Lucille Ball

American actress and noted comedienne with more than 50 films from her debut in 1933. Originally a brunette, she was nicknamed Tessie Technicolor for her flaming red dyed hair as she became Queen of the B pictures. Lucille was the daughter of a telephone lineman who died when she was four. When her mom remarried, she was left in the care of in-laws in upstate New York. To keep her under control, they put a dog collar on her and leashed her to an overhead wire in the backyard. At 12 she made her first attempt to run away from home. At 15, she made it, heading for New York to be a movie star. With plain brown hair but a great shape, she was hired and fired from a number of jobs. Within a year Lucy was modeling, but at 17, she came down with rheumatic fever. She spent two years as an invalid. At 20, back on her feet, she got a small movie role, as a slave girl in a flashy 1933 musical called "Roman Scandals." Frantic for fame, she toed her mark, knew her lines and dyed her hair the color of boiled shrimp. She began playing roles as the leading lady's smart-ass sidekick. As a 29-year-old contract player, she met 23-year-old Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz on the set of a film called "Too Many Girls," which later proved an ironic omen. They married six months later, 1940. A decade later Lucy was starring on radio in the popular CBS show "My Favorite Husband." Desi was spending much of the time on the road playing rumba gigs and looking for hot tamales. When the network launched a version of the show for the new medium of TV, she insisted that Desi be cast as her spouse, considering that they might salvage their marriage if he was working locally. The result was magic. From a debut on 10/15/1951, 9:00 PM, New York, NY, "I Love Lucy" in its six-year run made perfect use of Ball's vibrant talent with Desi as the ideal foil, becoming the most successful comedy series on TV and earning millions for the production company. Every week 40 million viewers watched the onscreen antics of the Ricardo family and Lucy gained the reputation of being one of the world's greatest female clowns. Lucie was born in 1951, three months before the show debut, and Desi Jr. in 1953. Off-screen, Lucy and Desi had a tempestuous love affair that survived through Desi's drinking, gambling and infidelity for 20 years until 1962, when they divorced. A multi-millionaire with the Desilu Studio, Lucy was a shrewd and highly competent production executive. She bought out Desi for $2.5 million and was the sole owner of the world's largest production facility for seven years. Some years later she sold the corporation to Gulf and Western for $17 million. Desi died of cancer in 1986, and in his teens, Desi Jr. hit the drug scene, Daughter Lucie did well on stage. Lucy married comedian Gary Morton in 1963 and they had 28 years together. On 4/19/1989, Ball complained of chest pains. At the hospital, the doctor diagnosed a dissecting aortic aneurysm and she underwent heart surgery. She died on 4/26/1989, 5:47 AM, Los Angeles when her aorta ruptured again. In 1994 her hand-written biography was found and published two years later. TV has the reruns of 179 hilarious half-hours. Lucy said "I've had a sensational 25 years. It's nice to have entertained five generations." At the approach of her 90th birthday, late TV legend Lucille Ball will get her own U.S. postage stamp. Link to Wikipedia biography