His Fred Mertz role lasted until the show ended in 1960, after which he did a five-year stint on My Three Sons (1960). Poor health forced his retirement. He collapsed of a heart attack on March 3, 1966, aged 79, walking along Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a movie. He is buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery.
Vance's Ethel Mertz character was the landlady of a New York City apartment that she and her husband Fred owned on East 68th Street. The role of Fred Mertz was played by William Frawley, who was actually 22 years her senior.
I Love Lucy. By 1951, the 64-year-old Frawley had appeared in over 100 movies, but was starting to find film role offers becoming fewer. When he heard that Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were casting a new television situation comedy, he applied eagerly to play the role of the cantankerous, miserly landlord Fred Mertz.
Vance did not fit Ball's mold and idea of Ethel Mertz — Vance had an extensive and successful theater career as a leading lady. Vance was attractive, confident and at 42, she was only two years older than Ball. Ultimately Ball agreed to give Vance a try and discovered she and Vance had instant chemistry on screen.
On July 17, 1951, less than three weeks prior to her 40th birthday, Ball gave birth to daughter Lucie Désirée Arnaz. A year and a half later, she gave birth to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Lucy and Ethel were neighbours and best friends on the beloved sitcom, I Love Lucy. The two were constantly getting into trouble with all of Lucy's crazy schemes! I remember growing up watching these two in reruns and never failing to laugh at their antics!
Agents and studio executives misinformed Ball regarding Vance's desires, believing that she wanted to be Ball's equal. It was decided not to meet Vance's requests, leaving both Ball and Vance feeling betrayed by the other. As a result, Vance decided to leave the series.
William was already hard to get along with in the industry and his propensity for drinking only made it all harder. It was a miracle in itself that Frawley even got the role of Fred Mertz, though the actor didn't seem to have treated the role with much respect if his refusal to give up alcohol is any indication.
Desi Arnaz—whom she divorced in May 1960—was worth $20 million at the time of his death, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Arnaz, a regular cigarette smoker, died three years before Ball on December 2, 1986, from lung cancer.
What was the age difference between Desi and Lucy?
They both also lied about their ages on the certificates to make the age gap between them a year, instead of the actual six. Lucy claimed to be 26, and Desi bumped his age up to 25, even though he was only 23 at the time. Both Lucy and Desi were extremely jealous, possessive, and hot-tempered.
It is thought that Fred and Ethel were a couple for about a year before they eloped, as Fred once remarks that he has been buying Ethel birthday presents for 26 years. This, of course, is one year longer than their longstanding 25-year marriage period.
Enrique Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha III (portrayed by Desi Arnaz) was born sometime between 1917 and 1921. (He was said to be 35 in 1952, but he was then said to be 36 in 1957 when he bought his house in Connecticut.) Ricky was born in West Havana, Cuba.
Despite The Lucy Show running from 1962–1968, Vivian decided the commute to work was just too much. Relatable? So much. Indeed, traveling from Connecticut, where she lived, to Hollywood, Calif., wasn't working anymore for the now-older actor.
Vivian Vance, the Ethel Mertz of I Love Lucy and one of the most beloved comediennes in television, died Friday at her home in northern California after a long fight against cancer. She was 66.
In her 1989 memoir, Love, Lucy, Ball revealed that she filed for divorce from Arnaz due to his drinking problem and alleged infidelity. “Desi's nightlife had even blasé Hollywood talking,” she wrote.
Back in 1952, when TV couples still slept in separate beds side by side, actress and star of hit sitcom I Love Lucy Lucille Ball discovered she was pregnant. She and real-life husband Desi Arnaz, who was also her husband on TV, went to the network to tell them, assuming the show would be canceled.
The "I Love Lucy" episode when Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky - later played by young drumming prodigy Keith Thibodeaux - aired on the same day that Lucille Ball had a Caesarian section to deliver Desi Arnaz Jr. It was all on purpose, Arnaz Jr.
