Vivian Vance

Trivia

• First person to win an Emmy Award for 'Best Supporting Actress' [1954].
• Was offered to do a spinoff of "I Love Lucy" (1951) with her costar William Frawley, but the two did not like each other at all in real life and refused to do it.
• Battled ill-health throughout much of the 1970s, beginning with a series of strokes in 1973. She died of bone cancer.
• Producer Jess Oppenheimer was quoted as saying that the infamous feud between Vance and William Frawley was exaggerated. While TV's favorite neighbors may not have been "chummy" in real life, they were professionals who for the most part treated each other with respect during rehearsals and filming.
• Vance's "I Love Lucy" (1951) co-star, William Frawley, reportedly received a unique deal for early television. His contract called for residuals from "I Love Lucy" (1951) for years after the series ended production in 1957. Unfortunately, Vance did not have a similar clause in her contract.
• Legend has it that a clause in her television contract required her to stay 10 pounds heavier than costar/producer Lucille Ball. Actually, this contract never existed, at least not in legal, binding form. It was a mock contract given to Vance by Ball as a gag gift sparking the legend it was a real contract.
• Vivian started acting when she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she took the last name "Vance" from a dramatics teacher who had been supportive of her acting career.
• A founding member of the Albuquerque Little Theater, where she played a vamp in "This Thing Called Love" and a nun in "The Cradle Song," the local theater community helped pay her way to New York. The theater in later years was eventually nicknamed The Vivian Vance Playhouse.
• Producer Vinton Freedley was preparing his next musical and offered Vivian a musical role in which she'd have to do a playful striptease. Known for her vulgar, tauntingly glamorous roles already, she turned him down lest she be typecast. The show was "Leave It to Me," the song was "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," and Mary Martin became a huge musical star as a result of it.
• Best remembered as Lucy's best friend and land lady, Ethel in "I Love Lucy" (1951).

Quotes

• "I don`t want to be a star - most of the ones I know are too unhappy."
• "When I die, there will be people who send flowers to Ethel Mertz."

Biography

Vivian Vance

Last Updated: Friday, September 04, 2009

She was born Vivian Roberta Jones, with a brother and four sisters. After the family moved from Cherryvale to Independence, Kansas, she studied drama under Anna Ingleman and William Inge. Their next move, to Albuquerque, New Mexico brought her to the Albuquerque Little Theatre, which provided her the money she needed to study under Eva Le Gallienne in New York.

After arriving in 1932 she had trouble finding stage work until she began a two-year stint in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's "Music in the Air." She next understudied Ethel Merman in the hit "Anything Goes." Her first starring role was as Kay Thompson's last minute replacement in "Hooray for What!" starring Ed Wynn. Other Broadway costars included Danny Kaye, Eve Arden and Nanette Fabray.

In 1945 while starring in a touring company of "Voice of the Turtle" she had a nervous breakdown. After undergoing psychotherapy and limited movie work, she returned to the play at the La Jolla (California) Playhouse, where she was seen by Desi Arnaz who decided she was perfect for the role of Ethel Mertz (the Arnaz' first choice, Bea Benaderet was unavailable) in the "I Love Lucy" (1951) television series.

At first she didn't want the part (too frumpy), and she always hated being cast as the wife of William Frawley (she was 42, he was 64; the two never got along). Frawley, an alcoholic and then on the professional skids, had actively campaigned for the role of Fred Mertz after learning that Gale Gordon was also unavailable. The runaway success of the series forced the two to work together, but their scenes often barely mask their mutual dislike.

After "I Love Lucy" (1951) ended she divorced her third husband, married again, and moved to Stamford, Connecticut. In 1962, she began work on a different show, "The Lucy Show" (1962), but the pressures of long-distance commuting didn't suit her, so after three years she limited her herself to guest appearances. In 1974, she and her husband moved to Belvedere (just north of Francisco Bay) so she could be near her sister. Five years later she died there, of cancer.