Mae West (1) (1893–1980)

Although Mae West is best known as a Hollywood screen icon, she was also a playwright. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she first made a name for herself in New York and on the vaudeville stage before she ventured into films. As a playwright, she used the pen name "Jane Mast." Her first produced play, in which she also starred, was a racy comedy-drama entitled Sex, which opened on Broadway in 1926. It was popular, but was shut down after 375 performances by the New York Police Department, and West was jailed for 10 days for obscenity and fined $500. The publicity made her famous as a "bad girl." She then wrote The Drag (1927), a drama about homosexuality that was also a success with the public but shut down by the authorities out of town -- it never made it to Broadway. West re-worked The Drag into a 1928 drama/mystery called The Pleasure Man, replacing the lead role with a heterosexual character. However, the New York police raided this show, too, and the entire cast was charged with indecency. Finally, West found success on Broadway with the hit Diamond Lil (1928); she adapted it into the 1933 film She Done Him Wrong.
West also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for
Every Day's a Holiday (1937),

Goin' to Town (1935),

I'm No Angel (1933),
Klondike Annie (1936), and My Little Chickadee (1940). She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.