WILLIAM FRAWLEY BIOGRAPHY & TRIBUTE!!! 

Very nice tribute. I did learn some things I didn't know, like his brief marriage. Had he not been assertive and called Lucy about the job, we may never have had him as Fred. It's funny how things work out sometimes.

Miss Ricardo, thank you so much for doing such an amazing and touching bio/vid on one of my very favorite TV stars of all time ! Your one classy "Dame", yourself, Joe,...

He was such a character in l love Lucy. And didn't know he was in other films he was something else a barrel of laughs.

William Frawley should have won an Emmy! Really amazing that he didn’t. He’s a great character actor and he is the real Fred Mertz!

Yes William frawley was an original he was a very good comedian actor I also seen the last take he did on The Lucy show just by looking at him I started laughing when Lucy's friend tells him that her name is so and so and so and so and he goes and says Mac there's a Dame out here for you that was over the top may God bless him. 🕯️📺📽️🧹🛋️❤️

🤔Ethyl, WHERE'S MY GLASSES?... On Your HEAD silly!🤣😂😁

“Hey Boss! There’s a dame here to see you”. Classic Bill Frawley Line 😎

He was just brilliant lolx.

It's interesting: Just about every time Bill opened his mouth on I Love Lucy he always got a huge laugh. One of his greatest lines was (to Lucy and Ethel who are bickering over who looked more like Marilyn Monroe) : "I think I look more like her than either one of you!" So funny! 😄 No one else could have possibly played Fred Mertz but Bill. He WAS Fred Mertz! 😀 He was perfect in that part. 👍👏

Frawley was a hugely underrated character actor during his life with excellent skills in comedy. Part of the upward limits on his career and his being snubbed by the Emmys may have been his gruff personality. He was born in the 1880s and was raised in a working class Irish neighborhood where he picked up a lot of the habits and prejudices of that environment and never gave them up. Over time he gained a reputation for being frank in expressing his opinions, sometimes to the point of low brow language which was not considered acceptable in polite society in those days. Oddly this was one of the traits that Lucy loved about him. Bill never sugar coated his beliefs. Also he was known for telling off color jokes and making references to minorities in terms that would get you fired today, coupled with a reputation for drinking and a short fuse. In the 1920s he was once sacked from a Broadway production after socking the actor Clifton Webb during an argument. During his time on I Love Lucy (ILL) he was always ready and quickly established himself as an integral part of the cast. While Frawley generally was genial and enjoyed good relations with the rest of the cast and the production staff, the exception was his co-star Vivian Vance with whom he had a notoriously chilly relationship. Vance resented being cast as the wife of a man twenty years her senior and disliked his personality. Frawley, who was never one to take slights lightly, fully reciprocated the sentiments and the two rarely spoke when the cameras were not running unless they were arguing. And yes, there were several barn burners on set that required Desi and or Lucy to intervene and calm him down. It is a testament to both Vance and Frawley's professionalism and acting skills that they were able to convince millions of viewers that they were a happily married couple, when in real life they couldn't stand each other. William Frawley was intensely loyal to his friends, but he did not have that many, likely due in part to his acerbic nature. More than a few people noted that Frawley was at his best as an actor when he was playing himself, i.e. a curmudgeon. Years of hard living and heavy drinking took their toll on his health and by the 1960s he was slowing down. He was more or less forced to retire in 1965. But he had made an extremely smart move financially when he negotiated his contracts for ILL. Rather than taking the customary salary, he accepted lower compensation in favor of residual rights, in perpetuity. So he was making money off that show long after it ended. And because his rights were perpetual, they lived on after his death. I am not sure who holds Bill's rights today, but in his will he left the bulk of his estate to the actress Patricia Barry who lived to 2016.

Actors today can't come close to being as great as William 🌟Frawley check out his movies on youtube 🌟 He made acting so natural his timing his lines were always on top form he stood out in any movie he made🌟

Great tribute here. He is often overlooked as a great performer sadly. I loved his character on I Love Lucy and also My Three Sons. His tension Carolina In The Morning is a true classic.

Thank you for your biography of William Frawley. He is my favourite character on I Love Lucy.

I agree that he was Fred Mertz and no one could replace him. He could have shown up drunk and probably got away with it a time or 2 because of that but he didn’t. This was one of my childhood shows. RIP William Frowly. aka (Fred Mertz)

Loved the cameo in The Lucy Show! ❤️❤️

I enjoyed your mini-bio on William Frawley and thank you so much for taking the time to put this together in such an honorary manner of a great actor.

