Vivian Vance was an American actress best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She also starred alongside Lucille Ball in The Lucy Show from 1962 until she left the series at the end of its third season in 1965. In 1991, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is most commonly identified as Lucille Ball’s longtime comedic foil from 1951 until her death in 1979.
Vance in 1963
Cast of I Love Lucy: William Frawley, Desi Arnaz; Vivian Vance, Lucille Ball
Season-one cast of The Lucy Show: Candy Moore (in back); front, L-R: Jimmy Garrett, Lucille Ball, Vance, and Ralph Hart (1962)
Vance with Allen Case on TV's The Deputy (1959)
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons. The series starred Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley, and follows the life of Lucy Ricardo (Ball), a young, middle-class housewife living in New York City, who often concocts plans with her best friends and landlords, Ethel and Fred Mertz, to appear alongside her bandleader husband, Ricky Ricardo (Arnaz), in his nightclub. Lucy is depicted trying numerous schemes to mingle with and be a part of show business. After the series ended in 1957, a modified version of the show continued for three more seasons, with 13 one-hour specials, which ran from 1957 to 1960. It was first known as The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show, and later, in reruns, as The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour.
Lucy and Ricky climb in the Alps during their 1956 trip to Europe.
Cast members from left, standing: William Frawley, Desi Arnaz, seated: Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball
Mike (left) and Joe Mayer played Little Ricky as a toddler.
Lucille Ball with John Wayne on the set of the 1955 episode "Lucy and John Wayne"