Editing Ferdinand Waldo Demara (section)

== Later life ==
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Demara had various friendships with a wide variety of notable people during his life, including a close relationship with actor [[Steve McQueen]], to whom Demara delivered last rites in November 1980.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Hillel |author-link=Hillel Schwartz (historian) |title=The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Facsimiles |date=2 November 2014 |location=New York |publisher=Zone Books |page=61 |isbn=9781935408451}}</ref> Tony Curtis, on the Tom Snyder television show, claimed that his favorite role was not the "[[Boston Strangler]]", nor his role in the renowned comedy ''[[Some Like it Hot]]'', but his role in the movie ''The Great Impostor'', portraying Demara.

When Demara's past exploits and infamy were discovered in the late 1970s, he was almost dismissed from the Good Samaritan Hospital of Orange County in [[Anaheim, California]], where he worked as a visiting chaplain. Chief of Staff Philip S. Cifarelli, who had developed a close personal friendship with Demara, personally vouched for him and Demara was allowed to remain as chaplain. Demara was a very active and appreciated minister, serving a variety of patients in the hospital. Few of those with whom he interacted at the hospital knew of his colorful past. Due to limited financial resources and his friendships with Cifarelli and Jerry Nilsson, one of the major owners of the hospital, Demara was allowed to live in the hospital until his death, even after illness forced him to stop working for them in 1980.

Demara died on June 7, 1982, at the age of 60 due to heart failure and complications from his diabetic condition, which had required both of his legs to be amputated. According to his obituary in ''[[The New York Times]]'', he had been living in [[Orange County, California]], for eight years. He died at West Anaheim Community Hospital.<ref name="nyt" />