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.
