Why do we love Lucy?

Lucille Ball's gift for physical comedy, honed on the MGM backlot by comedy master, Buster Keaton, set the mark for generations of comedians to follow. Whether she was hawking Vitameatavegamin, working on a chocolate assembly line or stomping grapes, Lucy's onscreen antics remain brilliantly timeless. As a teenager, Lucy made frequent trips to New York City to break into show business. After stints as a model and Ziegfeld Girl, a blonde Lucy shared the screen with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers in RKO's Stage Door (1937). While under contract at RKO, toiling in B movies, Lucy, a true DOL, met and fell in love with six-years-younger Cuban bandleader Desi Arnaz. Nearing 40 and realizing that her movie career was stalled, Lucy turned her eye toward television.

Lucy was more than a dizzy redhead, she, along with Desi, was a television pioneer. Their show, I Love Lucy, became the model for television sitcoms. They insisted the show be shot on film instead of the lesser quality kinescope, when CBS balked at the expense, the couple took a cut in salary in exchange for full ownership of the show. Thus was Desilu Studios born. The show ran for six years (1951-1957), was number one for four years, and can still be seen in syndication today. Following I Love Lucy, Lucy and Desi divorced, and she purchased his interest in the company. Lucy ran Desilu herself, becoming the first woman to head a major studio. She continued to perform, mounting three more sitcoms and appearing in movies, remaining everyone's favorite redhead, groundbreaker, and role model for anyone in comedy or television for another 30 years.

Biography:

Born - August 6, 1911
Celoron, New York
Died - April 26, 1989
Los Angeles, California

Achievements:

• Was the first woman to own her own film studio
• Nominated for 13 Emmy awards
• Won four Emmy awards: Best Comedienne - 1953, Best Actress - Continuing Performance for I Love Lucy - 1956, Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series for the Lucille Ball Show - 1967, 1968
• Three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Best TV Actress - Musical/Comedy (1968, 1970, 1972)
• Two-time Golden Globe Award nominee for Best Motion Picture Actress - Musical/Comedy: Yours, Mine and Ours, 1968 and Mame, 1974
• Awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award by the Hollywood Foreign Press at the Golden Globes in 1979
• Awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy at the 1987 American Comedy Awards
• 1988 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, Harvard University
• 1989 Career Achievement Award presented by the Television Critics Association
• 1989 Governor's Award presented by The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences