Lucille Ball Biography

Television comedienne and film actress. Born on August 6, 1911, in Celaron, New York. Lucille Ball is considered to be one of the best comediennes ever. She left high school to become a stage actress. Her early efforts were unsuccessful and she turned to modeling (as Diane Belmont). After struggling in New York, she made the move to Hollywood in the 1930s. Her first film role was in Roman Scandals (1933). She appeared in many later films and on radio shows, usually in small roles.

Lucille Ball achieved her greatest success as part of a team with her husband Desi Arnaz, the Cuban-born bandleader. Beginning in 1951, the couple worked together to play the zany middle-class couple, Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, in television's prototypical situation comedy I Love Lucy. With near perfect timing and a genius for ad-libbing, the red-haired Ball cruised through 179 episodes of the original sitcom as a ditzy housewife. The 1953 episode in which she gave birth to “Little Ricky,” filmed to coincide with delivery of her real-life son, was said to have attracted more viewers than the concurrent inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Desilu Productions, which she and Arnaz founded in 1950, was a successful independent producer of television shows before Gulf-Western acquired it.

After divorcing Arnaz in 1960, Lucille Ball appeared on Broadway in Wildcat (1961), then played solo in two other successful sitcoms, The Lucy Show (1962–8) and Here's Lucy (1968–73). She continued to appear on television specials almost to her death. She died on April 26, 1989.