Thank you. Frawley was my favorite on I Love Lucy, after Lucy, of course. I was looking for a bio on him and caught your video. Thanks for loving Fred as much as I do. R.I.P. Fred Merz

Thanks. That was some great information about William Frawley. The pic of him as a child in Burlington, Iowa is a gem!

Desi Arnaz, Fred MacMurray and Don Fedderson were pallbearers at William Frawley's funeral.I liked that too!

Deff a great actor in I love Lucy with Vivian Vance and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz jr Deff a great actor in a great show

Thank you for this contribution. Yes, I did learn a few Snippets of information from your video. And my final resolve is as I always say Let's Celebrate life

This was a very interesting video about William Frawley. I learned alot of things about him. I found it so interesting that he made famous the Carolina in the Morning song. I thought it was hilarious on the clip of The Lucy Show, when Lucy said I know him from someplace. He was a very talented and funny character. I am sure he was a very talented Vaudevillian also. There is no one who could have played Fred Mertz but him. I love his character. Thank you for educating me on his life before he became Fred Mertz. .

Thank you so much for this on william because I often wondered what ever happen to Fred on I Love Lucy I thought he was great and if anyone else had of replaced any of these actors it wouldn't had been as successful I don't Beleave as it was again Thank You for this I Miss all of the cast on I Love Lucy they sure don't make them like they use too.

I honestly don't think I Love Lucy would of made it past one season without him. His gruff character balanced out the chemistry of the show.

I don't think that "I love Lucy " would have been as much of a phenomenon without the Mertzes.

This is a wonderful tribute. I'm a Hugh I love Lucy fan. He was so funny on the show.

I have always loved Fred Mertz. Recently, thanks to METV, I've discovered the black and white years of "My Three Sons," with William Frawley as Bub. I feel like I've discovered something really precious. I liked Uncle Charley, but I LOVE Mr. Frawley as Bub. I am coming to the last episode of him on MTS, and I feel a certain sort of grief. He is really great as the boys' grandfather. I can't believe that he was banned from the set; that must have really hurt. Thanks for all your great work, William Frawley!

Very interesting video full of great facts and history which I always enjoy. Thank you for a great video

Loved his entrances & costumes

Appeared with Clifton Webb in a twenties stage play on Broadway & actually punched Webb in the face (he was fired from the show)

Bill Frawley was born in 1887. He was 65. Vivian was around 43

AWE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING A GREAT ACTOR IN MY YOUTH. I remember reading somewhere that he and Vivian didnt get along but I am so glad to know Desi was a good pal and Lucy as well. Thanks again.

Fred(William Frawley) looked good in color.

I liked him best of all

This is cool.Thank you.You didn't mention the feud between between Bill and Vivian Vance. Great info on his mom not liking his going into Showbiz.I wonder if she lived to see how successful he would become.He was so good at his craft!

I’m looking for the episode when Fred dons his WWI Doughboy uniform.

Fred wouldn't have been Fred without Bill.

I’m related to him. He’s my great great grandfather

Very nice tribute , you could have mentioned the fued between him and Vivian Vance ( his tv wife ) ...

His biting humor, especially where his retorts to insults were done!

Hi,KJ-I'm a huge "I Love Lucy" fan-William Frawley,in my opinion,is the quintessential curmudgeon-Thanks for posting.

love the video and thought he was great as a detective in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN thanks again

William F was the Best The Best that ever did it.

It's hard to believe that William Frawley was ever a little boy!! That picture of him as a little boy doesn't even look like him! lol

William Frawley's wife was a beauty.

He would also learn his own lines and throw away the rest of the script.

He was born in 1887. I do not think the photo of a boy in that style shorts is from 1890 or 1891.

10:20-10:40, gruff till the end. Must have been a decent guy to get regaled so by Lucy and Desi.

Very nicely done tribute to this wonderful actor. Thank goodness Gale Gordon couldn't play Fred Mertz...

Nick at night had a funny promo.the pants that ate fred mertz.i can't see anyone in that role but him.

Feb. 26, hmm. Same as me.

