Swedish actress May Britt, who was married to Sammy Davis Jr., has died aged 91.
Her death was confirmed by son Mark Davis, who told The Hollywood Reporter that Britt had died on December 11 of natural causes at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Born Maj-Britt Wilkens, while working as a photography assistant in 1951, she was discovered as a teenager by Italian filmmakers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati.
The pair had travelled to Stockholm to cast a young blonde for the title role in Jolanda, the Daughter of the Black Corsair.
Attending the studio, she worked at to view photographs of the models, they met Britt and ended up offering her the role – with the young actress then being renamed professionally and moving to Rome.
In the subsequent years she went on to appear in ten productions from Italian production company Cinecittà.
In the late 1950s she then relocated to Hollywood after being signed with 20th Century Fox.
Credits included The Young Lions, with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, The Hunters, with Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner and Murder, Inc., with Peter Falk.
She also played Sonya Rostova in Paramount Pictures 1956 epic War and Peace.
Based on Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 novel of the same name, it starred Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Mel Ferrer.
Three years later Britt also went to star in a controversial remake of The Blue Angel, playing a role that had first been created by Marlene Dietrich in 1930.
In it she starred as cabaret performer Lola-Lola. However the film was a box office flop, with The Guardian brutally labelling the remake a ‘monstrosity’.
A few years later Britt also came under the spotlight for her relationship with entertainment star Sammy Davis Jr.
The actress had previously been married to Edwin Gregson for a year in 1958.
Then in 1960, at a time when interracial marriage was forbidden by law in 31 US states, she announced her engagement to Davis.
The couple quickly faced significant backlash, with Davis uninvited from John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, while Britt lost her acting contract with Fox.
They also received death threats and even had to hire 24-hour armed guards for their protection.
Davis and Britt went on to welcome daughter Tracey in 1961, before later adopting their sons Mark and Jeff.
Although they divorced in 1968 after Davis admitted to an affair, in 2014 their daughter – who died in 2020 – shared that her parents ‘didn’t regret being together’.
‘My mum loved my dad like crazy, and my dad loved my mother. My mother was so lucky because her parents didn’t care,’ Tracey told The Los Angeles Times.
She went on to explain that her parents never fell out of love but split due to her father’s life as an entertainer.
Davis once told his daughter of Britt: ‘I just couldn’t be what she wanted to me to be. A family man. My performance schedule was rigorous.’ Davis died aged 64 in 1990.
During their marriage Britt had retired from acting but following their split made sporadic television guest appearances, including in Mission: Impossible, The Most Deadly Game and The Partners. Her last on-screen role was in 1988’s The Probe, after which she retired and focused on painting.
After her divorce from Davis, Britt married a third time – to entertainment executive and horse breeder Lennart Ringquist in 1993. He died in 2017.
The actress is survived by her sons, her sister, Margot, and her grandchildren, Andrew, Ryan, Sam, Montana, Greer and Chase.
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