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 Mae West was born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, to "Battling Jack" West and Matilda Doelger. She began her career as a child star in vaudeville, and later went on to write her own plays, including "SEX", for which she was arrested. Though her first movie role, at age 40, was a small part in Night After Night (1932), her scene has become famous. A coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it". Her next film, in which she starred, came the following year. She Done Him Wrong (1933) was based on her earlier and very popular play, "Diamond Lil". She went on to write and star in seven more films, including My Little Chickadee (1940) with W.C. Fields. Her last movie was Sextette (1977), which also came from a play. She died on November 22, 1980.Mary Jane West was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 17, 1893, to parents involved in prizefighting and vaudeville. Mae herself worked on the stage and in vaudeville from the time she was five years old. She never was academically inclined because she was too busy performing. She studied dance as a child, and by the time she was 14 she was billed as "The Baby Vamp" for her performances on stage. Later Mae began writing her own plays. One of those plays, "Sex", landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges in 1926. Two years later her play "Diamond Lil" became a huge Broadway success. Mae caught the attention of the Hollywood studios and was given her first movie role with George Raft in Night After Night (1932). Although it was a small role, she was able to display a wit that was to make her world-famous. Raft himself said of Mae, "She stole everything but the cameras." She became a box-office smash hit, breaking all sorts of attendance records. Her second film, She Done Him Wrong (1933), was based on her earlier and popular play that she had written herself. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture. It also made Cary Grant a star. Her third film later that year was I'm No Angel (1933). The controversy aroused by these two films resulted in the studios establishing the Motion Picture Production Code, which regulated what content could be shown or said in pictures. As a result of these codes, Mae began to double-talk so that a person could take a word or phrase any way they wished. This was so she could get her material past the censors, and it worked. She really felt she had a vested interest because it was her written work being scrutinized. She had already written and performed these for the stage with the very material now being filmed. Her next film, Belle of the Nineties (1934), was an equal hit. By 1936, with Klondike Annie (1936) and Go West Young Man (1936) she became the highest paid woman in the US. After 1937's Every Day's a Holiday (1937), she didn't make another film until 1940, when she co-starred with W.C. Fields in another film she wrote herself, My Little Chickadee (1940). It was well known she had little use for Fields and his ways, which were crude even for her. After The Heat's On (1943), Mae took a respite from the film world, mainly because the censors were getting stricter. She decided she would be able to have greater expression in her work if she went back to the stage. Mae continued to be a success there. When censorship began to end in the 1960s, she returned to film work in 1970's Myra Breckinridge (1970). Her last film was 1978's Sextette (1977). Mae suffered a series of strokes which finally resulted in her death at age 88 on November 22, 1980, in Hollywood, California. She was buried in New York. The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.
Bio:
Mae West was born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, to "Battling Jack" West and Matilda Doelger. She began her career as a child star in vaudeville, and later went on to write her own plays, including "SEX", for which she was arrested. Though her first movie role, at age 40, was a small part in Night After Night (1932), her scene has become famous. A coat check girl exclaims, "Goodness! What lovely diamonds!", after seeing Mae's jewelry. Mae replies, "Goodness had nothing to do with it". Her next film, in which she starred, came the following year. She Done Him Wrong (1933) was based on her earlier and very popular play, "Diamond Lil". She went on to write and star in seven more films, including My Little Chickadee (1940) with W.C. Fields. Her last movie was Sextette (1977), which also came from a play. She died on November 22, 1980.
