May Britt, the Swedish actress who made Hollywood history through her marriage to Sammy Davis Jr., has died at 91.
Her son, Mark Davis, told The Hollywood Reporter that she passed away on December 11 from natural causes at a Los Angeles hospital.
Britt began her film career in the late 1950s after signing with 20th Century Fox. She starred with Robert Mitchum in The Hunters and with Marlon Brando in The Young Lions. Her big break came in 1959 when she played cabaret singer Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel.
A year later, Britt made headlines for another reason — her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr. In 1960, interracial marriage was still illegal in more than half of U.S. states. When she and Davis got engaged, both faced fierce backlash. Britt lost her movie contract, and the couple received death threats. They had to hire armed guards for protection.
Even politics got involved: Joseph Kennedy Sr. pushed for Davis to be uninvited from John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration because of the relationship. Dean Martin, Davis’s close friend, boycotted the event in protest.
Despite the turmoil, Britt and Davis married that same year. They welcomed a daughter, Tracey, in 1961 and later adopted two sons, Mark and Jeff. The couple divorced in 1968 but remained connected.
Their daughter Tracey, who died in 2020, once said her parents never stopped caring for each other. “My mom loved my dad like crazy, and my dad loved my mother,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “They were just living in a world that wasn’t ready for them.”
Britt later married Lennart Ringquist, who passed away in 2017. Though she left Hollywood decades ago, May Britt is remembered as a woman who broke barriers — and stood for love in a time when it was still controversial.
Once again making me remember my long past and my short future.
She is back with Sammy now.