Early life

Lucie Arnaz was born and raised in Los Angeles, and attended the Roman Catholic Immaculate Heart High School. She is the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and is the sister of actor Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Career

Television

Having had walk-on roles in her mother's television series The Lucy Show, Arnaz made her acting debut in a continuing role in the series Here's Lucy from 1968 to 1974. She played Kim Carter, the daughter of the eponymous Lucy—who was played by Arnaz's real-life mother, Lucille Ball.

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?. In 1978, she appeared in an episode of Fantasy Island as 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. The 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."

She won an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Informational Special, in 1993 for her documentary about her parents, Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie.

Theatre

She has also had a lengthy career in musical theatre. In the summer of 1978, she played the title role 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. 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).

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

In 2010, Arnaz performed in (along with Raul Esparza and Valarie Pettiford) and directed "Babalu: A Celebration of the Music of Desi Arnaz and his Orchestra". There was a Miami, Florida performance in July 2010.

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 1981 Golden Globe Award, Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

Other activities

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.

In October 2008, Arnaz and long-time 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 Paley Center announcement: Tuesday, October 28; 6:30 pm; Panelist: Lucie Arnaz; Moderator: Robert Osborne, Host, Turner Classic Movies.) 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 recently donated to The Paley Center for Media.

On July 17, 2010, Heritage Auction Galleries planned to auction off some items that belonged to Lucille Ball. Arnaz had gone to court to block the auction of love letters from Ball to her second husband, Gary Morton, as well as photos and awards, which Arnaz claims are hers. Morton's third wife, Susan McAllister Morton, had sued Arnaz for the right to conduct the auction. A judge agreed with Arnaz, but charged too high a bond, so the auction went on but the auction house agreed to return lifetime achievement awards to Arnaz.

She appeared live on stage in Jamestown, New York at the Reg Lenna Palace Civic Center 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. 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), and announced intent to start utilizing 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.

Comedians who performed at the 2012 Festival of New Comedy included Billy Gardell, Paula Poundstone and Tammy Pescatelli.

Personal life

She has been twice married, to actor Phil Vandervort (1971) and actor-writer Laurence Luckinbill (June 22, 1980 - present).

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

She shares her birthday, July 17, with her uncle, her mother's brother, Fred Ball.

She attended an all-girls, Catholic high school mainly because of its good drama program, and is a member of the Unity Church.

Stage

• Seesaw (tour, 1974)
• Vanities (Los Angeles, 1976)
• They're Playing Our Song (Broadway, 1979)
• My One and Only (tour, 1986)
• Lost in Yonkers (Broadway, ca 1992)
• Master Class (New Hampshire, 1999)
• The Witches of Eastwick (London, 2000)
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Broadway, 2006)
• Pippin (tour, 2014)

Filmography

• Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1976)
• The Jazz Singer (1980)
• Second Thoughts (1983)
• Down to You (2000)
• Wild Seven (2006)
• Smoking/Non-Smoking (The Pack--original title) (2011)
• The Thought Exchange (2012)

Television

Sources: Archive of American Television; Internet Movie Database

• The Lucy Show (1962-1963) - Cynthia
• Here's Lucy (1968-1974) - Kim Carter
• The Wonderful World of Disney: Welcome to the "World" (1975)
• Who Is the Black Dahlia? (1975) - Elizabeth Short
• Marcus Welby, M.D. (1975)
• Death Scream (1975)
• Fantasy Island (1978)
• The Mating Season (1980, CBS)
• Washington Mistress (1982)
• The Lucie Arnaz Show (1985)
• Murder, She Wrote (1988)
• Who Gets the Friends? (1988, CBS)
• Sons and Daughters (1991, CBS)
• Abduction Of Innocence: A Moment of Truth Movie (1996)
• Law & Order - episode "Bitch", as Jackie Scott, a cosmetics mogul (2003)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]