Kim Novak, Nicky Campbell – two bi-polar stories

Kim Novak, the veteran Hollywood star, has joined the long list of celebrities, prompted by their own experiences to become mental health activists. Her 1958 Hitchcock movie Vertigo was last year voted the greatest film ever and she worked opposite many of the great male leads of the time – Sinatra, William Holden, James Stewart, Dean Martin. But in the late 1960s she effectively retired, in part because of the recurrent depressions she suffered though she was not diagnosed as bi-polar until 2000. After she withdrew from showbusiness to marry an equine vet, she became a painter, helped her husband, enjoyed nature.

  She was born 13 February 1933 6.13 am Chicago, Illinois, with an Aquarius Sun in her first house sextile Uranus and inconjunct Pluto. Her Uranus was inconjunct an 8th house Jupiter Mars in Virgo and square Pluto. Her coolly sophisticated Venus Saturn in Aquarius conjunct her Ascendant is trine an 8th house Libra Moon and inconjunct Neptune. Three quincunxes would lead to strain and she wouldn’t be well supported emotionally in childhood. But she’s clearly a fighter. When Trump ridiculed her appearance at the 2014 Oscars, she went back two weeks later to do a live interview talking about bullies and has since campaigned on the subject.

  Her husband died recently and she’s bringing out an art book in his memory.

Kim Novak: Her Art and Life can be bought at kimnovakartist.com

Nicky Campbell, a UK TV and radio presenter, has also been talking about his bi-polar story, with a new book out One of the Family in which he talks of being adopted and the devastating effect it had on him, despite having supportive adoptive parents. He discovered along the way that his biological mother had also been a bi-polar sufferer.

  He was born 10 April 1961 8am Edinburgh, Scotland, and has an upbeat Sun Venus in Aries square Mars on one side and square Saturn on the other; and trine Uranus so he’ll be inclined to mood swings with such volatile aspects to his Sun – all systems-go then grinding to a halt with self-doubt. His 10th house Moon opposes Uranus and is inconjunct Neptune. And he has a Yod of Neptune sextile Pluto North Node inconjunct Jupiter giving him more mood swings, at times towards grandiosity. He’s also got the expanding and contracting Saturn conjunct Jupiter of that year.

  No great conclusions come out of this and I’m no believer is using astrology for diagnostic purposes. They both have very different planets and houses. The strained quincunxes are the only common factor which won’t necessarily lead to mental illness though they do tend to produce strain and a sense of being different from others. What both share is a sense that animals are life and sanity savers.     

7 thoughts on “Kim Novak, Nicky Campbell – two bi-polar stories”

  1. I met Nicky Campbell on a flight, I was working. I found him to be extremely arrogant & demanding! He wanted me to
    hang up his jacket for him, which I couldn,t do, as I was working to the rear of the aircraft, & I couldn,t move forward,
    as we were boarding passengers at the time. I have had the pleasure to serve many “celebrities”& most of them were
    extremely polite & well mannered.The comedian Jasper Carrot comes to mind, very nice man.

    • Likewise, I crossed swords with him once on a radio show and found him arrogant, know-it-all and abrasive. I pointed out where he’d been wrong on a point about astrology’s history and he exploded that he’d taken a degree in history and clearly knew everything – and shut me down.
      He kind of reminded me of Alistair Campbell, Blair’s henchman, no relation, who has also talked of his mental health problems. Both have Mars in Cancer which tends to boil over.

    • He does have a reputation for this. Putting it rather brutally, Venus square Mars can be demanding, charmless. arrogant and rude. Mars in Cancer can be moody and has that ‘walking on eggshells’ vibe. I notice his Saturn and Mercury are at anaretic degrees with Mercury conjunct fixed star Scheat – ‘many enemies, trouble through writings.’

    • Not to excuse anyone’s bad behavior, but it seems bipolar disorder and being on authism spectrum often run together. I think I’ve written about MD I was involved with in the early 2000’s. He had self diagnosed as bipolar, wouldn’t take meds because he was mostly hypomanic, and found it “nice”. But I kept on seeing signs I thought were of a spectrum person, just could find anything on whether this can happen with bipolar disorder (a friend was dating someone with a personality disorder at the time, and we would look for articles etc. as mutual support). One was that he became absolutely insufferable when under stress. This was, somehow, never directed to me, I guess he found me “soothing”, but there were a couple of occasions the was so incredibly condescending to waiters etc. (and he could be niceish, too), and I wanted to disappear.

      Now, a famous journalist/ media personality here in Finland had what I knew was a manic episode (saw that), then disappeared from public. When he came back, he told he’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder AND Asperger syndrome. Interestingly, I met him a couple if times years ago, and he was always rude. He has now excused his behavior, because he never realized how straining social interaction was to him, because he’d always thought he was an extrovert. Apparently, he only realized this when he was hospitalized.

  2. “What both share is a sense that animals are life and sanity savers.”

    This is common with bipolar people I know or know of in real life, too. Ones loving and caring for animals tend to fare better than non-animial lovers (regrettably, I also know someone with bipolar disorder who can’t stand animals around them). Since bipolar disorder seems to have stronger genetic/biological component than most mental disorders, I think the reason is motivational, above all. People caring for animals are more motivated to keep up with medication and healthy lifestyle choices that help with the condition.

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