2. Mae West was famous for her frank sexual talk, but she was tamed by a handsome dancer 30 years younger than her
She may not have been the original Hollywood siren, but Mae West was certainly the most outspoken and outrageous. Born in New York in 1893, she only made the first of her 12 films at the age of 40. However, she became a legend, partly due to her vibrant personality and tell-all approach to love and sex. Over the course of her life, she took a string of lovers, both famous – including Cary Grant, whose early career she nurtured – and not-so-famous and had a particular fondness for younger men.
In the end, however, West fell for a beefy wrestler called Paul Novak. The pair met when he was working in the chorus line, touring American in one of West’s Las Vegas-inspired acts. Despite being almost 30 years her junior, they became inseparable. Indeed, they were still together when West died in 1980 at the ripe old age of 87. It was Novak who insisted that the Hollywood icon be given an open casket funeral – according to her younger lover, even in death she looked a good 20 years younger than her real age.