Lucille Ball

Lucille Ball was an Emmy-winning actress best known for starring in I Love Lucy. Ball was raised in Jamestown, New York, with her mother and grandparents. She studied acting at the John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts in New York City before pursuing acting full time.

Ball began her career as a model and chorus girl before landing small roles in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Her breakthrough came with CBS radio’s My Favorite Husband, which led to the development of I Love Lucy, costarring then-husband Desi Arnaz. The show premiered in 1951 and quickly became one of the most popular series on television.

She went on to star on sitcoms like The Lucy Show and Here’s Lucy and became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu Productions, alongside Arnaz. Her film credits include Stage Door (1937), The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). Ball was awarded four Emmy awards throughout her career and was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1989.

Ball married Arnaz in 1940. They shared children Lucie Arnaz (born in 1951) and Desi Arnaz Jr. (born in 1953). The couple divorced in 1960. She later married Gary Morton in 1961 and remained with him until her death in 1989.

She died on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77.