Lucille Ball

LUCILLE DESIREE BALL

Lucille Desiree Ball was born August 6, 1911 (Jamestown, New York, USA).

While in acting school her peers, Betty Davis among them, seemed more fortunate, and her teacher told her that she had "no future as an actress." However, she began working, appearing first on Broadway and then moving to Hollywood to get a role in a movie. After signing a contract with RKO Pictures, she got a few good roles ("High Society," 1935; "Dance Girl," 1940), but mostly played small roles in second-rate films. In the 1940s she signed a contract with MGM, but did not achieve much, and in Hollywood she was called a "second-rate queen."

In 1940, Ball met Cuban musician Desi Arnaz among the actors in Too Many Girls (1940). After a dizzying romance, the couple married. A few years later, Ball starred in the radio comedy My Favorite Husband. In 1950, CBS offered to make a pilot television version of the show. Ball and Arnaz wanted starring roles, but CBS felt that audiences were not ready for a Cuban married to an American woman. In the end, the couple persuaded to let them play, taking professional and financial risks. "I Love Lucy" came out in 1951 and became the model for all subsequent sitcoms. The show ran for six years, despite actor conflicts, off-shoots, stiff competition and Ball and Arnaz's two children. The couple divorced in 1960, but continued to play the same roles in "The Lucy Show" and "Here and Lucy," occasionally interrupting to work in movies ("Yours, Mine and Ours," 1968; "Mame," 1974).

She died in 1989 (Los Angeles, California, USA).