Vivian Vance

Born on July 26, 1909, Vivian Vance was an American television entertainer. She was an actress, theatre actress and singer. Her role as Ethel Mertz in I love Lucy has been one of her most memorable roles of all times. The Lucy Show where she played Lucy Bagley was also one of her widely reminisced performances. At the age of six, when her family moved to Independence, Kansas she was introduced to dramatics. But her mother was quite against her acting. She wanted Vivian to stay indoors rather than going for all this. She rebelled. She changed her surname from Jones to Vance and shifted to New Mexico in search of work. Plays like This thing called Love and Cradle song were very famous, and she was appreciated a lot. The local theatre community provided her great aid in reaching until the New York City to study under Eva Le Gallienne. In 1932, she was mainly on the board of Broadway in the singing chorus. When she played Nancy Collister in the musical Let’s Face it by Cole Porter, she was unbelievably amazing. It went up to 500 performances. Her role in the Secret Fury was also a strong one. She played Alicia in the blue veil although she was liked by many; these films hardly did anything to take her career ahead.

In the year 1953, Vance was the first actress to receive the Emmy Award for her outstanding performance as a supporting actress. When the Lucy Desi Comedy show was to be cast, she was asked to work for it. But she declined and went ahead. On a personal front, she married literary agent, publisher and Editor John Dodds. They had their house in Connecticut. Again the Lucy series was launched using the name The Lucy Show. Even though Lucy agreed to it, being a little hesitant, she placed her conditions. She said that she wanted a much more glamorous role with good attires, and her name shall remain Vivian. Post this; she did the movie The Great Race, wherein she thought she could begin her film career again. The movie did well and received the Academy Award nomination. This movie did not do any wonders to her career. She tragically died on August 7, 1979, due to bone cancer. It was a tremendous loss to the entire industry. Her Emmy award was donated to the Albuquerque Little Theatre. She was posthumously awarded many awards later.