- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDonna Lee Hickey
- Nickname
- Donna Custer
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- 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.- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
- SpousesJack Wesley Custer(October 3, 1968 - January 30, 1979) (divorced)Jack Kelly(October 14, 1956 - October 19, 1964) (divorced)
- ChildrenNo Children
- 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.
- She tested for the role of the prostitute Alma in From Here to Eternity (1953) but lost out after the studio decided to gamble on the fresh-faced innocence of Donna Reed. Reed won an Oscar for her supporting work here.
- Was a showgirl at New York City's famous Copacabana Club when she was 17.
- She worked as a longtime school aide for Our Lady Queen Of Angels Catholic School in Newport Beach, California for 28 years starting in 1989 where she taught handwriting and after-school public speaking classes.
- In late December 1952 she was part of a USO tour that entertained troops in Korea. In addition to her, the tour included Paul Douglas, Jan Sterling, Richard Allan, Walter Pidgeon, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Ruick, Peggy King, Carleton Carpenter, Carolina Cotton, Beverly Tyler, Bill Shirley, Pat Moran, Jack O'Connor, Rory Calhoun and Lita Baron.
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