Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball Facts
| Sign | Leo |
| Born |
Aug 6, 1911 Jamestown, NY |
| Died |
Apr 26, 1989 Beverly Hills, CA |
| Age | Died at 77 |
| Total Facts | 76 |
A comment from a member of the preview audience of Follow the Fleet (1936) about bit-player Ball: "You might give the tall gum chewing blonde more parts and see if she can't make the grade - a good gamble."
Appears on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early Television Memories issue with Vivian Vance, as Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz, in a scene from "I Love Lucy: Job Switching (#2.1)" (1952). The stamp was issued 11 August 2009.
Ball and Barbara Pepper met early in their careers when they were both "Goldwyn Girls" and remained lifelong friends.
Became very good friends with Maureen O'Hara during the making of Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) and continued being friends until Ball's death. O'Hara was with Lucille when Lucille first met her husband Desi Arnaz.
Before her movie career, Lucille was a model at Hattie Carnegie's in New York. She mainly modeled heavy fur coats, because she was startlingly thin as a young lady.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 63-66. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 35-37. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387.
Born a brunette.
Born at 5:00 pm.
Comedian John Belushi was a fan of her and knew every detail of her life and career.
Died the morning of April 26, 1989, the fifty-sixth birthday of her friend Carol Burnett. That afternoon Burnett received the flowers that Ball had ordered for her birthday.
Disliked any false form of a bird, she preferred to see them in person so she banned all pictures of birds from her house and any hotel room she was staying in.
During a Barbara Walters interview, Jane Fonda claimed that her father, Henry Fonda, was deeply in love with Lucille Ball and that the two were "very close" during the filming of Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).
During the 1933 filming of Roman Scandals (1933), young Lucille Ball, portraying a slave girl, needed to have her eyebrows entirely shaved off. They never grew back.
Felt that she did not deserve the title of "Queen of Comedy" and felt that it belonged to her idol, Carole Lombard.
Filed for a divorce from husband Desi Arnaz, the day following the last day of filming "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" (1957). [3 March 1960]
First cousin of Cleo Morgan, though they were raised as sisters.
For many years during their marriage, Lucy and Desi Arnaz hid the fact that she was six years older than he by splitting the difference in their ages. She (born in 1911) said she was born in 1914 and he (born in 1917) also said he was born in 1914.
Had a superstition about the letters A and R, which is why her character was named Lucy RicARdo in "I Love Lucy" (1951); Lucy CARmichael in "The Lucy Show" (1962); Lucy CARter in "Here's Lucy" (1968) and Lucy BARker in "Life with Lucy" (1986) (she was also married to 'Desi ARnaz'). She believed she didn't have luck in her career until she changed her name to Arnaz.
Her 1960 divorce from Desi Arnaz was quite amicable. They divided their $20 million television empire equally, each retaining 25% Desilu stock (282,800 shares),she got the homes in Beverly Hills and Rancho Mirage, and Desi got the beach house in Del Mar, California and his Horse Ranch in Corona, California. In addition they agreed to joint custody of their children with him paying $450/month child support.
Her biological father died when she was three years old. Henry Durell Ball was a telephone lineman for the Bell Company. Lucy's mother, DeDe Ball, was pregnant with her second child (younger brother Fred) when Henry contracted typhoid fever and died in February of 1915.
Her favorite movie she made was The Big Street (1942). Up to her dying day, she resented AMPAS for not recognizing her performance in the movie by including her for an Academy Award nomination.
Her younger brother, 'Fred Ball (II)' (1915-2007), moved from their hometown of Jamestown, NY, to join Lucy in Hollywood in the 1930s. Fred often accompanied Desi Arnaz's band on tour during the 1940s and 1950s, and was also on the Board of Directors of Desilu Productions. In later years Fred and his wife Zo operated a motel in Cottonwood, AZ, where he died. Fred also shared the same birthday as his niece Lucie Arnaz.
In 1958, in order to raise funds for their various investments, she and Desi Arnaz took Desilu public on the NYSE at $10 per share. She and Desi each retained 25% of the company, while each selling 25%. She took her $2,500,000 windfall, paid $600,000 in capital gains taxes and, always frugal, invested the remainder into bonds and securities.
In 1962 she purchased Desi Arnaz's holdings in Desilu holdings for $3 million, as he wanted to retire to his horse ranch in Corona, CA, and lead a more stress-free life.
In 1966 it was reported in an annual stockholder's meeting that her salary as President of Desilu Productions (1962-1967) was $100,000. Her acting fees for 1966 were $130,172.
In 1968 she was reported to be the richest woman in television, having earned an estimated $30 million.
In Italy, her films were often dubbed by Lidia Simoneschi or Wanda Tettoni, notably in the hilarious The Long, Long Trailer (1953). She was occasionally dubbed by Rosetta Calavetta, Dhia Cristiani, Rina Morelli and Renata Marini (in Stage Door (1937)).
In July 1967 she sold Desilu Productions, consisting of 36 sound stages, 2000 employees and 62 acres adjacent to Paramount, to Gulf + Western Industries for $17 million. She received $10 million in Gulf + Western stock for her 60% of Desilu, the remaining $7 million being distributed to 3878 stockholders.
Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2002.
Lucy and Desi Arnaz began "I Love Lucy" (1951) in the hopes of saving their crumbling marriage.
Lucy and Desi Arnaz were married a second time in 1946 in a church because his mother believed that the reason they didn't have children yet was because they were never married in the Catholic Church.
Lucy and Desi Arnaz were married at the Byram River Beagle Club in Connecticut in 1940.
Lucy and her son, Desi Arnaz Jr., appeared together on the very first cover of "TV Guide" magazine in 1953.
Lucy filed for divorce from Desi Arnaz in the 1940s, but didn't go through with it because they reconciled.
Lucy launched the movie producer career of David Winters, one of the stars of West Side Story, whose first producer job was to co-produce and choreographed her Lucy in London 1966 TV Special.
Measurements: 33-22 1/2 -34 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
Mother of Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr..
Not long after the Arnazes bought their house on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills, it was featured in an episode of "I Love Lucy" (1951) (the one where Richard Widmark guest stars and she climbs over the fence to pick a grapefruit).
Once registered as a voter for the Communist party as a favor to her grandfather Frederick Charles Hunt (July 24, 1865-January 9, 1944).
One of her last television appearances was in 1989 on the 62nd Academy Awards, with Bob Hope, announcing the nominations and winner of Best Picture.
Originally interred at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California, USA, Columbarium of Radiant Dawn, Court of Remembrance. In 2003, she was re-interred in the Ball family plot in Lake View Cemetery, Jamestown, New York.
Pictured on a 34¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 6 August 2001.
Profiled in "Killer Tomatoes: Fifteen Tough Film Dames" bu Ray Hagen and Laura Wagner (McFarland, 2004).
Profiled in book "Funny Ladies" by Stephen Silverman. [1999]
Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award posthumously in 1990.
Related by marriage to Sid Gould.
Related by marriage to Vanda Barra.
Second cousin of actress Suzan Ball.
She named herself Diane Belmont after the Belmont racetrack in New York.