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Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, actress, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by Time in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on th…
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business · American actress (1911–1989) · television actor · film actor · comedian · television producer · film studio executive · actor · film director · producer · model · singer · also Lucille Ball, Lucy Ball, Lucille Desiree Ball, First Lady of Television,, Queen of the B Movies,, Lucille Ball Morton
Born 6 August 1911 · Died 26 April 1989 · Q209662
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“s necessary and planned caesarean section in real life was scheduled for the same date that her television character gave birth. CBS insisted that a pregnant woman could not be shown on television, nor could the word”
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“All I learned in drama school was how to be frightened.”
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“Hattie taught me how to slouch properly in a $1,000 hand-sewn sequin dress and how to wear a $40,000 sable coat as casually as rabbit.”
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Public attention spiked: 18,546 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.8× the usual 3,900, with 8 article edits. Coverage that week: “Photos of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Kids Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Through the Years” (People).
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People: Photos of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s Kids Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Through the Years
AOL: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's Love-Life Secrets Revealed: Inside Their 'Mad Affair' Cemented by Intimacy
Yahoo: Desi Arnaz's Last Message to Lucille Ball Was Incredibly Touching
Public attention spiked: 12,013 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.1× the usual 3,900, with 0 article edits.
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HELLO! Magazine: Meet Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's 2 famous children
The Cheat Sheet: Lucille Ball Lost 23 Pounds When She Took on a Stressful Dramatic Role
People: Watch Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball in Dramatic New Trailer for Being the Ricardos
As one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas
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Ball's and her mother's remains were re-interred at the Hunt family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York, in accordance with Ball's wishes to be buried near her mother
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Awarded National Women's Hall of Fame (2001).
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Snopes rated the claim “Lucille Ball picked up radio transmissions on her fillings that led to the capture of Japanese spies in California in 1942.” Unproven.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
Released album “Laughs, Luck ... and Lucy”.
Universal Studios Florida opened a walk-through attraction dedicated to Ball, Lucy – A Tribute
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And The Women's International Center's Living Legacy Award
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Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by George H. W. Bush (1989).
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Died 1989-04-26.
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Ball was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after experiencing chest pains
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Aged 77, from an abdominal aortic aneurysm brought about by arteriosclerotic heart disease
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“You see much more of your children once they leave home.”
“Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that's good taste.”
Awarded Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year (1988).
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Ball was recognized as a Kennedy Center Honors recipient
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Took on a dramatic role in the television film Stone Pillow
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Letters regarding her marriage to Morton were published: "Boy, did I pick a winner!" Ball wrote to a friend in 1983 after she married Morton in 1961. "After 19 years with that Latin lover I never expected to marry again, but I'm glad I did!"
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Lucille Ball and Gary Morton partnered to set up a film and television production house at 20th Century Fox that encompassed film and television productions as well as plans to produce plays
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“After 19 years with that Latin lover I never expected to marry again, but I”
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Hosted a two-part Three's Company retrospective, showing clips from the show's first five seasons, summarizing memorable plotlines, and commenting on her love of the show
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Ball signed a deal with NBC under Fred Silverman's watch after 28 years of working with CBS in order to deal with new comedy specials, but only one was aired as part of an agreement
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Awarded Crystal Award (1977).
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CBS paid tribute to Ball with the two-hour special CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years
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And discussed her work on I Love Lucy, and reminisced about her family history, the friends she missed from show business, and how she learned to be happy while married
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Awarded Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for The Lucy Show (1968).
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Awarded Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for The Lucy Show (1967).
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For $17,000,000 ($164 million in today's dollars), and it was renamed Paramount Television
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“The CBS people have persuaded me to take over Garry Moore”
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Lucille Ball announced her return to network radio: "The CBS people have persuaded me to take over Garry Moore's old radio spot
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Ball and her second husband, Morton, attended "Lucy Day", a celebration in her honor held by the New York World's Fair
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Became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, which produced many popular television series, including Mission: Impossible and Star Trek
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Morton and Ball married on November 19, 1961.
