Lucille Ball
Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills
Though best known as the
ditzy redheaded star of the 1950s sitcom "I Love Lucy," Lucille Ball was
also a pioneering television producer and studio executive.
From an early age, Ball dreamed of being a performer. She
took music lessons and dropped out of high school to take acting classes -- though
she was sent home when her teachers told her she was "too shy." Ball finally
landed a spot in the Ziegfeld Follies road show, and as a chorus girl in a
few Broadway musicals. She came to Hollywood and made her film debut as a
chorus girl in "Roman Scandals" (1933), starring Eddie Cantor. She played
small roles as unnamed telephone operators, college girls, fashion models
and store clerks in dozens of films for the next several years, including
"Three Little Pigskins" (1934) starring the Three Stooges; "Top Hat" (1935)
and "Follow the Fleet" (1936), both starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers;
"The Three Musketeers" (1935); "The Whole Town's Talking" (1935); and
"Room Service" (1938) starring the Marx Brothers.
One of Ball's first big films, which showcased her acting
ability and her natural talent for comedy, was "Stage Door" (1937), an ensemble
drama about a boardinghouse full of aspiring actresses, also starring Katharine
Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Ann Miller and Eve Arden. While starring in "Too Many
Girls" (1940), Ball met Desi Arnaz, a Cuban bandleader and rhumba singer
who had a role in the film as a football player. They were married seven
months later, but spent most of the first 10 years of their marriage
apart -- Arnaz was traveling with his band, and Ball was appearing in films
including "The Big Street" (1942), "Du Barry Was a Lady" (1943), "Lured"
(1947), "Sorrowful Jones" (1949), "Fancy Pants" (1950) and "The Fuller Brush
Girl" (1950). To remedy the situation, Ball and Arnaz came up with the
During its six-year, 153-episode run, "I Love Lucy" became
one of the most popular television series in history, with some of the
most memorable slapstick scenes -- Ball trying to do a commercial for a
vitamin drink and getting tipsy from the high alcohol content, Ball adding
too much yeast to a recipe and getting trapped in her kitchen by a monster
loaf of bread, and Ball working in a candy factory and trying to keep up when
the conveyer belt goes faster and faster.
Ball and Arnaz were divorced in 1960, and Ball took over
Desilu -- the first woman in Hollywood to run a studio. Ball returned
to television in "The Lucy Show" from 1962 to 1968, and "Here's Lucy"
from 1968 to 1974. She has an ill-fated fourth series, "Life With Lucy,"
which lasted only one season in 1986. Ball appeared in several more films
in the 1960s, the most popular being "Yours, Mine and Ours" (1968), which
co-starred Henry Fonda and inspired another long-running sitcom, "The Brady
Bunch." Her last film was "Mame" (1974).
Ball married nightclub comedian Gary Morton in 1961. The
plaque over her grave also contains the name "Morton." Buried next to Ball
is her mother, Desiree E. Ball (1892 - 1977).
Ball was born Lucille Desiree Ball on Aug. 6, 1911, in
Celoron, NY. She died on April 26, 1989, in Los Angeles, CA.
1911 - 1989
NOTE: Although Lucy was originally buried at Forest Lawn, her remains were moved in 2002 to Lake
View Cemetery in Jamestown, N.Y., near her hometown.
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