Lucille Ball(1911-1989)
- Producer
- Actress
- Production Manager
The woman who will always be remembered as the crazy, accident-prone, lovable Lucy Ricardo was born Lucille Desiree Ball on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York, the daughter of Desiree Evelyn "DeDe" (Hunt) and Henry Durrell "Had" Ball. Her father died before she was four, and her mother worked several jobs, so she and her younger brother were raised by their grandparents. Always willing to take responsibility for her brother and young cousins, she was a restless teenager who yearned to "make some noise". She entered a dramatic school in New York City, but while her classmateBette Davisreceived all the raves, she was sent home; "too shy". She found some work modeling forHattie Carnegie's and, in 1933, she was chosen to be a "Goldwyn Girl" and appear in the filmRoman Scandals (1933).
She was put under contract to RKO Radio Pictures and several small roles, including one inTop Hat (1935),followed. Eventually, she received starring roles in B-pictures and, occasionally, a good role in an A-picture, like inStage Door (1937)orThe Big Street (1942).While filmingToo Many Girls (1940),she met and fell madly in love with a young Cuban actor-musician namedDesi Arnaz.Despite different personalities, lifestyles, religions and ages (he was six years younger), he fell hard, too, and after a passionate romance, they eloped and were married in November 1940. Lucy soon switched to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she got better roles in films such asDu Barry Was a Lady (1943);Best Foot Forward (1943)and theKatharine Hepburn-Spencer TracyvehicleWithout Love (1945).In 1948, she took a starring role in the radio comedy "My Favorite Husband", in which she played the scatterbrained wife of a Midwestern banker. In 1950, CBS came knocking with the offer of turning it into a television series. After convincing the network brass to let Desi play her husband and to sign over the rights to and creative control over the series to them, work began on the most popular and universally beloved sitcom of all time.
WithI Love Lucy (1951),she and Desi promoted the 3-camera technique now the standard in filming sitcoms using 35mm film (the earliest known example of the 3-camera technique is the first Russian feature film, "Defence of Sevastopol" in 1911). Desi syndicated I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball was the first woman to own her own studio as the head of Desilu Productions.
Lucille Ball died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, age 77, of an acute aortic aneurysm on April 26, 1989 in Los Angeles, CA.
She was put under contract to RKO Radio Pictures and several small roles, including one inTop Hat (1935),followed. Eventually, she received starring roles in B-pictures and, occasionally, a good role in an A-picture, like inStage Door (1937)orThe Big Street (1942).While filmingToo Many Girls (1940),she met and fell madly in love with a young Cuban actor-musician namedDesi Arnaz.Despite different personalities, lifestyles, religions and ages (he was six years younger), he fell hard, too, and after a passionate romance, they eloped and were married in November 1940. Lucy soon switched to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she got better roles in films such asDu Barry Was a Lady (1943);Best Foot Forward (1943)and theKatharine Hepburn-Spencer TracyvehicleWithout Love (1945).In 1948, she took a starring role in the radio comedy "My Favorite Husband", in which she played the scatterbrained wife of a Midwestern banker. In 1950, CBS came knocking with the offer of turning it into a television series. After convincing the network brass to let Desi play her husband and to sign over the rights to and creative control over the series to them, work began on the most popular and universally beloved sitcom of all time.
WithI Love Lucy (1951),she and Desi promoted the 3-camera technique now the standard in filming sitcoms using 35mm film (the earliest known example of the 3-camera technique is the first Russian feature film, "Defence of Sevastopol" in 1911). Desi syndicated I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball was the first woman to own her own studio as the head of Desilu Productions.
Lucille Ball died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, age 77, of an acute aortic aneurysm on April 26, 1989 in Los Angeles, CA.
Producer
Actress
Production Manager
Funny Women of Television
Funny Women of Television
We salute the brilliant women behind all those unforgettable laughs on the small screen.
