He was the greatest entertainer in the world. He could sing, dance, act, do impressions — all in a single show. But Sammy Davis Jr.’s love life was just as dramatic as anything he ever performed on stage. More dangerous, too.
When the name “Sam Davis” comes up in a search for girlfriend news, it almost always leads back to one man: Sammy Davis Jr., the Rat Pack icon who lived from 1925 to 1990. His romantic history reads like a Hollywood thriller — forbidden affairs, mob threats, arranged marriages, and finally, real love built to last. In a deeply segregated America, every relationship he had carried a price tag. Some cost him his safety. Others cost women their careers.
Here is the complete story of the women who captured Sam Davis Jr.’s heart, the forces that tried to stop them, and what their love lives reveal about a man — and a country — in the middle of its own transformation.
Kim Novak: The Girlfriend That Rocked Hollywood (1957–1958)
It started with a spotlight. Sammy Davis Jr. was performing at Chicago’s Chez Paree in 1957 when he first laid eyes on Kim Novak — already Hollywood’s number one box-office draw, fresh off filming Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Later that fall, mutual friend Tony Curtis arranged a dinner party in Los Angeles. That evening, something unmistakable sparked between them.
They were an unlikely pair by every standard Hollywood cared about. He was Black, short, scrappy — a survivor of vaudeville and army racism. She was the lavender-tinted blonde Columbia Pictures had manufactured to rule the silver screen. Their connection was instant and, by the measure of 1957 America, incendiary.
They met in secret. Davis would hide under a blanket in the back of a car to slip past press and studio spies. He rented a beach house in Malibu for private rendezvous. Gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen broke the story using only initials — “K.N. and S.D.” — and the whole of Hollywood knew immediately.
Harry Cohn, the fearsome head of Columbia Pictures, was apoplectic. But the threat that ended the relationship didn’t come from the studio. It came from the mob.
In early January 1958, mobster Mickey Cohen pulled Davis’s father aside at a racetrack with a blunt message: Sammy had 24 hours to marry a Black woman — or they would break both his legs and put out his other eye. Davis had lost his left eye in a 1954 car accident. The threat was not symbolic.
Kim Novak, decades later, maintained that their relationship never became fully romantic — calling it a deep friendship shaped by defiance. “I loved him,” she said. “But I wasn’t in love with him.” The two remained quietly connected for the rest of their lives. They danced together at an Oscar after-party in 1979 without drawing a single headline. She visited him on his deathbed in 1990.
Loray White: The Marriage That Saved His Life (1958–1959)
With mob enforcers circling and 24 hours on the clock, Davis didn’t have time for romance. He grabbed his address book and started scanning names.
The name he landed on: Loray White, a 23-year-old singer performing at the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas. She was sharp, beautiful, well-spoken — and Davis had taken her on a few dates before. He invited her to his suite at the Sands Hotel and made a proposition: marry him, play the role of Mrs. Sammy Davis Jr. for one year, and the marriage would be dissolved. In exchange: a cash sum, jewelry, and the full social standing of his name.
She agreed. On January 10, 1958, in the Emerald Room at the Sands Hotel, Davis married Loray White in a two-minute ceremony before a justice of the peace. Harry Belafonte was his best man. Davis was so emotionally shattered that night that his assistant Arthur Silber had to intervene to prevent serious harm.
The arrangement ended in annulment in April 1959. Loray White stepped back from public life almost entirely afterward. The marriage took the mob heat off Davis — and paid a tremendous personal cost for both parties.
Nichelle Nichols: The Short But Stormy Love (1959)
Before Davis moved on to his next great love, there was a chapter most biographies overlook entirely. In 1959, Davis had what his own accounts describe as “a short, stormy, exciting relationship” with Nichelle Nichols — the actress who would later become Lt. Uhura on Star Trek.
Details are sparse, a testament to how little the world recorded about Black love stories even when the participants were famous. What is clear: the relationship was passionate, brief, and meaningful enough to be remembered. Both moved on within a year, but the connection adds a rarely-told dimension to Sam Davis Jr.’s full romantic history.
May Britt: The Love That Defied a Nation (1960–1968)
He met May Britt at the Mocambo Club on Sunset Boulevard — a Swedish actress with films like The Young Lions and Murder, Inc. to her name. Davis later wrote in his memoir: “I could have affairs with a thousand chicks and walk away without thinking to ask their names, but every time I thought about May I could feel myself getting drawn in deeper.”
They married on November 13, 1960 — one of the most controversial celebrity weddings in American history. Neo-Nazi groups protested outside. Rumor holds that the Kennedy White House quietly asked Frank Sinatra to have Davis postpone the marriage until after the 1960 presidential election, fearing the optics just before votes were cast. 20th Century Fox declined to renew Britt’s contract after the wedding, effectively ending her studio career. She never regretted it. “I loved Sammy and I had the chance to marry the man I loved,” she said years later.
Together they had three children: daughter Tracey (born 1961, their biological child) and adopted sons Mark and Jeff. The marriage lasted eight years before internal pressures — including Davis’s affair with dancer Lola Falana — contributed to their 1968 divorce.
