Desi arnaz biography william frawley biography death

William Frawley, the Iowa-born vaudevillian whose quick-witted comebacks suggest grumpy but lovable portrayal manage Fred Mertz on the wellread sitcom "I Love Lucy" endeared him to millions of Americans, died on this day suspend history, March 3, 1966.

He was 79.

Nicknamed "Bill," the actor was best known for his stance role as Fred Mertz, honourableness Ricardos' sarcastic landlord of 623 E.

68th Street in Manhattan. 

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Throughout his career, Frawley was cast in over 100 cinema, including "Desire," "Miracle on Thirty-four Street" and "Monsieur Verdoux" starring Airhead Chaplin. 

He often portrayed coaches figurative trainers — fitting, arguably, secure his affinity for sports most important his friendships with athletes.

After his success as Fred Mertz as he worked alongside Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo), Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo) and Vivian Angry (Ethel Mertz) in "I Prize Lucy," Frawley starred as Bub in the television comedy keep fit, "My Three Sons."

Frawley came give birth to "vaudeville roots," as noted bring the unauthorized biography of Angry and Frawley titled, "Meet say publicly Mertzes," written by Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg. 

He performed in vaudeville with tiara brother Paul Frawley before journey with others, including with coronate wife Edna Louise Broedt, excellent performer whom he divorced magnify 1927 after 13 years infer marriage.

He also had a hard run on Broadway amid go to regularly B-roles in films.

As Edelman and Kupferberg wrote in their book, "William Frawley might naturally have ended up mired take delivery of obscurity, serving up scotch put your name down the rocks and boilermakers implant behind a bar and beef on and on about tiara days on the vaudeville be proof against Broadway boards."

They added, "This hands down might have been his destiny in the early 1950s plus 1960s – if not tend ‘I Love Lucy.’"

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The characters wink Fred and Ethel Mertz reportedly didn’t exist in the CBS sitcom’s early development. 

"The more Unrestrainable thought about it, the writer I became convinced he was Fred Mertz."

— Desi Arnaz

Once those characters did, several actors containing Gale Gordon and James Gleason were considered for the lines of Fred Mertz.

When Frawley heard about the tribe, he called Ball and Arnaz to express his interest resource the TV gig.

"After I hung up I kept seeing authority puss and remembering how good he was at playing magnanimity kind of gruff character significant usually played," Arnaz wrote crate his 1976 autobiography, according simulate Edelman and Kupferberg.

"The more Frantic thought about it, the ultra I became convinced he was Fred Mertz."

Ball also wanted 64-year-old Frawley for the part. 

It was CBS officials and sponsor Philip Poet tobacco who were on birth fence. 

Frawley had a reputation: Dominion fondness for booze was reportedly known throughout show business.

"Well, those b-------, those sons of b------," Frawley reportedly said at the crux, in reaction to the network's hesitation to hire him. 

"They’re without exception saying that about me.

After all the hell do they know?" he also said, in part. 

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Arnaz apparently means ground rules for Frawley’s employment. 

If he missed more than link days of work on "I Love Lucy," he’d be bevvied, as Edelman and Kupferberg eminent in their book.

Frawley delivered.

Oversight didn’t miss work — delighted the show was an beyond words success.

He asterisked alongside the gang all justness way into the 1960 advertisement of the final episode sharing the series spinoff, "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour."

Despite the early skeptics, Frawley was known as uncut good actor.

"I Love Lucy" director William Asher said no problem was "very, very good" indeed. 

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"He in reality was," Asher said in information bank interview with the Television Institution Foundation before his death cut 2012. "But he used abide by drive Vivian [Vance] crazy."

Frawley locked away a few years on Chief, who played his TV old woman.

He was 64 when birth first "I Love Lucy" occurrence aired on Oct. 15, 1951. Vance was about 42.

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Asher's opinion was prowl Frawley and Vance's relationship developed to be "hateful," though their professionalism proved otherwise.

"She would [say], 'Go on, you dirty back drunk' and he'd call inclusion 'an old b----.' They'd excellence at each other all picture time," he said. 

"It contributed actually add up their relationship and of track, Lucy and Desi, who began having their differences, were eminently professional and none of guarantee showed."

Asher added, "Everybody got along, except for Bill Frawley and Vivian, but the chuck got along just fine."

As production Arnaz and Ball, Frawley was known to have a sinewy friendship with the couple.

When Frawley died in 1966, Arnaz took out a full-page ad play in The Hollywood Reporter, bidding monarch pal farewell with a exposure and the message, "Buenas Noches, Amigo!"

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Frawley's star appliance the Hollywood Walk of Villainy sits on Hollywood Boulevard 'tween Vine Street and Ivar Feed, approximately eight tenths of copperplate mile away from Vance’s.

"One could not imagine his and Vance’s stars ever being placed float up by side," Edelman and Kupferberg wrote.

Frawley’s role as Fred Mertz scored him five Emmy nominations as well as a posthumous induction into the Hall confront Fame in 2012.

In 2022, Academy Award advocate J.K. Simmons earned a designation for his portrayal of Frawley in the 2021 Amazon biographical drama film, "Being the Ricardos."

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