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- Everyone loves The Ricardos’ neighbors and landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz; the talented sidekicks who were crucial to the show’s success. The constantly squabbling former vaudevillians appear in virtually every episode of the show and the actors who played them were at odds with one another. But they both became close friends of Ball and Arnaz.
www.monstersandcritics.com › movies › how-award-winning-actors-got-to-know-fred-and-ethel-mertz-in-being-the-ricardosHow award-winning actors got to know Fred and Ethel Mertz in ...
Jul 20, 2022 · Any conversation about on-screen couples who hated each other in real life has to start with them — and that's not all that was going on with the real people behind Ethel and Fred Mertz. William Frawley and Vivian Vance absolutely hated each other
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She is married to Fred Mertz, played by William Frawley, with whom she had a career in vaudeville. The two female characters are close friends, habitually scheming together; Ethel is generally the voice of reason as a counterpart to Lucy's harebrained ideas.
The biggest example would be Vivian Vance as Ethel Mertz, who was 42 when the show launched its way into America’s psyche. Ball’s daughter Lucie said Ball and Vance “adored one another,” but there were tensions behind-the-scenes.
He is a World War I veteran and is married to Ethel (Vivian Vance), and they often make fun of each other. Their wedding anniversary is May 3rd. Ethel often calls Fred a "fat old goat", and in return, Fred calls Ethel the "bottomless pit" due to her voracious appetite.
- Early Life
- Career
- Personal Life
- Death and Legacy
- Further Reading
- External Links
Vance was born in Cherryvale, Kansas, the second of six children of Robert Andrew, Sr., and Euphemia Mae (née Ragan) Jones. When she was six, her family moved to Independence, Kansas, where she eventually began her dramatic studies at Independence High School with instructor Anna Ingleman. Her love of acting clashed with her mother's strict religio...
Broadway
Starting in 1932, Vance was in a number of shows on Broadway, usually as a member of the chorus. Eventually, she graduated to supporting parts after understudying Ethel Merman as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes. (She and Merman would appear together in an episode of The Lucy Showmany decades later.) Vance succeeded Kay Thompson in the musical Hooray for What! (1937). Her most successful stage role was that of Nancy Collister in the Cole Porter musical Let's Face It! (1941), alongside Danny Kaye...
Film
Following her appearance in a revival of The Cradle Will Rock in 1947, Vance decided to move to California to pursue other theatre projects and opportunities in film. During her stay in Los Angeles, Vance appeared in two films: as streetwise chambermaid Leah in The Secret Fury (1950), and as Alicia in The Blue Veil (1951). She received several positive notices for her performances, but the films did little else to further her screen career. Following her departure from The Lucy Show at the en...
Television
1951–1958: I Love Lucyand success When Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were casting their new television sitcom I Love Lucy in 1951, director Marc Daniels, who had previously worked with Vance in a theater production, suggested her for the role of landlady Ethel Mertz. Lucille Ball had wanted either Bea Benaderet or Barbara Pepper, both close friends, to play the role. CBS refused Pepper on the grounds she had a serious drinking problem, and Benaderet was already playing Blanche Morton on The Geo...
Vance was married four times; her first three marriages ended in divorce. She was married to her third husband, actor Philip Ober, for 18 years. Ober was rumored to have physically abused Vance because he was envious of her successful career. On January 16, 1961, Vance married literary agent, editor, and publisher John Dodds. They lived in Stamford...
Vance died at age 70 on August 17, 1979, of metastatic breast cancer. After her death, Desi Arnazsaid, "It’s bad enough to lose one of the great artists we had the honor and the pleasure to work with, but it’s even harder to reconcile the loss of one of your best friends." Family members donated Vance's Emmy Award to the Albuquerque Little Theatre ...
Castelluccio, Frank and Walker, Alvin. The Other Side of Ethel Mertz: The Life Story of Vivian Vance. New York: Berkley Books, 2000. ISBN 0-425-17609-6Edelman, Rob and Kupferberg, Audrey. Meet the Mertzes: The Life Stories of I Love Lucy's Other Couple. Los Angeles, Calif.: Renaissance Books, 1999. ISBN 1-58063-095-2Vivian Vance at the Internet Broadway DatabaseVivian Vance at IMDbThe man who achieved television immortality as Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy was born in Burlington, Iowa, on February 26, 1887. As a young boy, William Clement Frawley sang in the choir at St....
Apr 16, 2023 · William Frawley portrayed landlord Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy. Fred was a bit cranky and also a bit older than his wife, Ethel. The character was also very cheap, which was often joked about.
