I gotta say, watching the old I Love Lucy reruns, I think that Lucille Ball was a gorgeous lady when that show was on...and I've seen pics of her (and a couple of movies in which she appeared from the 40s), and she had to be one of the most beautiful women in the world at that time...she was 40 when I Love Lucy went on the air, which I thought was amazing when I heard that...her face and her figure during the I L Lucy years were simply beautiful...anyone else think so?

I'm going to get beaten up for this, but one has to be truthful.

Yes, I agree, she was a very pretty lady and looked young on ILL, but once ILL was over, she started to show her age. Even though Lucy Ricardo got into all these weird situations, she still managed to look beautiful, but on TLS and HL, that didn't happen. She looked...frumpy. Oh well, she was still prettier in her prime than a good chunk of the women on TV.

I think she looked very beautiful during her years on I Love Lucy and the earlier years of The Lucy Show. But by the time Here's Lucy was over she looked liked a grandmother and her voice was so hoarse and low. It is amazing how people can change physically in a matter of decades.

I thought she was very beautiful during the run of ILL but I think that in even some of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hours she seemed to obviously age.

Yes, I agree with every one of you! Great points!

Although she was very beautiful during ILLucy, Lucille Ball began to show her age soon after the run of that show...and the change was not good. It was remarkable that someone who looked that good into her mid 40s (when ILLucy ended) went "downhill" so quickly.

I've seen a number of game shows she appeared on in the 70s (and 80s as well, but that's a whole 'nother Lucy) and she seemed to age several decades within a few years...

I don't know what it was about her that made her 'age' so quickly after ILLucy was over, but you all are correct. After the first couple of years in the 60s, especially, she went downhill very quickly! I'm sure that smoking had a lot to do with the way her voice changed.

And dawsongirl, I agree with your point too...in her prime, she was more beautiful that a good chunk of the other women we see on TV...

And, as far as her figure goes, it was beautiful during the ILLucy years...and I'm sure most of you probably know that Vivian Vance had a clause in her contract that required her to remain 20 lbs overweight so that she'd appear to be older than Lucy (who's actually a year older than Vance was in real life).

She was a tall slender knockout in her B-movies era. She was still attractive in her 40s during the "I Love Lucy" run. "Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" showed the first signs of her mid-life frumpy period. By "The Lucy Show" and beyond, she was definitely loosing her appearance.

I think alot of that was due to the way they had her dressed. In ILL, she wore alot of dresses or cute pants and many times had her hair down like that default picture up above for this web site. In "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy", they always had her in those boring boxy business outfits with that stupid middle-age low-maintenance perm. She ended up looking bland, dowdy, & too serious for our Lucy.

Lucy did look very pretty on the show but in the Lucy-Desi comedy hour, her hair changed, she got wrinkles, and her age started to show. When she got really old she lost her beauty on the outside but in the inside she was very beautiful. R.I.P. Lucy

Originally posted by tootiefan4life
but in the inside she was very beautiful.

And that's what really counts in life. :)

I think Lucy was beautiful throughout her whole life. I don't pay much attention to the wrinkles or funky hair styles. But some costume changes definitely needed to be made!

I think she was beautiful during the run of I love lucy and before but then after that she began to look really old. You can sort of start to tell during the Lucy Desi comedy hour.



Originally posted by Tweety

And, as far as her figure goes, it was beautiful during the ILLucy years...and I'm sure most of you probably know that Vivian Vance had a clause in her contract that required her to remain 20 lbs overweight so that she'd appear to be older than Lucy (who's actually a year older than Vance was in real life).

Hmmm....I thought that Lucy was supposed to actually be like two years younger...I dunno.

Vivian Vance was born in 1909.
Lucille Bakk was born in 1911.

Lucy was a total knockout in her younger days before I Love Lucy, and was attractive throughout most of her life.
I wonder if color TV had anything to do with her change in appearance? Television itself got sharper and brighter, and color maybe accented her advancing age.
Just a theory.
Also, smoking ages people too. It causes wrinkles and gives an overall unhealthy look to a person.

Originally posted by bweir
Vivian Vance was born in 1909.
Lucille Bakk was born in 1911.

Thanks for straightening that out! For the record, my source for the idea that Lucy is one year older than Vance was "The Great TV Sitcom Book - Expanded Edition" by Rick Metz (c.1983) page 49. But thanks for the info.

And, Re tootiefan "but in the inside she was very beautiful. R.I.P. Lucy"...Amen to that, well said!!

I also agree that in her earlier years, Lucy was really beautiful. And smoking was probably a big part of her sudden aging, but I also think that part of it may have been a result of stress. All those years of a rigorous shooting schedule during ILL plus the stress of her crumbling marriage, and when she first stopped doing the show and started on broadway, she suffered from exhaustion and collapsed a few times, so I just think that all those factors kinda piled on top of each other caused her appearance to suffer. Thats just my opinion anyway! :) And she really was beautiful on the inside!

