Lucille Ball was born 115 years ago today. The future I Love Lucy legend was born Aug. 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York. Ball died in 1989 at age 77, but left behind an extraordinary legacy that still resonates with fans decades later.
In honor of her birthday milestone, here we take a look at Ball’s life in photos.
Ball was long known as a ”wacky redhead” when she played Lucy Ricardo on I Love Lucy, but in her early career as a model she was a glamorous blonde under the name Diane Belmont.
Ball’s longtime assistant Wanda Clark once told Voices of Oklahoma that Ball was inspired to change her name during a train ride out of her hometown. “Lucy thought that Lucille was kind of dull and Diane sounded more exotic,” she shared. “She was on the train going from Jamestown to the city and saw Belmont, the city, and Belmont Racetracks, and so Diane Belmont she had for a short time.”
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Ball went on to work as a Goldwyn girl, wearing a long blonde wig for the 1933 Eddie Cantor film, Roman Scandals. She later became a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures and decided to stand out among the many other blonde starlets by changing her hair color to raven red.
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Ball met her future husband Desi Arnaz on the set of the 1940 movie Too Many Girls. They married just six weeks later.
“Eloping with Desi was the most daring thing I ever did in my life,” Ball said in Warren G. Harris’ biography, Lucy & Desi: The Legendary Love Story of Television’s Most Famous Couple, per People. “I knew I shouldn’t have married him, but that was one of the biggest attractions. My friends gave the marriage six months. I gave it six weeks.”
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By the time Ball and Arnaz began their CBSsitcom in 1951, she was well known as a redhead. In a quote posted by The Television Academy, Ball’s longtime hairdresser Irma Kusely clarified that the hair color wasn’t actually red.
“I call it apricot, but a lot of people think of it as red,” Kusely said. “It’s not red at all. It’s a golden apricot color. We used regular hair dye when I did her own hair. We then used, as a balance, a henna rinse, which she was famous for. She had a safe of it in my garage … When we did a show in Las Vegas, she met a very wealthy sheik… and he would send her the henna. She moved a box of henna, which was in my garage but in the safe. There was a lot of it left when she left this world, but I had to give it to the estate.”
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During her run on I Love Lucy, Ball’s pregnancy with her son, Desi Jr., made headlines. In a rare move for that era, her pregnancy was written into the show. Ball gave birth to her real baby boy on the same day that her TV character gave birth to her son, Little Ricky. The Arnazes also had a daughter, Lucie, who was born in July 1951, just three months before I Love Lucy premiered.
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Ball went on to star in the CBS sitcoms The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, and Here’s Lucy, where she continued to show her gift for physical comedy. Behind the scenes, she was a powerful executive for Desilu Productions.
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After her marriage to Arnaz ended in 1960, Ball bought his share of ownership of the production company, making her the first woman to own a major studio, according to the National Women’s History Museum.
She wed comedian Gary Morton in November 1961 and was with him for 28 years, until her death.
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Ball never lost her love for acting. Her final series, Life With Lucy, aired in 1986 for just 13 episodes, marking a rare miss for the comedy legend.
During an appearance on The Late Show With Joan Rivers, Ball revealed that she didn’t expect to “get chastised” for returning to TV after two decades away.
“I can take critique about the show, I’ve done that for years, but to be critiqued for coming back at all, that threw me,” she admitted. “I cried, my God, I cried. …I didn’t know that I could be that frightened and hurt.”
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Decades later, Lucille Ball is remembered as one of the most beloved stars in entertainment history. Her unforgettable humor and timeless charm left a lasting legacy for generations of fans—and these photos capture just a glimpse of the amazing life of the legend who changed comedy forever.
Related: ‘60s Classic TV Star Recalls the Sweet Lucille Ball Moment That Shut Down Filming
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