The 50 Most Famous People of the Century

Lucille Ball

- [Entertainer]

August 6, 1911 - April 26, 1989


We all love Lucy. Thanks to syndication, the flame-haired comedian with the huge eyes and elastic face still makes us laugh uproariously almost five decades after she first debuted as zany Lucy Ricardo. With I Love Lucy endlessly rerun over the years in more than 100 countries, it's even been suggested that her face has probably been seen by more people than that of any othter person who ever lived.

Known as the First Lady of Comedy, Ball was a brilliant slapstick performer (backed by a letter-perfect ensemble) who helped define television in its first years. For four of its six seasons (1951 - 57), I Love Lucy was the No. 1 rated show; the 1953 episode in which Little Ricky was born attracted an astounding 92% of the nation's television audience.

Lucille Ball was not, of course, Lucy Ricardo. Ball, a native of Jamestown, New York, was a second-tier Hollywood actress whose career, as she approached 40, was definitely not on the fast track. Then, after appearing in the radio comedy My Favorite Husband, CBS asked her to create a television show with the same premise. The result was I Love Lucy. Ball insisted her husband, Desi Arnaz, a Cuban bandleader she married in 1940, play her husband onscreen as well, and the result was one of the most successful teams in television history. Although the couple had two children (Lucie and Desi Jr.), the marriage did not survive; they divorced in 1960, and Ball bought out Arnaz' shares in Desilu Productions, making her the first woman to head a major studio. A second marriage, to comic Gary Morton, lasted until her death from a ruptured aorta 27 years later.

Her legacy is 179 of television's funniest episodes -- and a place as one of the most influential women in the history of the medium.


Back to the Lucy Archives

{ List of Lucy Shows | Books | Main Lucy Page | Webrings | Links | Movies | Pictures | Vivian Vance | William Frawley | Archives | The Lucy Show | News | Lucy's Bio | Quiz | Desi }