Originally posted by lucyfan1983
I also agree that in her earlier years, Lucy was really beautiful. And smoking was probably a big part of her sudden aging, but I also think that part of it may have been a result of stress. All those years of a rigorous shooting schedule during ILL plus the stress of her crumbling marriage, and when she first stopped doing the show and started on broadway, she suffered from exhaustion and collapsed a few times, so I just think that all those factors kinda piled on top of each other caused her appearance to suffer. Thats just my opinion anyway! :) And she really was beautiful on the inside!

I Would Have to say Lucy was alwayz a very good looking lady her whole life! But after she did ILL she lookshe look like a nother person!!!!!!!I thing she look very good when she was in LDCH!:wave: Bye BYe

I agree with everyone else that she was gorgeous back in her younger years. She remained beautiful throughout her life, but there are many factors that probably contributed to her aging so quicky, including her heavy smoking. But I think her divorce from Desi probably aged her more than anything else. :(

I agree that Lucy did age pretty rapidly after ILL ended, but I think that Desi aged worse than she did. In some of the pictures that I've seen of him in the years after ILL, I was shocked at how he looked so much older than he really was. I guess years of drinking and stress will do that to you. But everybody has to get old at some point, like it or not. They were both gorgeous in their earlier years as a couple and during ILL.

Originally posted by Ricardos4ever
I agree that Lucy did age pretty rapidly after ILL ended, but I think that Desi aged worse than she did. In some of the pictures that I've seen of him in the years after ILL, I was shocked at how he looked so much older than he really was. I guess years of drinking and stress will do that to you. But everybody has to get old at some point, like it or not. They were both gorgeous in their earlier years as a couple and during ILL.

You're right about that. I've seen interviews with Desi when he was around 50-60 years old, and he looked like he was about 80 years old. That's what alcoholism does to you.

wow, great points, everybody!

I figured that Lucy's aging was mostly to do with her heavy smoking and the fact that perhaps it's more difficult to look good in color...but obviously, the stress of her relationship with Desi wa probably the biggest factor in the whole thin' (as Ricky would say).

And, it's so true about Desi's aging as well...I remember seeing him on "The Mothers in Law" as Bull Fighter Raphael Del Gado, and man, did HE look OLD!! And that show was on around '67 or '68, I think, less than 10 years after LC Comedy Hour.

One thing I remember about Lucy (post-I Love Lucy, that is) is that, during the opening credits of (I think) the "Lucy Show", the end of the credits showed her all made up, really beautifully, inside a heart, which faded out as the credits ended...she did looked very beautiful in that shot, and I don't know if she ever looked that good again...

I was thinking about this recently....did you guys ever notice that she became almost a different person after the divorce? She tended to get a little more assertive with people at the studio and stuff like that. I think it was because she didn't have Desi around anymore and that she thought she needed to be tough. What do you guys think?

I absolutely agree Mel. :)

Originally posted by melluvslucy
I was thinking about this recently....did you guys ever notice that she became almost a different person after the divorce? She tended to get a little more assertive with people at the studio and stuff like that. I think it was because she didn't have Desi around anymore and that she thought she needed to be tough. What do you guys think?

That's true. I saw an interview once with Madelyn Davis. She said that after the divorce, and Lucy went back to work on her own shows, she looked around and Desi wasn't there anymore, so she knew she had to do everything for herself. And, according to Madelyn, Lucy didn't know how to treat the people on her show, both on and off-camera, tactfully.

IMO Lucy created her own downfall looks and age-wise in her younger years, so she had to go to extreme measures in her older years to look even decent in person and in front of the camera. If perhaps she hadn't smoked so much, or caked on the makeup so much, or slowed down even a little bit in her career and not pushed herself to the extreme all the time, then maybe the toll wouldn't have been as bad in her later years. Sure, when a person gets to be 50 or 60 the skin doesn't fit as snuggly along the jawbone any more, for instance, but how many people do you know that have to *pull* their face up into their wigs before they'll even step outside? Could you even imagine the pain, the hassle, the overall ordeal that would be?

I don't know if part of it was genes or what not, but the aging is stunning just in the transformation between the later ILL shows and the Comedy Hour shows, when you can start to see the wrinkles around the mouth and a thickening of the jawline. I also agree that in her later shows the same stifled perm week after week and the boxier clothing only added to changing Lucy from a vibrant, carefree beauty into a woman that was stuffier and, well... older. Some of the books written about her make mention of comments made to her that left her feeling extrememly hurt when the aging was brought up (I think one was from a little kid who innocently asked her, "Lucy, what happened to your face?" when he saw her up close).

For someone who was really concerned about her looks, the transformation really was ironic. Looking good before, I think, contributed to her not looking so good after. I'm positive she knew it, because look at her attempts to hide it. Or perhaps more appropriately, look at her attempts to forever hide *behind* a character she played when she was the prime or her life. She pulled her skin up, wore a wig the color of her trademark orange to tee, and always put on those huge blue eyeglasses reminscent of the big blue eyes she had in years before. And sadly enough, even with all of that fakeness, you could still see she had aged terribly.

