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Mae West was a provocative American actress, playwright, and screenwriter known for her double entendres. She began performing at age twelve and made her Broadway debut in 1926. She moved to Hollywood in 1932 and saw success as an actress and screenwriter, but had to battle censorship. She continued to perform on stage and in the 1960s made television appearances and recorded two Rock and Roll albums. Mae West died in 1980 and is remembered as an outspoken and sexually independent woman who inspired many imitators.
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, and screenwriter famed for her provocative and outspoken mannerisms. Her career spanned seven decades, during which she performed in vaudeville, Broadway, Hollywood films, Las Vegas and Rock and Roll albums. Mae West was famous for her double entendres and would sometimes slip her offhand lines into a script.
Mae West was born Mary Jane West on August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of a boxer and a corset model. Her father, John Patrick West, would later become a police officer and private investigator. Mae West had two younger brothers.
Mae West began performing on the vaudeville stage at age twelve when she was billed as The BaVamp. She soon began writing plays under the pseudonym Jane Mast, making her Broadway debut in 1926 as the lead character in her own play, Sex. Although the show was popular, it was shut down after about a year and Mae West was arrested on obscenity charges. Her ten-day prison sentence, during which her warden allegedly drove her to dinner each night before bailing her two days early for good behavior, proved to be good publicity.
Mae West’s next play, The Drag (1927), dealt with the subject of homosexuality and advocated for gay rights at a time when such topics were taboo. Mae West continued to be successful as a playwright and actress throughout the 1920s. In 1932 she moved to Hollywood with a contract with Paramount.
Mae West’s first film role, in Night After Night, was small, but she was allowed to rewrite her lines, bringing her signature witty double entendres to a wider audience. Her next film, She She Done Him Wrong (1933), was a film adaptation of her hit stage play Diamond Lil and she co-starred with Cary Grant. Although she saw considerable success as an actress and screenwriter throughout the 1930s, Mae West had to battle censorship constantly.
Mae West took a break from the film business after her last Paramount film, in 1943, but continued to perform on stage, both on Broadway and in Las Vegas. She published an autobiography, Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It, in 1959. In the 1960s, she made a few television appearances and recorded two Rock and Roll albums.
Mae West returned to the cinema in 1970 in Gore Vidal’s Myra Breckinridge, about a transsexual. Her last film, Sextette (1979), was her script. While both films were box office failures, they have since gained a cult following.
Mae West died in Hollywood, California on November 22, 1980 after suffering two strokes. Many of her puns have become part of the cultural lexicon, and Mae West is often cited as the quintessential example of the outspoken and sexually independent woman. She was one of the first women in Hollywood to sport funny and sexy in equal measure and inspired many imitators.