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Divorced; however, until his death in 1986, Arnaz and Ball remained friends and often spoke fondly of each other
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A day after Desi's 43rd birthday (and one day after filming the final episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour), Ball filed papers in Santa Monica Superior Court, claiming married life with Desi was "a nightmare" and nothing
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Was given two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: at 6436 Hollywood Boulevard, for contributions to motion pictures; and at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard, for her contribution to the arts and sciences of television
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On May 4, 1960, they divorced; however, until his death in 1986, Arnaz and Ball remained friends and often spoke fondly of each other.
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Bought out his share and became a very actively engaged studio head
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Ball became a friend and mentor to Carol Burnett
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CBS bought back the rights for $1,000,000 ($11
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The main cast continued to appear in occasional hourlong specials under the title The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour until 1960
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In October 1956, Ball, Arnaz, Vance, and William Frawley all appeared on a Bob Hope special on NBC, including a spoof of I Love Lucy, the only time all four stars were together on a color telecast.
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With Joan Caulfield in the role that Ball had on radio
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Ball met voluntarily with HUAC investigator William A
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Ball suffered a few more miscarriages before she gave birth to daughter Lucie Désirée Arnaz, a few weeks prior to her 40th birthday, on July 17, 1951.
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Ball was cast as Liz Cooper, a wacky wife in My Favorite Husband, a radio comedy for CBS Radio
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Appeared in the murder mystery Lured as Sandra Carpenter, a taxi dancer in London
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Ball starred in Lover Come Back and the film noir The Dark Corner
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Appeared in a brief but prominent role in a dance sequence in Ziegfeld Follies
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In 1944, Ball filed for divorce due to Arnaz's infidelity and drinking problems.
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Ball filed for divorce due to Arnaz's infidelity and drinking problems
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Ball portrayed herself in Best Foot Forward
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Was classified for limited service due to a knee injury
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Ball starred opposite Henry Fonda in The Big Street
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During the production of Valley of the Sun, Ball discovered she was pregnant but she suffered a miscarriage several weeks later in 1942.
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The couple purchased a five-acre ranch they called Desilu in Chatsworth, California, a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley
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Ball starred in Dance, Girl, Dance and appeared as the lead in the musical Too Many Girls, where she met and fell in love with Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, who played one of her character's four bodyguards in the movie
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Ball met Cuban-born bandleader Desi Arnaz while filming Too Many Girls
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In 1940, Ball met Cuban-born bandleader Desi Arnaz while filming Too Many Girls.
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Ball joined the cast of The Wonder Show starring Jack Haley
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With Ball playing the part of Julie Tucker, "one of three roommates coping with neurotic directors, confused executives, and grasping stars, who interfere with the girls' ability to get ahead"
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Appeared regularly on The Phil Baker Show
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Hollywood writer Rena Vale, a self-identified Communist, attended a class at an address identified to her as Ball's home according to her testimony given before the United States House of Representatives' Special House U
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At her socialist grandfather's insistence
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It was done without her knowledge or consent; [and stated that she] did not recall signing the document sponsoring EMIL FREED for the Communist Party nomination to the office of member of the assembly for the 57th Distri
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Listed her party affiliation as Communist, as did her brother and mother
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Landed the role she hoped would lead her to Broadway, in the Bartlett Cormack play Hey Diddle Diddle, a comedy set in a duplex apartment in Hollywood
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Moved back to New York City to resume her pursuit of an acting career, where she supported herself by again working for Carnegie and as the Chesterfield cigarette girl
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Her family was forced to move to a small apartment in Jamestown after their house and furnishings were sold to settle a legal judgment
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Enrolled Ball in the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts, in New York City, where Bette Davis was a fellow student
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Ball, then only 14, started dating Johnny DeVita, a 21-year-old local hoodlum
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While living in Wyandotte, Michigan, Lucy's father died of typhoid fever aged 27, when Lucy was only three years old
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Born 1911-08-06.
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