She began as a still, quiet presence in a Swedish darkroom, an assistant whose beauty pulled her in front of the lens and then onto the screen. Italy welcomed her first, then Hollywood, where her face promised decades of luminous roles. But when she married Sammy Davis Jr. in 1960, their interracial union collided with a country still clinging to segregation and hate. What should have been a love story became a target. Powerful men, some with mob ties and studio influence, made sure offers dried up.

She chose family over fame, raising three children in a house shadowed by threats yet held together by ferocious love. After the marriage ended, she slipped back into smaller parts, then into near silence, letting the world forget her. She never regained what she’d lost, but she refused regret. To her, the scandal, the exile, the obscurity—were all the price of loving freely.