Last night I was bored out of my skull and happened upon a site called Where the Stars are Buried: An introduction: Stars' Graves. That then lead me to Bill Frawley's WikiPedia page and subsequently his FIND A GRAVE memorial page.
I was surprised to see that today is his birthday- maybe Bill wanted me to look for his bio last night just because of that!
If Bill Frawley was still alive he would be 124-year-old today- he was born in 1887...the President of the United States at the time was Grover Cleveland!
(Grover Cleveland fact: when they were still in use his picture was on the $1000 bill..right click to see pic)
But sadly the world lost Bill on March 3, 1966 and in a few days it will be 45 years since he passed away.
Most all of the people you see on I Love Lucy reruns have passed on now. Vivian Vance, who played wife Ethel, died of cancer in 1979 and ten years later the world lost Lucille Ball. Desi Arnaz passed away from cancer as well in 1986.
But to watch these shows it is hard to think of these people as dead.
To give you a little background on the man that will be perpetually known as Fred Mertz long after I am dead and gone let's look at what Wikipedia says:
William Clement Frawley (February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966) was a stage and screen actor, with well over a hundred films to his credit, but gained greater fame in television as Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy and as "Uncle" Bub O'Casey on My Three Sons.
On I Love Lucy (1951) and on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957), Frawley played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo's friend and landlord Fred Mertz. He and Vivian Vance, who played his wife Ethel in the series, had great chemistry on screen, but in real life had a dislike for each other. This was attributed to her vocal resentment of having to play wife to a man 25 years her senior, which she took as an insult. When he got wind of it, it offended him so he never forgave her.The two co-stars were given the opportunity to move into their own "Fred and Ethel" spin-off once Lucy had run its course in 1960. Despite his animosity towards her, Frawley saw a lucrative opportunity and was game, but Ms. Vance nixed the idea, having no interest in ever working with Frawley again. He never forgave her for this, since the series could have made him extremely wealthy.
William Frawley next hit it big on My Three Sons 1960 in his role as "Uncle Bub" O’Casey, a role he played from 1960 to 1965. The original premise for the series was for Frawley to be the show’s star, overseeing three nieces, but the network decided to switch the kids to boys, then snapped up Disney’s top movie star Fred MacMurray as the lead when he indicated interest after they offered him a preposterously shortened work schedule, relegating Frawley to another supporting role after all.
Frawley reportedly never felt comfortable with the out-of-sequence filming method used on My Three Sons after doing I Love Lucy in sequence for years.
Most television series are filmed out of sequence, but My Three Sons was unusually so, to an almost surreal degree: each season’s episodes were arranged so that series star MacMurray could shoot all of his scenes during a single intensive two-week period; Frawley and the other actors worked around the absent MacMurray the rest of the year. It was a very different experience from the sequential filming schedule of ‘ ‘I Love Lucy’ ‘.
By almost all accounts, Frawley’s off-screen personality was not that much different from his on-screen demeanor. A notorious misanthrope, with one brief failed marriage behind him and a fondness for the bottle, he lived in the same bachelor apartment most of his years in Hollywood.
According to Desi Arnaz’s memoir "A Book", Frawley eventually lost his driver’s license due to drunk driving, and befriended a cabbie who drove him around regularly.
When deciding whether to hire Frawley for the role of Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, Arnaz made it clear to him that, if he showed up drunk for work, he would "work around it" twice, but after that, Frawley would not only be fired from the program but blacklisted throughout the entertainment industry. Frawley, whom no one would hire at that point, readily agreed.
He never showed up drunk to work, and in fact, Arnaz became one of his few close friends.
Poor health forced Frawley’s retirement.
By almost all accounts, Frawley’s off-screen personality was not that much different from his on-screen demeanor. A notorious misanthrope, with one brief failed marriage behind him and a fondness for the bottle, he lived in the same bachelor apartment most of his years in Hollywood.
According to Desi Arnaz’s memoir "A Book", Frawley eventually lost his driver’s license due to drunk driving, and befriended a cabbie who drove him around regularly.
When deciding whether to hire Frawley for the role of Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, Arnaz made it clear to him that, if he showed up drunk for work, he would "work around it" twice, but after that, Frawley would not only be fired from the program but blacklisted throughout the entertainment industry. Frawley, whom no one would hire at that point, readily agreed.
He never showed up drunk to work, and in fact, Arnaz became one of his few close friends.
Poor health forced Frawley’s retirement. He was dropped from My Three Sons after the studio could no longer obtain insurance on him.
He was angry about being let go, and developed a dislike of actor William Demarest, who replaced him, accusing him of stealing his job.
(One of his final performances was an October 1965 guest appearance in Lucy’s subsequent series The Lucy Show (1962-1968). Right click to see pic.
He collapsed of a heart attack on March 3, 1966, and died, aged 79. He had been walking along Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a movie.
He collapsed of a heart attack on March 3, 1966, and died, aged 79. He had been walking along Hollywood Boulevard after seeing a movie.
After he died, Arnaz took out a full-page ad in the trade papers, consisting of Frawley’s picture, framed in black, and three words: "Buenas noches, amigo!"
Vance’s reaction was the polar opposite. She and her second husband were dining out when they heard the news, and reportedly, Vance shamelessly shouted, "Champagne for everybody!"
Frawley is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California.
One thing that I didn't know about Bill Frawley was that off screen he was a huge baseball nut like I am today!
I think he and I would have got along pretty well since we both love baseball and we are both cantankerous!
1. Hold ‘Em Yale (1935) Baseball
2. Alibi Ike (1935) Baseball
3. Rose Bowl (1936) Football
4. Touchdown, Army (1938) Football
5. Golden Gloves (1940) Boxing
6. It Happened in Flatbush (1942) Baseball
7. Moonlight in Havana (1942) Baseball
8. Gentleman Jim (1942) Boxing
9. The Babe Ruth Story (1948) Baseball
10. Joe Palooka in Winner Take All (1948) Boxing
11. Kill the Umpire (1950) Baseball
12. Rhubarb (1951) Baseball
13. Safe at Home (1962) Baseball
I do know that he was a big Yankee fan and in one I Love Lucy episode he shows just how much of a fan he is.
So even though you are long gone, Bill, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
You helped give millions of laughs to millions of people and helped with the rest of the cast and crew of I Love Lucy to change the face of television at the time and set the standard for what is used in tellevision sitcoms today so your birthday should be remembered!
At very least Fred Mertz is a national icon and probably more popular than Lincoln or Washington who had birthdays this month as well!
FINAL TELEVISON APPEARANCE- CAMEO ON THE LUCY SHOW
Lucy Carmichael (Lucille Ball) meets someone that looks JUST like someone she used to know -- I Love Lucy's William Frawley as a horse trainer!
FOR "I LOVE LUCY" FANS THIS IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING CLIPS ON YOUTUBE. SOMEONE IN THE AUDIENCE IN 1951 FILMED, IN COLOR, THE SHOW AS IT WAS BEING PERFORMED LIVE!
This clip is originally on the Season 7-9 DVD as a bonus footage item :)
Cheers!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment