During the 1970s, Mae West appeared in two more movies. The first, "Myra Breckinridge," was a comedy about a man who has a sex-change operation and goes to Hollywood. But Rotten Tomatoes reviews cared little for the work of director Michael Sarne. In West's last film, "Sextette," the 87-year-old's co-stars included Alice Cooper, George Hamilton, Ringo Starr, and Tony Curtis. The whole movie, according to American Masters, was a totally senseless yet hilarious romp. Actress Natasha Lyonne calls it a "radical power move — very, very rare." In her own way, the shock value of the film was West's final say about America's askew values.
In 1980, the Los Angeles Times reported that the legendary actress had died at her Hollywood apartment after a stroke. At her bedside were her longtime companion Paul Novak, her fan club president Dolly Dempsey, as well as a priest who gave Mae's last rites. Per the Los Angeles Times, Novak vowed to "give her the greatest Hollywood funeral we've ever had." But Novak changed his mind, and UPI reports that her funeral was a quiet, invitation-only affair at Forest Lawn Memorial Park instead. Today, according to Find a Grave, Mae West rests in her family's mausoleum in Brooklyn. She is gone but not forgotten; in 2020, PBS's American Masters produced "Dirty Blonde," a documentary about West's illustrious life and career.
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