Mary Jane West was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 17, 1893, to parents involved in prizefighting and vaudeville. Mae herself worked on the stage and in vaudeville from the time she was five years old. She never was academically inclined because she was too busy performing. She studied dance as a child, and by the time she was 14 she was billed as "The Baby Vamp" for her performances on stage. Later Mae began writing her own plays. One of those plays, "Sex", landed her in jail for ten days on obscenity charges in 1926. Two years later her play "Diamond Lil" became a huge Broadway success. Mae caught the attention of the Hollywood studios and was given her first movie role with George Raft in Night After Night (1932). Although it was a small role, she was able to display a wit that was to make her world-famous. Raft himself said of Mae, "She stole everything but the cameras." She became a box-office smash hit, breaking all sorts of attendance records. Her second film, She Done Him Wrong (1933), was based on her earlier and popular play that she had written herself. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture. It also made Cary Grant a star. Her third film later that year was I'm No Angel (1933). The controversy aroused by these two films resulted in the studios establishing the Motion Picture Production Code, which regulated what content could be shown or said in pictures. As a result of these codes, Mae began to double-talk so that a person could take a word or phrase any way they wished. This was so she could get her material past the censors, and it worked. She really felt she had a vested interest because it was her written work being scrutinized. She had already written and performed these for the stage with the very material now being filmed. Her next film, Belle of the Nineties (1934), was an equal hit. By 1936, with Klondike Annie (1936) and Go West Young Man (1936) she became the highest paid woman in the US. After 1937's Every Day's a Holiday (1937), she didn't make another film until 1940, when she co-starred with W.C. Fields in another film she wrote herself, My Little Chickadee (1940). It was well known she had little use for Fields and his ways, which were crude even for her. After The Heat's On (1943), Mae took a respite from the film world, mainly because the censors were getting stricter. She decided she would be able to have greater expression in her work if she went back to the stage. Mae continued to be a success there. When censorship began to end in the 1960s, she returned to film work in 1970's Myra Breckinridge (1970). Her last film was 1978's Sextette (1977). Mae suffered a series of strokes which finally resulted in her death at age 88 on November 22, 1980, in Hollywood, California. She was buried in New York. The actress, who only appeared in 12 films in 46 years, had a powerful impact on us. There was no doubt she was way ahead of her time with her sexual innuendos and how she made fun of a puritanical society. She did a lot to bring it out of the closet and perhaps we should be grateful for that.
Tivia:
She was one of the first women to consistently write the movies she starred in.One of her boyfriends and life long friends was the African American Boxer William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones. When management at her Ravenswood apartment building barred him from entering, she solved the problem buy purchasing the building and lifting the ban.Her films are credited with single-handedly saving failing and debt-ridden Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy in the early 1930s.Appears on sleeve of The Beatles "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". West at first declined to be pictured on the cover ("What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?!"), but reconsidered when The Beatles sent her a handwritten personal request.She was at one point Hollywood's highest paid star.According to Tony Curtis, her famous walk originated while beginning her career as a stage actress. Special six-inch platforms were attached to her shoes to increase the height of her stage presence. Her walk literally was "one foot at a time".At one point, her chauffeur was Jerry Orbach (who is best known for playing Detective Lennie Briscoe on all four "Law & Order" television series).The Coca-Cola bottle was said to have been designed with Mae West's figure as inspiration.Once when she was scheduled to play a theater in New Haven, Conneticut, the theater's management refused to let her go on because her act was too "risqu��" and canceled the show. Disappointed, Yale University students rioted and wrecked the theater.Was not a smoker or a drinker.After two years of denying that she had ever been married, West admitted in a reply to a legal interrogatory in 1937 that she and Frank Wallace had married in 1911. During her divorce trial in 1942, she testified that they had lived together only "several weeks".In April 1927, she was convicted of "producing an immoral play", the title of which was "Sex". She was sentenced to ten days in jail in New York City, but was given one day off for good behavior.When W.C. Fields called her "My little broodmare", she almost hit him.Surrealist artist Salvador Dal�� created one of his most iconic works influenced by her: "Mae West's Lips Sofa" (1937).During World War II, her name was applied to various pieces of military equipment, and was thus listed in Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition. The Royal Air Force named its inflatable life jackets "Mae Wests", and US soldiers referred to twin-turreted combat tanks as "Mae Wests".She was with