Grave of William Frawley- San Fernando, CA
Posted by: 
calgriz
N 34° 16.480 W 118° 28.014
11S E 364967 N 3793585
William Clement Frawley was an American stage entertainer, screen and television actor. Although Frawley acted in over 100 films, he achieved his greatest fame playing landlord Fred Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy.
Waymark Code: WM81AJ
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 01/08/2010
Views: 5
William was born to Michael A. Frawley and Mary E. Brady in Burlington, Iowa. As a young boy, Bill (as he was commonly called), attended Roman Catholic school and sang with the St. Paul's Church choir. As he got older, he loved playing bit roles in local theater productions, as well as performing in amateur shows. A career in show business seemed within reach, however; his mother, a deeply religious woman, frowned upon the idea.
William did two years of office work at Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha, Nebraska; he later moved to Chicago and found a job as a court reporter. Shortly thereafter, against his mother's wishes, Frawley landed a singing part in the musical comedy The Flirting Princess. After the news reached his mother, she was greatly dismayed. To appease her, Bill moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to work for another railroad.
Back in 1916, Frawley had appeared in two short subject silent films. He made subsequent appearances in three other short films, but it wasn’t until 1933 that he decided to pursue an ongoing career in the movies. He soon moved to Los Angeles and signed a seven year contract with Paramount Pictures. Finding much work as a character actor, he had roles in many different genres of films — comedies, dramas, musicals, westerns, and romances.
Singing Frawley LINK
Singing Frawley LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OVpLEeAZSg
A notable appearance was made in the 1947 holiday favorite Miracle on 34th Street as Judge Harper's political adviser (who warns his client in great detail the dire political consequences if he rules that there is no Santa Claus). Other memorable film roles were as the baseball manager in Joe E. Brown's Alibi Ike (1935), and as a wedding guest in Charlie Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947).
I Love Lucy-- By 1951, the 64-year-old Frawley had appeared in over 100 films. The roles were soon drying up, however. When he heard that Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were casting a new television sitcom, he jumped at the chance to play the role of the cantankerous, penny-pinching landlord Fred Mertz. Actor Gale Gordon, a friend of Lucille Ball, was the first choice to play the character. Gordon was unavailable, however, due to a prior commitment. The show ran for six years as half-hour episodes, later switching to hour-long specials from 1957 to 1960 titled The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show (later retitled The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). Vivian Vance played Ethel Mertz, Frawley’s on-screen wife. Although the two actors shared a great comedic and musical chemistry on-screen, they greatly disliked each other in real life. Most attribute their mutual hatred to Vance's vocal resentment of having to play wife to a man 22 years her senior. Frawley reportedly overheard Vance complaining; he took offense and never forgave her. "She's one of the finest girls to come out of Kansas," he once observed, "But I often wish she'd go back there."