Mae West

American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer

Photo by: Paramount Pictures · Public Domain · Wikimedia Commons

Born:August 17, 1893

Died:November 22, 1980

Age at death:87

Manner of death:Natural Causes

Cause of death:Stroke

Zodiac Sign:Leo

Born in:Brooklyn, United States

Buried in:United States

Languages:English

Stage Actor Comedian Actor Film Screenwriter Television Actor Screenwriter Film Actor Writer Playwright Autobiographer Singer Musician

Signature

Links

Wikipedia Official Website IMDb

Famous For

Movies & TV

She Done Him WrongMyra BreckinridgeI'm No AngelKlondike AnnieBelle of the Nineties

Books

SexThe DragDiamond LilPleasure ManGoodness Had Nothing to Do with It

Songs & Albums

Wild ChristmasMy Old FlameGreat Balls of FireWay Out WestThe Fabulous Mae West

Awards

star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Mae West

American actress, singer, screenwriter, and writer

Biography

Mary Jane West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980), known as Mae West, was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known for portraying sexually confident characters and for her use of double entendres, often delivering her lines in a distinctive contralto voice. With a career spanning more than seven decades, she was frequently associated with controversies over censorship and once stated, "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it." West is listed as one of the top 25 female movie stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. West began performing in vaudeville and on stage in New York before moving on to film in Los Angeles. By 1933, she was one of the largest box-office draws in the U.S. and, by 1935, she was also the highest paid woman and the second-highest paid person in the U.S. (after William Randolph Hearst). Censorship had increasingly made West's sexually suggestive humor difficult to sustain on screen. She was included in the "Box Office Poison" list published by the Independent Theatre Owners Association in 1938. Among her film credits include Night After Night (1932; her motion picture debut), She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel (both 1933), Belle of the Nineties (1934), Go West, Young Man (1936), My Little Chickadee (1940), The Heat's On (1943), and Myra Breckinridge (1970). As her movie career declined, she remained active by writing books and plays, performing in Las Vegas and London, and appearing on radio and television shows. In later years, West also released rock and roll records, including the studio albums Way Out West (1966) and Great Balls of Fire (1972). Her final film role was in the musical comedy Sextette (1978). In August 1980, West tripped while getting out of bed, which contributed to her death three months later at age 87.

This biography uses content from the Wikipedia article “Mae West”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Quotes

“Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.”

— Response to an exclamation, "Goodness! What beautiful diamonds!" in Night After Night (1932). She later used Goodness had nothing to do with it as the title of her (1953) autobiography.

“Why don't you come up sometime and see me? … Come on up, I'll tell your fortune.”

— She Done Him Wrong (1933); this statement has widely said to be misquoted with the paraphrase: "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" In fact, Mae West did say: "come up and see me sometime.” in these two movies I'm No Angel and Sextette http://quotationize.com/come-up-see-me-sometime-not-misquote-mae-west/

“Oh, Beulah, Peel me a grape.”

— I'm No Angel (1933)

Quotes sourced from the Wikiquote article "Mae West", available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Photos

Publicity portrait of Mae West.

John Decker (1895-1947): Wilshire Bowl Restaurant mural design – study/sketch 1941 (part 4 of 4) Caricatures of Hollywood actors 1920s-1930s. Original from Smithsonian Institution. Persons depicted: Bob Hope Joe E. Brown Charles Winninger Charles Boyer Greta Garbo Clark Gable Shirley Temple Humphrey Bogart William Claude Fields Mae West Roland Keith Young Caricature murals by the famous Hollywood set designer, painter, and caricaturist John Decker (1895–1947), formerly known as Leopold von der Decken. The charateur murals depicting famous actors and actresses were installed at the Wilshire Bowl night club in September 1941 to promote the cabaret show “The Silver Screen”, a production about the golden age of cinema. Rawpixel have digitally enhanced these illustrations into high resolution quality, and they are downloadable under the CC0 license: https://www.rawpixel.com/board/1292898/wilshire-bowl-mural-studies-free-cc0-public-domain-artworks Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.

Mae West performed early in her career at Neir's

Exhibit in the Textile Museum, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. Photography was permitted in the museum without restriction. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain.

RV/MH Hall of Fame, Elkhart IN

Mae West's motorhome.

The Season in Full Swing ! At the Dill Pickles, Sat., Oct. 11th Mae West and her ensemble from ' Sex ', (1930)

Mae West's dress displayed at The Hollywood Museum, 1660 N. Highland Ave (at Hollywood Blvd), Hollywood, California, USA.

Advertisement for Mae West’s "burlesque" performances along with those of the exotic "Oriental Dancer" Papinta at the Hotel Cadillac in Detroit, Michigan, 1915; published in issue of the defunct newspaper The Detroit Times, 3 July 1915, p. 4; image of advertisement in copy of cited issue in "Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers", Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. NOTE: the long-demolished Hotel Cadillac was on the site of the current Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in Detroit.

YouTube clip thumbnail for "Happy Birthday Twenty-One" a Mae West version of Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen by Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield; special lyric by Ian Whitcomb for Mae West, as sung here by Lena Bengtsson; image property of Lars Jacob Place: Swenglistic Underground office, Stockholm, Sweden