Today August 6 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of comedy legend Lucille Ball. Lucy was born in Jamestown, New York, on August 6, 1911. The stagestruck teenager began her show business career as early as 1926. She got jobs in chorus lines but got fired from them, then made a successful career as a model. In 1929 she became ill with rheumatoid arthritis and spent two years in hospitals and a wheelchair, returning in 1932 to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. By 1933, she was appearing in small parts for United Artists, Columbia, and RKO pictures. She appeared in a 1934 Three Stooges short, Three Little Pigskins. In 1937, she landed a part in the film Stage Door and her career took off. Most of her roles at this stage were wise-cracking dames. There were a few dramatic roles in such films as Five Came Back in 1939, The Big Street in 1942, and The Dark Corner in 1946. Also in 1946 she stole the show in MGM's Easy to Love. Things started to move in the right direction for Lucy in the late 40s with a string of successful starring roles in Miss Grant Takes Richmond in 1949, The Fuller Brush Girl in 1949, Sorrowful Jones in 1949, and Fancy Pants in 1950, co-starring with Bob Hope. In 1951 Lucy and her husband, Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, decided on the strength of a running skit they had performed on his recent cross-country tour, to draw up a format for a television show together. The result was I love Lucy, which debuted in October 1951 and quickly became the most popular TV comedy series of its time. The show was a consistent hit throughout its six-year run. From 1962 to 1974 Lucy starred in two other successful TV series, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. Lucy attempted a TV comeback in 1986 with a new series, Life With Lucy. But the series was cancelled within two months. Her last public appearance, just one month before her death, was at the 1989 Academy Awards telecast in which she and fellow presenter, Bob Hope, were given a standing ovation. Lucille Ball died of heart failure on On April 26, 1989. She was 77 years old. Her ashes were initially interred in Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles but in 2002 her children moved her remains to the family plot at Lake View Cemetery in Jamestown, New York.
at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989
just four weeks before her death
No comments:
Post a Comment