She began as an accidental star: a photographer’s assistant spotted in Stockholm, swept into Italian cinema, then to Hollywood, where she shared the screen with Marlon Brando and Audrey Hepburn. By the end of the 1950s, May Britt was on the cover of Life magazine, the face of a “new style” and a studio’s rising hope. Then she met Sammy Davis Jr, and love collided with the violent prejudice of the era. Their 1960 marriage, still illegal in much of the US, cost her roles, security and safety, but not her conviction.

She walked away from a studio career to build a home under siege, raising three children behind guarded doors and slurs scratched into metal. Later, after divorce, she slipped back into smaller parts, then into an even quieter life. She never reclaimed the fame she’d surrendered, but she refused to regret it. At 91, she leaves behind a legacy written where fame and courage meet.