George Raft in both her first (Night After Night (1932)) and last (Sextette (1977)) film.Mae West died two days before her Night After Night (1932) and Sextette (1977) co-star George Raft.Made her Broadway debut on September 22, 1911, at the New York Folies Berg��re, co-owned by Jesse L. Lasky. Twenty-one years later, West signed with Paramount Pictures, which was co-founded by Lasky.Although critics thought that she and W.C. Fields worked well together on camera in My Little Chickadee (1940), off-screen they couldn't stand each other.Her frank, sexual innuendo-laced play "Sex" opened at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre on April 26, 1926. Ironically, that theatre had been built twelve years earlier by two Christian societies - the People's Pulpit and the International Bible Student's Association - that had intended it to be used for the presentation of biblical films and lectures.Playing opposite Ed Wynn in Arthur Hammerstein's "Sometime", with music by Rudolf Friml, she introduced the shimmy to the Broadway stage in 1918. The dance requires hardly any movement of the feet but continuous movement of the shoulders, torso and pelvis. She had seen the dance at black caf��s in Chicago.Her father built a stage for her in the basement of their house in Brooklyn.Critic George Jean Nathan once called her "The Statue of Libido".She was famous for her morning enemas, which she claimed made her skin like silk and left her "smelling sweet at both ends". On the set of her last film Sextette (1977), co-star Tony Curtis claimed that she was given an enema after being made up, at approximately 11:00 in the morning, as the last step of her preparations before going before the camera.Ravenswood Apartments, West's longtime residence on Rossmore Avenue, is shown in Hollywood Mouth 3 (2018). Others who resided in Ravenswood over the years were Alice Faye, Clark Gable, Ida Lupino, Hedda Hopper, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, and crime writer James Ellroy. West also owned a beachfront house at 514 Palisades Beach Road in Santa Monica.Was named #15 Actress on The American Film Institute's 50 Greatest Screen Legends.Was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance in 1937 with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres. She returned to the network as a guest on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948) in 1949.She had a double thyroid. Her doctor wanted her to have one of her thyroids surgically removed, but she refused as the double thyroid was not affecting her health.Former Beatle Ringo Starr appeared with West in Sextette (1977). He was unpleasantly surprised at first, at all the attention given her on the set (usually reserved for pop stars like The Beatles), but came to admire West during the shoot, and praised her afterwards.Turned down a role in Roustabout (1964), which eventually went to Barbara Stanwyck.She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.The comedy entitled "Sex" she wrote in 1926 revived off Broadway in New York. (December 1999)Sources are divided as to whether she was born in 1887, 1888, 1892 or 1893. (West once claimed it was as late as 1900.) Most reputable sources list 1892.Sister of singer Beverly Arden.Died apparently of natural causes in the wake of a mild stroke she suffered three months prior that left her speech impaired. Also suffered from diabetes the last 15 years of her life.She always wrote her own plays and also the script for her first film. has published two novels, written the lyrics for several songs composed by Ralph Rainger for her film She Done Him Wrong (1933) and in her spare time did sketches and material for other performers.There is a photo in fundamentalist preacher Billy Sunday's autobiography (circa 1932) of he and West pouring out a bottle of beer into the river.She has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: She Done Him Wrong (1933).The US Congress list of highest salaries for 1936 (published on January 7, 1937) had her as the highest Hollywood earner with ��96,166 (GBP) ahead of Marlene Dietrich (second at ��73,000) and Bing Crosby (third at ��63,781). For context, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst had the highest US salary in 1936 with ��100,000.She was considered for the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. (1950) but Gloria Swanson, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.Attended and graduated from Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School (1911), as did silent film star Norma Talmadge.Is mentioned in Cole Porter's song "Anything Goes" from his musical of the same name.During World War II, United States Navy and Army pilots and crewmen in the Pacific named their inflatable life vests after her, supposedly because of her well-endowed attributes. The term "Mae West" for a lifejacket continues to this day.She was born Mary Jane West in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Mae's father, John Patrick "Jack" West, was a featherweight prizefighter called "Battling Jack" West, and later a stable master; he was of English and Irish descent (his own mother was an Irish immigrant). Mae's mother, Matilda Decker Doelger, was an immigrant from Germany.She had Jewish ancestry through her maternal side.Eldest of three children of John Patrick West, an occasional prizefighter and livery-stable owner, and Matilda Delker Doelger, a one-time corset and fashion model. A baby girl died before Mae was born and a girl and a boy were born after.Made her first professional appearances at Neir's Tavern (which opened in 1829 and is currently extant) in Woodhaven, Queens, New York.Guido Deiro claims that West married his father, Guido Deiro, in 1914 under an assumed name, Catherine Mae Belle West, and on the condition of secrecy. West filed for divorce from Deiro on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9, 1920.She wrote some half dozen successful plays and novels most of which were based on true facts but were so lurid and melodramatic that she had to tone them down before she could use them. She also wrote the script for her first starring film ,She Done Him Wrong and the lyrics for several, of the songs featured in the film.Lent her name to life preservers, art, graphs, album covers, statues, table radios, songs, etc. |
