Vivian Vance

Vivian Vance was an American actress who spent years on the stage before becoming known to television viewers as Ethel Mertz on I Love Lucy. Born in Cherryvale, Kansas, she grew up in Independence and began drama studies in high school, then performed at the Albuquerque Little Theatre. From 1932 she appeared in Broadway shows, often in the chorus, and moved into supporting parts after understudying Ethel Merman in Anything Goes; her biggest stage success came in the Cole Porter musical Let's Face It! For I Love Lucy she won an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in 1953, the first actress to receive that award, and was nominated three more times. She played Ethel again in the hour-long Lucy-Desi specials and costarred in The Lucy Show from 1962 to 1965, and she later appeared in The Great Race (1965) and in television guest roles. In 1991 she received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.