May Britt largely withdrew from public life after the split, dedicating herself to raising their children. She later married Swedish businessman Lennart Ringquist in 1993. She passed away on December 11, 2025, at the age of 91 in Los Angeles — one of the last living witnesses to one of Hollywood’s most consequential love stories.
Altovise Gore: The Love That Lasted (1968–1990)
After the divorce, Davis began dating Altovise Gore, a dancer he met during the Broadway production of Golden Boy in 1968. Their courtship was quieter than anything that came before. No studio interference. No mob threats. Just two people, both from the world of performance, who found each other.
They married on May 11, 1970, in a ceremony officiated by Reverend Jesse Jackson. In 1989 they adopted a son, Manny. Their marriage lasted until Davis’s death from throat cancer on May 16, 1990.
Twenty years together. The longest relationship of his life. Altovise spent the years after his death managing his estate and preserving his legacy — an enormous undertaking given the legal and financial complexities left behind by a man who had never stopped spending as fast as he earned.
Sammy Davis Jr.’s Relationships: Complete Timeline
| Partner | Period | Nature | Notable Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kim Novak | 1957–1958 | Secret girlfriend | Triggered mob threats; ended under studio and mob pressure |
| Loray White | Jan 1958 – Apr 1959 | Arranged marriage (annulled) | Contract marriage arranged within 24-hour mob ultimatum |
| Nichelle Nichols | 1959 | Relationship | Future Star Trek actress; “short, stormy, exciting” |
| May Britt | 1960–1968 | Marriage (divorced) | One of the most controversial interracial marriages in U.S. history |
| Altovise Gore | 1970–1990 | Marriage (until death) | Longest relationship; wed by Jesse Jackson; lasted until his death |
What His Love Life Really Tells Us
Sammy Davis Jr. once admitted he wanted to find the whitest, most famous woman in the world — “just to show ’em.” It was the statement of a man who had spent a lifetime being told no. Who had fought racism in the army. Who had performed at Las Vegas hotels that took his money but wouldn’t let him sleep there. Who had clawed for stages that saw his talent and still tried to push him off them.
His relationships were acts of defiance. They were also, in the most basic human sense, acts of love.
Each woman he chose paid a price — Loray White in emotional trauma, May Britt in her film career, Kim Novak in studio pressure and social condemnation. Davis paid his own price: constant threats, public humiliation, a marriage arranged under mob duress, a divorce driven by the relentless weight of fame.
What survived all of it was Altovise. Twenty years. The quietest, steadiest chapter of a very loud life.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sam Davis Jr.’s Girlfriend
Who was Sam Davis Jr.’s most famous girlfriend?
Kim Novak is widely considered Sam Davis Jr.’s most famous girlfriend. Their 1957 secret romance became one of Hollywood’s most talked-about — and dangerous — affairs, triggering mob threats and studio interference at the height of America’s racial segregation era.
Why did Sammy Davis Jr. marry Loray White?
Sammy Davis Jr. married Loray White in January 1958 as a protective, arranged marriage. After mobsters tied to Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn threatened to harm him for dating Kim Novak, Davis was given 24 hours to marry a Black woman. He approached White, a singer he had briefly dated, and proposed a temporary contract marriage. She agreed. The marriage was annulled in April 1959.
Did Sammy Davis Jr. and Kim Novak actually date?
Yes, they had a documented relationship in 1957 — secret dinners, meetings at a Malibu beach house, and intense correspondence. However, Kim Novak consistently described their bond as a deep friendship rather than a full physical romance. She visited Davis at his deathbed in 1990, and their connection clearly endured far beyond the scandal.
Who did Sammy Davis Jr. marry?
Sammy Davis Jr. married three times: Loray White (1958–1959, arranged and annulled), Swedish actress May Britt (1960–1968, one biological daughter Tracey and two adopted sons Mark and Jeff), and dancer Altovise Gore (1970 until his death in 1990). His marriage to May Britt was one of the most prominent and controversial interracial marriages in U.S. history.
What happened to May Britt after Sammy Davis Jr.?
After divorcing Davis in 1968, May Britt stepped away from acting to raise her three children. She later married Swedish businessman Lennart Ringquist in 1993. May Britt passed away on December 11, 2025, at the age of 91 in Los Angeles — a quiet ending to one of Hollywood’s most defiant love stories.
Did Sammy Davis Jr. have a relationship with Nichelle Nichols?
Yes. In 1959, Sammy Davis Jr. and Nichelle Nichols — later famous as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek — had a short but notably passionate relationship. Davis himself described it as “short, stormy, and exciting.” It remains one of the least-covered chapters of his romantic life, rarely appearing in mainstream biographies.
Conclusion
Sam Davis Jr.’s girlfriend story is not one story — it is five. Each relationship was shaped by the times, by the threats and pressures of a segregated America, and by the deep personal courage it took to love across lines that society had drawn in stone. From Kim Novak’s forbidden spark in 1957 to Altovise Gore’s two decades of steady devotion, Davis lived a love life as complex and layered as his talent. The women beside him were not footnotes. They were co-authors of one of Hollywood’s most remarkable and human stories.
For deeper historical context, the Smithsonian Magazine’s account — Hollywood Loved Sammy Davis Jr. Until He Dated a White Movie Star — and his Wikipedia biography offer thorough primary-source documentation of his life and relationships.
