Kim Novak had a forbidden romance that nearly destroyed her career – and it was worth it.
The actress, who left Hollywood in 1966, is making a rare appearance to connect with fans on the TCM Classic Cruise sailing Nov. 6-11. As the Alfred Hitchcock muse prepares for her journey, she’s reflecting on her "misunderstood" relationship with Sammy Davis Jr.
"I loved him," the 90-year-old told Fox News Digital. "He was a person that had a youthful innocence about him. Now, I know no one ever saw him that way, but I did. He had a boyish quality, and I loved that about him."
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It was 1957 when the star, who was about to film "Vertigo," saw the showman perform in a Chicago nightclub. The singer was in the middle of a comeback following a car accident he suffered three years earlier, which resulted in him losing his left eye. Davis spotted the blonde bombshell and was quickly captivated.
Davis’ friends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh invited the pair to a party at their house, Smithsonian Magazine reported. Soon after, a blind item in a gossip column linked Davis and Novak. The magazine noted that at the time interracial marriage was illegal in half the country.
"I never saw somebody with color," Novak reflected. "When I was a child, my very first boyfriend was Mexican. He was an altar boy at my church. He was my first love. So, I never thought of race. However, the studio was very much upset by it. I resisted because I didn’t believe that was correct. While people were feeling a certain way, I also felt people needed to change. And I felt that by seeing Sammy and Sammy seeing me, that we could help people understand and accept interracial relationships of any kind."
"I was feeling like I was on the edge of being able to help people to be more accepting of all races and relationships of all kinds," she shared. "I felt I was doing the right thing by doing that. I felt that Sammy and I were at the start of helping people understand that this is not wrong. A man is a man, no matter what skin color he has. A woman is a woman, no matter what skin color she has."
According to the outlet, the pair dated for most of the year.
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Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn, one of Hollywood’s most feared people, was determined to end the relationship.
"Harry Cohn, who was the dictator that he was, was extremely upset," said Novak. "He forbade me to see him. But I never liked someone telling me that I had to do something. Even my father. I mean, sometimes I would rebel. If I didn’t think they were correct, then I would defy them and do the very thing they said I shouldn’t do."
Cohn was adamant about flexing his muscle as the meanest mogul in showbiz, Vanity Fair reported. According to the outlet, he brandished a riding crop and slashed it across his desk to terrify employees. He also kept a framed photograph of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on his desk. Reporter James Bacon once said, "I went from covering Al Capone to covering Harry Cohn – Cohn was by far the meanest."
It's reported that Cohn threatened Davis. In 1958, Davis married actress and singer Loray White. They called it quits a year later.
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A month after the pair said "I do," Cohn had a heart attack and died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was 66. More than 2,000 people attended his funeral, which prompted comic Red Skelton to quip, "Well, it only proves what they always say – give the public something they want to see, and they’ll come out for it."
Davis married actress May Britt in 1960, an interracial relationship that sparked backlash. They divorced in 1968.
Looking back, Novak said that she loved Davis, but "I wasn’t in love with him."
"Oddly enough at the time, I was very, very in love with my director, Richard Quine, who was also under contract at Columbia Pictures," she explained. "From the very first day that I started working with him on the movie called ‘Pushover,’ I fell in love with him. He was everything I loved in a man … he was understanding, protective, gentle. He listened to you. He wasn’t bossy in any way. So, he was everything I felt a man should be, and he was. And so, I was in love with him at that time."
"So, while I loved other people, I loved them, but I wasn’t in love with them," she clarified. "I was always in love with Richard Quine."
Still, she has zero regrets about her connection with Davis.
"I feel like I helped change people’s perspective," she said. "Not everybody’s, goodness knows, but a lot of people that cared about me respected what I was doing. My fans, I think they were getting the idea. And I think I helped make that transition. Although with every step forward, there’s always a step back."
Novak described Cohn as "very tough."
"I think he had ties to the mafia, and I think he ran the studio that way," she explained. "He wanted everything to be done exactly the way he wanted. … He was supposedly friends with many people in the mob. And he had that kind of gangster way of talking down to you. It was always like giving you an order. He would always have people watch out for what I was doing. He would go, ‘When you’re out on-set, I don’t want you stopping and talking to anybody. Just go straight to the set, know your lines and be ready.’… He was not a gentleman. He was very bold and brash."
"But you know, when he passed, no one was able to step into his shoes," she said. "That’s why I left Hollywood. I saw no chance for growth there. And I wanted to be an artist – my first love was the visual arts."
Novak admitted she struggled to be a sex symbol.
"I never grew up feeling that way," she said. "I was kind of a female Jimmy Stewart. … And being a sex symbol is not easy. Now, I love wearing all these gorgeous clothes. And there were lots of them. I was excited to wear Rita Hayworth’s gowns and all these things. It was exciting and thrilling. But I didn’t like that the studio wanted me to be a sex symbol because it wasn’t who I really was."
"A sex symbol has seen everything in the world, and they’ve experienced everything in the world," she continued. "That’s not who I was. I felt like I was seeing the world for the first time. And I wanted to experience everything in the world for the first time. And I didn’t like all the heavy makeup they wanted me to wear because it covered up who I was. It would be like Jimmy Stewart putting on all kinds of makeup and flashy clothes. It wasn’t who he was. So, I was frustrated in that way."
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Novak has found refuge in southern Oregon where she’s surrounded by nature. She happily paints far away from the glaring media spotlight.
Tragedy struck in 2020 when veterinarian Robert Malloy, her husband of 44 years, passed away.
Today, she’s looking forward to connecting with fans again.
"I’m still doing all the same things I did in my 30s and 40s," she chuckled. "I still ride my horses. The only difference is that everything is slowed down. My dogs always keep me laughing and having fun. I feel blessed. I’ve been blessed. And I thank the Lord really for allowing me to be healthy and allowing me to experience the joy of life. And life doesn’t end after you leave Hollywood. In some ways, it's just the beginning."