| Name: |
Mae West |
Type: |
Actress,Writer,Soundtrack (IMDB) |
| Area: |
All World |
Platform: |
IMDB |
| Category: |
|
Business scope: |
Actress,Writer,Soundtrack |
| Products for sale: |
Actress,Writer,Soundtrack |
| Model rank: |
6281 |
| Last update: |
2024-07-01 04:01:16 |
| Height: |
5' (1.52 m) |
| Biography: |
Mae West was born August 17, 1893 in Brooklyn, New York, to \"Battling Jack\" West and Matilda Doelger. She began her career as a child star in vaudeville, and later went on to write her own plays, including \"SEX\", for which she was |
| Trivia: |
She was one of the first women to consistently write the movies she starred in.One of her boyfriends and life long friends was the African American Boxer William Jones, nicknamed Gorilla Jones. When management at her Ravenswood apartment building barred him from entering, she solved the problem buy purchasing the building and lifting the ban.Her films are credited with single-handedly saving failing and debt-ridden Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy in the early 1930s.Appears on sleeve of The Beatles "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". West at first declined to be pictured on the cover ("What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?!"), but reconsidered when The Beatles sent her a handwritten personal request.She was at one point Hollywood's highest paid star.According to Tony Curtis, her famous walk originated while beginning her career as a stage actress. Special six-inch platforms were attached to her shoes to increase the height of her stage presence. Her walk literally was "one foot at a time".At one point, her chauffeur was Jerry Orbach (who is best known for playing Detective Lennie Briscoe on all four "Law & Order" television series).The Coca-Cola bottle was said to have been designed with Mae West's figure as inspiration.Once when she was scheduled to play a theater in New Haven, Conneticut, the theater's management refused to let her go on because her act was too "risqu��" and canceled the show. Disappointed, Yale University students rioted and wrecked the theater.Was not a smoker or a drinker.After two years of denying that she had ever been married, West admitted in a reply to a legal interrogatory in 1937 that she and Frank Wallace had married in 1911. During her divorce trial in 1942, she testified that they had lived together only "several weeks".In April 1927, she was convicted of "producing an immoral play", the title of which was "Sex". She was sentenced to ten days in jail in New York City, but was given one day off for good behavior.When W.C. Fields called her "My little broodmare", she almost hit him.Surrealist artist Salvador Dal�� created one of his most iconic works influenced by her: "Mae West's Lips Sofa" (1937).During World War II, her name was applied to various pieces of military equipment, and was thus listed in Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition. The Royal Air Force named its inflatable life jackets "Mae Wests", and US soldiers referred to twin-turreted combat tanks as "Mae Wests".She was with George Raft in both her first (Night After Night (1932)) and last (Sextette (1977)) film.Mae West died two days before her Night After Night (1932) and Sextette (1977) co-star George Raft.Made her Broadway debut on September 22, 1911, at the New York Folies Berg��re, co-owned by Jesse L. Lasky. Twenty-one years later, West signed with Paramount Pictures, which was co-founded by Lasky.Although critics thought that she and W.C. Fields worked well together on camera in My Little Chickadee (1940), off-screen they couldn't stand each other.Her frank, sexual innuendo-laced play "Sex" opened at Daly's 63rd Street Theatre on April 26, 1926. Ironically, that theatre had been built twelve years earlier by two Christian societies - the People's Pulpit and the International Bible Student's Association - that had intended it to be used for the presentation of biblical films and lectures.Playing opposite Ed Wynn in Arthur Hammerstein's "Sometime", with music by Rudolf Friml, she introduced the shimmy to the Broadway stage in 1918. The dance requires hardly any movement of the feet but continuous movement of the shoulders, torso and pelvis. She had seen the dance at black caf��s in Chicago.Her father built a stage for her in the basement of their house in Brooklyn.Critic George Jean Nathan once called her "The Statue of Libido".She was famous for her morning enemas, which she claimed made her skin like silk and left her "smelling sweet at both ends". On the set of her last film Sextette (1977), co-star Tony Curtis claimed that she was given an enema after being made up, at approximately 11:00 in the morning, as the last step of her preparations before going before the camera.Ravenswood Apartments, West's longtime residence on Rossmore Avenue, is shown in Hollywood Mouth 3 (2018). Others who resided in Ravenswood over the years were Alice Faye, Clark Gable, Ida Lupino, Hedda