Heath recalled in 2001 that as an adult he lived "seven years in Manhattan, seven years in Chicago and seven years in Connecticut", in the town of Westport, before moving to California in 1978. There he worked as an animator for Saturday-morning TV cartoons and later did commissioned art for comics fans. A rare example of Heath working on super-hero material was his inking Michael Golden's penciled artwork on "Mister Miracle" #24 and 25. Heath and writer Cary Bates launched "The Lone Ranger" comic strip on September 13, 1981. His last comic-book story was penciling and inking the four-page flashback sequence of the 22-page story "The Mortal Iron Fist, Conclusion", in Marvel Comics' "The Immortal Iron Fist" #20 (Jan. 2009) He went on to provide cover art for publisher Aardvark-Vanaheim's satiric comic book "glamourpuss" #11–13 (Jan.–May 2010), with his last known published comics work the one-page illustration "That Russ Heath Girl #4", appearing in issue #19 (May 2011). He lived in Van Nuys, California, where in his 80s he had knee surgery after The Hero Initiative and the Comic Art Professional Society of Los Angeles raised money to help pay for an operation.