Angie Dickinson (Dressed to Kill) Dressed to Kill

Angie Dickinson plays Kate Miller, the sexually frustrated housewife who is murdered in the elevator at the end of Act I. De Palma originally approached Liv Ullmann and Jill Clayburgh before casting Dickinson, who was 48 at the time of filming. Kate's complete arc -- desire, pursuit, regret, death -- fills the first thirty minutes and restructures the film entirely when she is killed.

Dickinson said it was her favorite role and regretted not campaigning for the Oscar

Dickinson won the Saturn Award for Best Actress for the performance and later expressed genuine regret about the missed opportunity for a larger campaign:

"I'm good in it, and it's a great part. I'm sorry I didn't try to go for an Academy Award for that role. I think I could have won it." -- Angie Dickinson, Vanity Fair (2008)

The regret is not unfounded. Kate Miller is one of the most fully realized characters in De Palma's filmography -- a woman introduced through her interior life (the shower fantasy), her domestic warmth (the breakfast scene with Peter), her sexual frustration (the therapy session), and her capacity for risk (the museum pursuit). The performance carries nearly a third of the film with minimal dialogue, especially during the eight-minute museum sequence.

The museum sequence required Dickinson to act almost entirely without words

The museum sequence is Dickinson's showcase -- approximately eight minutes of screen time in which Kate pursues and is pursued by a stranger through gallery rooms, all scored by Pino Donaggio and almost entirely without dialogue. De Palma used Dickinson's expressiveness to drive the narrative through glances, posture, and physical choices (removing the wedding ring, dropping the glove, sitting beside the stranger).

"The museum sequence is absolutely brilliant, tracking Dickinson as she notices a tall, dark, and handsome stranger. She makes eye contact, breaks it, tries to attract the stranger's attention by dropping her glove, and then this virtuoso scene (played entirely without dialogue) ends in a passionate sexual encounter in the back of a taxicab." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1980)

See The Museum Sequence for the full analysis.

Victoria Lynn Johnson doubled for Dickinson in the shower, and the producers encouraged the deception

The naked body in the opening shower scene was not Dickinson's but that of model Victoria Lynn Johnson, the 1977 Penthouse Pet of the Year. The producers initially encouraged the then-48-year-old Dickinson to claim the body was hers. The deception mirrors the film's subject -- a person whose body does not match their identity -- and extends the identity-substitution pattern that recurs when the wig comes off Elliott in beat 29. (wikipedia)

Dickinson's murder at the thirty-minute mark is the film's structural pivot

Kate's death in the elevator transforms Dressed to Kill from character study into thriller. The move is lifted directly from Psycho, where Marion Crane's murder restructured the film through Norman Bates and Lila. De Palma's version redirects through two new leads: a call girl and a teenage inventor. The audience has spent thirty minutes investing in Kate's desire, frustration, and risk -- and the film removes her entirely, transferring sympathy to Liz Blake when the elevator doors open.