May Britt 20th Century-Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment May Britt, the statuesque Swedish actress who starred in such films as The Blue Angel and Murder, Inc. before becoming the second wife of legendary entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., has died. She was 91. Britt died Dec. 11 of natural causes at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, her son Mark Davis told The Hollywood Reporter. Spotted and signed by famed Italian producer Carlo Ponti when she was 18, Britt starred in several films in Italy before she was screen-tested in Rome and signed to a contract by 20th Century in 1957. Related Stories Lifestyle Jeffrey Alan Woodley, Hairstylist to the Stars, Dies at 71 TV Gil Gerard, Star of 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,' Dies at 82 She portrayed the wife of a pilot (Lee Phillips) in the Korean War drama The Hunters (1958), starring Robert Mitchum, then was a love interest of Marlon Brando's German officer in the World War II-set The Young Lions (1958), directed by Edward Dmytryk. Often described as a warmer, more approachable Greta Garbo, Britt came to fame when she starred as the scandalous cabaret entertainer Lola-Lola in Dmytryk's The Blue Angel (1959). The film was a remake of a 1930 drama that had ignited the career of the original Lola, Marlene Dietrich, and most everyone in Hollywood at the time thought Marilyn Monroe was getting the part. She then played another singer-dancer, Eadie Collins, the ill-fated wife of a singer (Stuart Whitman) menaced by New York mobsters, in Murder, Inc. (1960). Britt and Davis first met after he performed at the Mocambo nightclub on the Sunset Strip and invited her to a party, according to the 2014 book Sammy Davis: A Personal Journey With My Father, written by Tracey Davis, their daughter. Soon after, Davis broke off his engagement to Canadian dancer Joan Stuart. Britt converted to Judaism (her fiance had converted in 1961), and he announced to the press in June 1960 while in England that they were engaged. Britt and Davis were married by a rabbi on Nov. 13, 1960, at his home on Evanview Drive in Los Angeles, followed by a reception for about 200 guests at the Beverly Hilton. Frank Sinatra, Davis' partner in the Rat Pack, served as the best man. She was 26, he was 34. At the time, interracial marriages were illegal in 31 states, and coincidentally or not, Fox elected not to renew her contract shortly after their engagement was announced. They received death threats throughout their relationship and at times employed 24-hour armed guards to protect them. Amid reports linking Davis to singer-dancer-actress Lola Falana, the couple divorced in December 1968, but their daughter told the Los Angeles Times in 2014 that her parents never fell out of love. When she asked her dad why they broke up, Davis replied, "I just couldn't be what she wanted to me to be. A family man. My performance schedule was rigorous." May Britt with Curd Jürgens in 1959's 'The Blue Angel.' 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection The older of two daughters, Majbritt Wilkens was born on March 22, 1934, in Lidingö, Sweden, on the outskirts of Stockholm. Her father, Hugo, was a postal clerk and her mother, Hillevi, a housewife. Working as a photographer's assistant when she was 18, she was spotted in Stockholm by Ponti, who signed her to a contract and cast her in leading roles in the 1953 films The Unfaithfuls (with Gina Lollobrigida), Jolanda la Figlia del Corsaro Nero and The Devil Is a Woman. The 5-foot-8 Britt also starred with Anthony Quinn in Fatal Desire (1953) and in Modern Virgin (1954) with Vittorio De Sica before Fox chief Buddy Adler spotted her in King Vidor's War and Peace (1956), starring Andrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. In America, Britt showed off her singing and dancing skills in both Blue Angel and Murder, Inc. One month after she met him, Britt married Edwin Gregson, a Stanford student and son of a real estate mogul, in February 1958 in Tijuana. She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in August 1959 - the cover line was "May Britt: Star With a New Style" - with an article describing her as a Hollywood ingenue who enjoyed motorcycles and played tennis in the morning in a see-through nightdress. A month after the story appeared, she and Gregson separated, and they finalized their divorce in September 1960. May Britt and husband Sammy Davis Jr. outside the Shubert Theater in New York in 1965. Courtesy of Everett Davis, meanwhile, had hurriedly married Black dancer Loray White at the Sands in Las Vegas in January 1958 after gangsters, with instructions from Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, had reportedly threatened his life because he was dating white actress and studio star Kim Novak. He paid White a lump sum (said to be betw