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IMDbPro

May Wynn(1928-2021)

  • Actress
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May Wynn in The White Squaw (1956)
She was born Donna Lee Hickey, the daughter of a vaudevillian. At seventeen, she entered show biz as a dancer at the Copacabana and thereafter won several beauty contests, including "Miss American Legion," "Miss Miami Beach", and "Miss Fire Fighter". In January 1950, she was voted Queen of the New York Press Photographers' Ball. From there, it was but a small step to motion pictures and a contract with 20thCentury Fox, courtesy of a sympathetic member of that studio's casting department. However, after a year playing nothing but bit parts, Donna Lee declared with some disappointment "I didn't even work during my last six months there. Every week I hired a taxi, drove to the studio, picked up my check and drove home. They said they would hire me for another year at the same salary. I said no thanks." Instead, she made a move to Columbia which appeared to pay off with a leading role in Edward Dmytryk's classic military courtroom drama The Caine Mutiny (1954) (opposite Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray). Her character, a night club singer, was named May Wynn. At the insistence of producer Stanley Kramer, Donna Lee henceforth adopted this as her stage moniker since there 'hadn't been a May since the days of May McAvoy and Mae Murray'. Freshly minted as May Wynn, she went on to co-star (albeit as second fiddle to, respectively, Donna Reed and Dianne Foster) in two back-to-back westerns: They Rode West (1954) and The Violent Men (1955). Second-billing finally came her way -- but it was to be in B-grade fare like The White Squaw (1956) and The Man Is Armed (1956) for 'Poverty Row' studios Allied Artists and Republic.

In October 1956, May married actor Jack Kelly (who would become popular as James Garner's more serious younger brother Bart in Maverick (1957)). Jack and May appeared together in low budget productions like Taming Sutton's Gal (1957) and Hong Kong Affair (1958) (with May standing in as a Chinese girl, since the local actress originally chosen for the part failed to come to grips with the English language). She also had recurring roles on The Bob Cummings Show (1955) and in the short-lived NBC drama series Noah's Ark (1956), with May as a secretary in a veterinary hospital. The only claim to fame of this series was that it was one of the first to be shot in colour. After exiting show business in 1960, May worked in real estate. She divorced Kelly in 1964 and four years later married realtor Jack Wesley Custer. This union also ended in divorce in 1979. As Donna Lee Custer, she retired to Newport Beach, California, where she passed away at the age of 93 on March 22 2021.
BornJanuary 8, 1928
DiedMarch 22, 2021(93)
BornJanuary 8, 1928
DiedMarch 22, 2021(93)
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Photos11

Paul Burke, Victor Rodman, and May Wynn in Noah's Ark (1956)
May Wynn in The Unknown Terror (1957)
Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Stanley Kramer, Edward Dmytryk, Robert Francis, Fred MacMurray, Herman Wouk, and May Wynn in The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Stanley Kramer, Edward Dmytryk, Robert Francis, Fred MacMurray, Herman Wouk, and May Wynn in The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, and May Wynn in The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Dane Clark and May Wynn in The Man Is Armed (1956)
Dane Clark and May Wynn in The Man Is Armed (1956)
Dane Clark and May Wynn in The Man Is Armed (1956)
Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Robert Francis, Fred MacMurray, and May Wynn in The Caine Mutiny (1954)
May Wynn in The White Squaw (1956)

Known for

Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, and Fred MacMurray in The Caine Mutiny (1954)
The Caine Mutiny
7.7
  • May Wynn
  • 1954
Betty Grable and Dale Robertson in The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953)
The Farmer Takes a Wife
5.2
  • Eva Gooch(as Donna Lee Hickey)
  • 1953
The Unknown Terror (1957)
The Unknown Terror
4.8
  • Concha Ramsey
  • 1957
Hong Kong Affair (1958)
Hong Kong Affair
5.5
  • Chu Lan
  • 1958

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actress

  • Shotgun Slade (1959)
    Shotgun Slade
  • Man with a Camera (1958)
    Man with a Camera
  • Perry Mason (1957)
    Perry Mason
  • Hong Kong Affair (1958)
    Hong Kong Affair
  • Frank McHugh and Marvin Miller in The Millionaire (1955)
    The Millionaire
  • Paul Burke, Victor Rodman, and May Wynn in Noah's Ark (1956)
    Noah's Ark
  • John Payne in The Restless Gun (1957)
    The Restless Gun
  • Taming Sutton's Gal (1957)
    Taming Sutton's Gal
  • The Unknown Terror (1957)
    The Unknown Terror
  • Rod Cameron in State Trooper (1956)
    State Trooper
  • The Bob Cummings Show (1955)
    The Bob Cummings Show
  • The White Squaw (1956)
    The White Squaw
  • The Man Is Armed (1956)
    The Man Is Armed
  • Celebrity Playhouse (1955)
    Celebrity Playhouse
  • Screen Directors Playhouse (1955)
    Screen Directors Playhouse

Personal details

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    • January 8, 1928
    • New York City, New York, USA
    • March 22, 2021
    • Newport Beach, California, USA(undisclosed)
    • October 3, 1968 - January 30, 1979 (divorced)
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    A model, singer, and chorine by the time she entered films, she initially went by her birth name, Donna Lee Hickey, but five out of her first six roles were uncredited, with her sixth role being not only her first credited role, but her single, one and only role credited to her birth name. When she won the role of May Wynn in the classic The Caine Mutiny (1954), she adopted the name of this character for herself, a tactic employed by actor Gig Young in the 1940s.

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