Lucie Arnaz

Early life

Arnaz was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. She has one younger brother, actor Desi Arnaz Jr.

When Arnaz was 10 years old, her family lived for a few years in New York City, where she and her brother attended St. Vincent Ferrer School. She later attended the all-girls, Roman Catholic Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, mainly because of its drama program.

Career

Television

Having had walk-on roles on her mother's previous television series The Lucy Show, Arnaz made her acting debut in a major role in the series Here's Lucy from 1968 to 1974. She played Kim Carter, the daughter of the eponymous Lucy Carter, played by her mother.

Arnaz branched out into television roles independent of her family from the mid-1970s. In 1975, she played murder victim Elizabeth Short in an NBC telefilm of Who Is the Black Dahlia?, and she starred with Lyle Waggoner and Tommy Tune in Welcome to the "World", The Wonderful World of Disney special commemorating the grand opening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. In 1978, she appeared in an episode of Fantasy Island as Toni Elgin, a woman desperately trying to save her marriage. She has continued to make appearances in a number of popular television series over the years, including Murder, She Wrote, Marcus Welby, M.D., Sons and Daughters (CBS, 1991), and Law & Order.

Arnaz also had a short-lived series of her own, The Lucie Arnaz Show, on CBS in 1985. A reviewer for The New York Times described the show as "the always ingratiating Miss Arnaz as a psychologist who not only writes an advice column, but also takes calls from listeners on her own radio program."

Another eponymous series, this one a late-night-style talk show, aired for one season from 1995 to 1996. It was unsuccessful, but The Rosie O'Donnell Show would use the same format a year later to much greater success, prompting Arnaz's agent to pitch a revival that would not be picked up.

Arnaz won an Emmy Award in 1993 for Outstanding Informational Special for her documentary about her parents, Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Theatre

Arnaz has had a lengthy career in musical theatre. In June 1978 she played the title role of Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun at the Jones Beach Theatre on Long Island, New York. This was the first production at Jones Beach Theatre after the death of longtime producer Guy Lombardo. In 1981, she played the lead female role of Rita White in Educating Rita at The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts.

She made her Broadway debut in February 1979 in the musical They're Playing Our Song. Arnaz won the Theatre World Award and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Sonia Walsk. In 1986, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her tour with Tommy Tune in the international company of the musical My One and Only.

She has numerous other theater credits, both in the United States and abroad: Seesaw (first national company, 1974), Whose Life Is It Anyway?, The Guardsman (Paper Mill Playhouse, Millburn, New Jersey, January 1984), The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True (Concert at Lincoln Center, 1995, televised), Sonia Flew (Coconut Grove Playhouse, Florida, April 2006), The Witches of Eastwick (London, Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, June 2000), Vanities (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1976 as Kathy), Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers (Broadway), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Broadway, May 23, 2006, to September 3, 2006), and Terence McNally's Master Class (Seacoast Repertory Theatre, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, April to May 1999).

In 2010, Arnaz performed (along with Raúl Esparza and Valarie Pettiford) in and directed Babalu: A Celebration of the Music of Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra. A Miami, Florida performance was given in July 2010.

She toured in Pippin in 2014, playing the role of Berthe, the title character's grandmother. She appeared on Broadway in Pippin, from October 9, 2014, to November 9, 2014.

Film

Arnaz made feature-film appearances, including The Jazz Singer (1980) in which she co-starred with Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier. She earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the 38th Golden Globe Awards. She also appeared in the 1982 comedy drama One More Try opposite her current husband, Laurence Luckinbill.

Other works

• Arnaz was a Trustee on the Board of the American Theatre Wing for 15 years (1999–2014).
• In October 2008, Arnaz and longtime family friend, Hollywood columnist and Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne participated in a tribute to Arnaz's mother, Lucille Ball, at the Paley Center For Media in New York City. The program, "Lucie and Lucy: Lucie Arnaz Shares Treasures From The Family Video Collection", included a discussion between Osborne and Arnaz about Ball, and also focused on Ball's last long-running series, Here's Lucy (which was celebrating its 40th anniversary), as well as several of Ball's television specials and guest appearances during the 1970s, which Arnaz had donated to the Paley Center for Media.

Preserving Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's legacy

• From about 2002 to 2007, Arnaz was the president of the board of directors of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York. She resigned over a dispute with the executive director over the future direction of the Center.

• Arnaz appeared live on stage in Jamestown at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts on August 3, 2012, to promote the Lucille Ball Festival of New Comedy in which new comedians are invited to perform. She gave tribute to both her parents and expressed a desire to further expand the Festival of New Comedy and expand the Jamestown, New York, Lucy Fest. Comedians who performed at the 2012 Festival of New Comedy included Billy Gardell, Paula Poundstone and Tammy Pescatelli. She gave the history behind the Lucy-Desi Museum and Lucy-Desi Playhouse, and the 2011 birthday centenary for Lucille Ball (which was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest number of people dressed like Lucille Ball in one place at one time).

• At that time, Arnaz announced intent to start using the recently renovated Jamestown Train Station to further the mission and vision of the Lucille Ball Festival of New Comedy. Lucie Arnaz praised and appeared on stage with the new executive director of the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center and applauded her work and dedication to the festival. This work culminated in the opening of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown on August 1, 2018.

• In 2021, Arnaz, along with her brother Desi Arnaz Jr., served as an executive producer of the biopic Being the Ricardos, a film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin focusing on her parents (played by Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem)'s professional and personal relationship during the time of I Love Lucy.

Personal life

Arnaz was married to Philip Vandervort Menegaux from July 17, 1971, to April 1976. On June 22, 1980, she married actor-writer Laurence Luckinbill. Luckinbill and Arnaz live in Palm Springs, California.

Arnaz and Luckinbill have three children: Simon, Joseph and Katharine Luckinbill. Luckinbill also has two sons from his previous marriage: Nicholas and Benjamin Luckinbill.

Arnaz is a member of Unity.

Filmography

Television

Source: Archive of American Television:

Stage

• Once Upon a Mattress (Kenley Players, 1973)
• Seesaw (tour, 1974)
• Vanities (Los Angeles, 1976)
• Bye Bye Birdie (The Melody Top, 1977)
• Annie Get Your Gun (Jones Beach Theater, NY, 1979)
• They're Playing Our Song (Broadway, 1979)
• My One and Only (tour, 1986)
• Lost in Yonkers (Broadway, 1992)
• Wonderful Town (California, 1997 and 1999)
• Master Class (New Hampshire, 1999)
• The Witches of Eastwick (London, 2000)
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Broadway, 2006)
• Pippin (Broadway and tour, 2014)

References

References

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