse because they are Christians, which meant that they were insulted by people devoted to communism, like teachers, people in offices, or higher-ranking workers in the company, but the worst was the frequent interrogations by STB policemen. Novotny had a dream to live in America. Getting from the ČSSR to the West was complicated in the 70s. The communist authorities tried to reduce emigration to a minimum, and if someone was released from the wired Soviet territory, his relatives (spouse, children) had to stay at home as hostages, as insurance, and if the person did not return, then the family was over. A passport was not enough to travel, an exit clause and a promise of foreign currency were also required, all of that was conditioned by many assessments on the basis of which the state apparatus decided. 3 people knew about the emigration: Monica's brother Petr, Tomáš's sister Lucie and friend Karel. They went to the station, where several checks awaited them and also in train. They got across a border to Austria, where Jakub and Sára waited, they lived there for a while and then quickly to USA. When they saw Statue of Liberty from the plane window, they cried. Even life in new homeland isn't easy, but in America it is wonderful. The Novotnys changed their name to Newman and opened a shoe store in Brooklyn.