I think the aging of *both* Desi and Lucy to the extremes that we saw was truly a shame. On ILL they were at their best, and for me personally it is a shock to see how they aged decades in a matter of years afterwards.

I dont really care how she looked. yes i agree though, she was gorgeous during the years of i love Lucy.. and I think she was still looking amazing throughout the Lucy Desi comedy hours.. I dont care if she looked frumpy or what not..later on though, she was awesome, and always will be!! Its weird how people age so differently though isnt it??

she was very pretty God rest her sole... 13 years today :crying:

well 13 years ago 4/27/02 if they'd post in my time zone it 10:45 at night on the 27...

Are we talking about the same Lucille ball????


Lucy was very beautiful during the TLS and HL years!


IMO, she sometimes looked better in certain The Lucy Show episodes than she looked during I Love Lucy (ex. Look at the final scene during the TLS "Dean Martin" episode, or The "chrous line" scene during the "Danny Thomas" Episode with Lucy beside all those dancers...I could name more).

Sometimes it's hard to believe Lucy was in her 50's and 60's during those episodes.... :eek:

Originally posted by LucyFan
I think she looked very beautiful during her years on I Love Lucy and the earlier years of The Lucy Show. But by the time Here's Lucy was over she looked liked a grandmother and her voice was so hoarse and low. It is amazing how people can change physically in a matter of decades.

I agree with you. I think she began showing her age during the LDCH period. That was certainly mostly due to the marital stress she was undergoing during that time. Depression and anxiety, which she was surely feeling plenty of during those years, can really wear a person down trememdously and affect their physical appearance. I've been there; I know what it does to you.

Later on, though, I think Lucille Ball actually looked better and younger. During the first season of TLS, I think she looked stunning. Her figure was very sleek and she looked incredible in a tight dress. At the beginning of the third season of TLS, she was also looking very youthful. But in the years that followed, her age began to show. But face it folks, aging is a part of life. Lucille Ball, throughout her life, simply looked her age. What's wrong with looking your age? A couple people said that on HL, she looked like a grandmother. Well you know what? Most 60 year-old women ARE grandmothers. If you want to contrast Lucille Ball's looks at a certain age with those of other Hollywood actresses the same age, you have to consider the fact that Lucille Ball never had a facelift. Because of the sensitivity of her skin, she was never able to get a facelift. You'll have to look long and hard to find a single other aging Hollywood actress who never had a facelift. Let me know when you find one.

Originally posted by NCVARick


You'll have to look long and hard to find a single other aging Hollywood actress who never had a facelift. Let me know when you find one.
How about Cher? :lol:
Actually I agree with everything you wrote except the part of Lucy just looking her age. She looked extra good throughout most of her life, but in her later years, she looked awful. She was 79 when she died. I saw clips from talk shows just a few years before her death, and she looked like a sickly 90. My mother-in-law is 80 and looks like she's in her 60s, and never had any work done. I can name a lot of women in their 70s who don't have that old, emaciated look that Lucy had.
To me, it's amazing how someone can age so well into their 50s and most of their 60s, and then rapidly age afterwards. Usually it's good genes. Did she have good genes or what? That's the confusing part to me.
Maybe it was poor health.

Originally posted by JanLady617

How about Cher? :lol:
Actually I agree with everything you wrote except the part of Lucy just looking her age. She looked extra good throughout most of her life, but in her later years, she looked awful. She was 79 when she died. I saw clips from talk shows just a few years before her death, and she looked like a sickly 90. My mother-in-law is 80 and looks like she's in her 60s, and never had any work done. I can name a lot of women in their 70s who don't have that old, emaciated look that Lucy had.
To me, it's amazing how someone can age so well into their 50s and most of their 60s, and then rapidly age afterwards. Usually it's good genes. Did she have good genes or what? That's the confusing part to me.
Maybe it was poor health.

Lucille Ball had a very fair complexion. People with very light skin tend to age faster than those who don't. As for her appearance in her 50s and 60s, whenever she filmed her shows, she had a cosmetic procedure done in which her skin was pulled back with bandages hidden beneath her hair or wig. On a normal day when she wasn't filming her show and didn't have this procedure done, she looked much closer to her own age.

Ok, I know it's been about a year since anyone has touched this thread, but I couldn't resist bringing it up again after reading Lucy's autobiography.

I guess everyone here knows this already, but one thing we must keep in mind about Lucy is that she was in her early 40's when I Love Lucy first debuted (and add to that the fact that she started to bear children in her 40's).

Nevertheless, I think she was very beautiful for her age, and it's amazing that she didn't appear to age as quickly as Desi, even though she was about 5 and 1/2 years older than him.

I remember seeing the Here's Lucy show and then would bump into the I love lucy show. It was around that time I first saw I love Lucy. I was amazed the same actress played both parts. I saw this older redhead and this slim young faced woman and they looked so different. Then as time went on the voice was so raspy. I guess the butts did that.. I was sad when she died.

Then again we all age. No one looks the same through out their life. Although there are some people who do look good. Saw Art Linkletter on Larry King a few months back and he looks the same as he did 40 years ago. He is 90