Swedish actress May Britt, who married Sammy Davis Jr. in the 1960s, has died, The Hollywood Reporter reports. She was 91.
Her son Mark Davis confirmed the news to the outlet, saying his mother died Dec. 11 of natural causes at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center.
Britt signed with 20th Century Fox in 1957 and would go on to land roles in films such as 1958’s The Hunters (1958), starring Robert Mitchum, and 1958’s The Young Lion opposite Marlon Brando.
But her breakout role was in 1959, when she starred as cabaret performer Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel.
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Britt married college student Edwin Gregson in 1958. filing for divorce one year later
In 1960, at a time when interracial marriage was forbidden by law in 31 U.S. states, she became engaged to entertainment legend Davis. The fallout was swift for both.
After Davis, an ardent campaigner in the Black community for John F. Kennedy’s presidential bid, became engaged to the white, Swedish actress, Kennedy’s father Joseph P. Kennedy forced his dis-invitation to JFK’s Inauguration.
The move rankled Davis’ pal Dean Martin, his daughter Deana told PEOPLE in a recent interview.
“My dad said, ‘Well, if you’re not going, I’m not going,’’ Deana said. “And Dad did not go because Sammy was uninvited. He was so unhappy that they had done that to my Uncle Sammy.”
Britt, meanwhile, lost her acting contract after Fox elected not to renew it following the engagement news. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the couple also received death threats that at one point required them to employ 24-hour armed guards for their protection.
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Davis and Britt had a daughter, Tracey, in July 1961, and they later adopted sons Mark and Jeff. The two divorced in 1968.
Speaking to The Los Angeles Times in 2014, Tracey (who died in 2020) said her parents “didn’t regret being together.”
“My mom loved my dad like crazy, and my dad loved my mother,” she said. “My mother was so lucky because her parents didn’t care.”
Tracey added that she felt the couple never really fell out of love, but broke up due to her father’s life as an entertainer, telling the outlet he once told her, “I just couldn’t be what she wanted to me to be. A family man. My performance schedule was rigorous.”
Britt married a third time to Lennart Ringquist, who died in 2017, per an obituary.