Hopper, Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, and crime writer James Ellroy. West also owned a beachfront house at 514 Palisades Beach Road in Santa Monica.Was named #15 Actress on The American Film Institute's 50 Greatest Screen Legends.Was banned from NBC Radio after a guest appearance in 1937 with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy that was loaded with flirtatious dialogue and double-entendres. She returned to the network as a guest on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948) in 1949.She had a double thyroid. Her doctor wanted her to have one of her thyroids surgically removed, but she refused as the double thyroid was not affecting her health.Former Beatle Ringo Starr appeared with West in Sextette (1977). He was unpleasantly surprised at first, at all the attention given her on the set (usually reserved for pop stars like The Beatles), but came to admire West during the shoot, and praised her afterwards.Turned down a role in Roustabout (1964), which eventually went to Barbara Stanwyck.She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.The comedy entitled "Sex" she wrote in 1926 revived off Broadway in New York. (December 1999)Sources are divided as to whether she was born in 1887, 1888, 1892 or 1893. (West once claimed it was as late as 1900.) Most reputable sources list 1892.Sister of singer Beverly Arden.Died apparently of natural causes in the wake of a mild stroke she suffered three months prior that left her speech impaired. Also suffered from diabetes the last 15 years of her life.She always wrote her own plays and also the script for her first film. has published two novels, written the lyrics for several songs composed by Ralph Rainger for her film She Done Him Wrong (1933) and in her spare time did sketches and material for other performers.There is a photo in fundamentalist preacher Billy Sunday's autobiography (circa 1932) of he and West pouring out a bottle of beer into the river.She has appeared in one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: She Done Him Wrong (1933).The US Congress list of highest salaries for 1936 (published on January 7, 1937) had her as the highest Hollywood earner with ��96,166 (GBP) ahead of Marlene Dietrich (second at ��73,000) and Bing Crosby (third at ��63,781). For context, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst had the highest US salary in 1936 with ��100,000.She was considered for the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd. (1950) but Gloria Swanson, who went on to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance, was cast instead.Attended and graduated from Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School (1911), as did silent film star Norma Talmadge.Is mentioned in Cole Porter's song "Anything Goes" from his musical of the same name.During World War II, United States Navy and Army pilots and crewmen in the Pacific named their inflatable life vests after her, supposedly because of her well-endowed attributes. The term "Mae West" for a lifejacket continues to this day.She was born Mary Jane West in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Mae's father, John Patrick "Jack" West, was a featherweight prizefighter called "Battling Jack" West, and later a stable master; he was of English and Irish descent (his own mother was an Irish immigrant). Mae's mother, Matilda Decker Doelger, was an immigrant from Germany.She had Jewish ancestry through her maternal side.Eldest of three children of John Patrick West, an occasional prizefighter and livery-stable owner, and Matilda Delker Doelger, a one-time corset and fashion model. A baby girl died before Mae was born and a girl and a boy were born after.Made her first professional appearances at Neir's Tavern (which opened in 1829 and is currently extant) in Woodhaven, Queens, New York.Guido Deiro claims that West married his father, Guido Deiro, in 1914 under an assumed name, Catherine Mae Belle West, and on the condition of secrecy. West filed for divorce from Deiro on the grounds of adultery on July 14, 1920. The divorce was granted by the Supreme Court of the State of New York on November 9, 1920.She wrote some half dozen successful plays and novels most of which were based on true facts but were so lurid and melodramatic that she had to tone them down before she could use them. She also wrote the script for her first starring film ,She Done Him Wrong and the lyrics for several, of the songs featured in the film.Lent her name to life preservers, art, graphs, album covers, statues, table radios, songs, etc. |
| Trademarks: |
Platinum blonde hair
Sparkling blue eyes
Deep husky contralto voice
Rampant double entendres. |
| Quotes: |
It's better to be looked over than overlooked.
<br />
<hr>
A hard man is good to find.
<br />
<hr>
Men are my life, diamonds are my career!
<br />
<hr>
When women go wrong, men go right after them!
<br />
<hr>
When caught between two evils I generally pick the one I've never tried before. |
| Salaries: |
Myra Breckinridge (1970) - $350,000 for 10 days work
<br />
<hr>
Belle of the Nineties (1934) - $400,000
<br />
<hr>
I'm No Angel (1933) - $300,000
<br />
<hr>
She Done Him Wrong (1933) - $130,000
<br />
< |
| Job title: |
Actress,Writer,Soundtrack |
| Others works: |
(1921) Playwright: "Frisco Kate". Later co-wrote with Victor McLaglen the screenplay for director Raoul Walsh's Klondike Annie (1936), in which she also appeared.
(1911) Stage: Appeared (as "Maid") on Broadway in "A La Broad |
| Spouse: |
Guido Deiro (1914 - November 9, 1920) (divorced)Frank Wallace (April 11, 1911 - July 23, 1942) (divorced) |
| Parents: |
John Patrick West
Matilda Doelger |
|
