Lucille Ball

Career Before Lucy

Ball briefly studied acting at John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City (along with classmate Bette Davis) before being sent home after she was told she lacked talent. Soon after, she became a successful stage performer and spokesmodel, hawking, among other products, Chesterfield cigarettes.

In the 1930s, she moved to Hollywood, where she was cast in a variety of small roles or parts in B-grade genre movies. In 1940, Ball met Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz, and they married later that year.

In 1948, Ball was cast on the radio show My Favorite Husband, playing a wacky housewife. CBS wanted to turn the radio show into a project for TV, and after Ball insisted that a part be found for her husband, the concept for I Love Lucy was born.

I Love Lucy

Lucy ran for six seasons, from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957. It is now regarded as one of the greatest and most innovative TV series of all time, inventing the 3-camera format that has remained the most familiar sitcom style, and introducing a variety of other concepts that have become TV mainstays.

Arnaz and Ball produced the show themselves through their Desilu Productions company, and also worked on other TV series, including Our Miss Brooks and Mission: Impossible.

After Lucy

Ball and Arnaz divorced three years after the end of Lucy in 1960. Ball returned to the theater, touring in a production of the musical Wildcat (for which she famously performed the song "Hey, Look Me Over") and appearing in the films Yours, Mine and Ours, Mame and others.

She starred in two more successful sitcoms, The Lucy Show, which ran from 1962–68, and Here's Lucy, in which she starred with her two children.

In 1986, she returned to TV again with the series Life With Lucy, but it only lasted a few episodes. In 1989, Ball died after suffering from a dissecting aortic aneurysm.