My partner good friend with director from texas chainsaw massacre III 1990 he told him william frawley did have a son he die last year he help did the muppet

This seem to be about lucy

I am a big fan of both of the shows that William Frawley appeared in. The Livingston Brothers had a lot of funny things to say about him. What they had to say had to do mainly with his drinking. I think really that leaving out his situation with Vivian Vance and more discussion about his drinking makes this bio look as though it's a PR piece. I think you can like and admire an artist and still be honest and profound in telling the truth about him. I particularly think that leaving out the part about how Desi wanted to make a spin-off sitcom with Fred and Ethel. But Vivian Vance refused and that's really when the hatred kicked in on the part of Bill Frawley. The other thing I would have emphasized was that Fred MacMurray also had a contract at Paramount. And he did a number of films with William Frawley as well as William Demarest, who took Frawley's place on My Three Sons. I thought it was quite neat the way they were able to use his Vaudeville past and give all of that to the characters of Fred and Ethel.

The $500 he sold the script for. That's about $12,000 in today's money. So you're not exactly rich but that's a nice chunk of change.

There is more pictures of Lucy in here

The shot of Lucy Show (the clip) is backwards.

Here is something you problem do not know. Vivian Vance did not like him I don't know why but I remember hearing I'm one of these videos that she did not like him at all. And I don't think he cared for her either she was very rude to him ran him down every chance you got and that could be found on a video or is probably I read it someplace I can't remember.

He sure looks funny with hai r on his head, unless that w- as a rug he wore.

William frawley son name james frawley

Your name is Ricardo, any relation

Vivian n Bill hated each other

My Three Sons was not a comedy?

Bill DID die of a massive heart attack, but do all of you know exactly what happened that night. The night he died, he had walked up the street to a local theatre to watch movie. I forget what movie it was. Then while he was walking home to his apartment at the Knickerbocker Hotel, he collapsed on the sidewalk from an apparent cardiac arrest. A fellow civilian on the street attempted to perform CPR on Frawley but was unsuccessful in saving him. An ambulance was called and Bill Frawley was pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital. Actually, his death was rather instantaneous. It was a very severe heart attack. He was 79, and at the time of his death, he had been living with his sister at the Knickerbocker Hotel.

Also, Vivian Vance and William Frawley did not like each other. When William Frawley passed away, Vivian opened a bottle of champagne and cheered, "champagne for everyone". The reason that they did not get along, was that Vivian was only 2 years older than Lucy and William Frawley was 22 years older than Vivian, in the beginning of the show she complained that William Frawley should be playing her father. When William herd this they became enemies. However you would never know this because they were true professionals and played their parts very well.

There has been a long standing rumor that, when Lucy was offered a new series after I Love Lucy had expired, it's said the Vivian Vance was in her dressing room getting dressed for a skit, or something. Lucy had come up with this idea for a new show starring her, Vivian and William. William was at his home in California and when Lucy approached Vivian with that same idea, Vivian became unhinged. Vivian never got along with William; William never got along with Vivian. In essence, Vivian said "Lucy, there is no way in hell, or anywhere else, that I will play another series with William. He put me through hell. If you must have William, I won't be part of the show." Lucy could see how her best friend was so unnerved. After taking things into consideration, William was no longer part of the opening credits, or even in an episode. Instead Lucy hired Gale Storm (or was it Gorden) as the third actor. Then a few years later William Frawley had died. The word got to Lucy who spread the news to Vivian and Gale who also worked with him. Vivian, whether this is true or false, can never be confirmed, and Lucy never said anything about it. After learning of her co-star's death Vivian, who was in a bathrobe was jumping on her couch in the dressing room saying, among other things "So long Bill, you ignorant fuck!". She had a bottle of champagne ready for later that evening and not for Frawley's death. She drank a good part of it, and Lucy was getting concerned, so much that she threatened to fire her or call a taxi if Vivian's shenanigan's kept going. Eventually Vivian got her act together. Lucy stepped out so Viv could get dressed.

Look up the William Frawley Fan Club and the William Demarest Fan Club.......it's the same organization. They're the same guy. Frawley continued acting as Demarest until his death in 1983. The show "My Three Sons" proves it. By the way, Broderick Crawford and William Conrad are also the same guys. But, does anyone know that Rudolph Valentino and Rudy Valee are NOT the same person?? Neither are singers Bobby Vinton and Bobby Vee. Yes, it's all TRUE - just look it up. Signed, A person who specializes in knowing people who are different, or possibly the same

Vivian Vance couldn't stand him... And he didn't care at all.

My dad told me in 1960 he was walking in Hollywood Fred pick him up blew him threw him out of the car a real cheapskate.

Stopped watching after about 1 minute and 15 seconds.

Just curious why so many clips of Lucille Ball in the beginning of the video. True indeed I know that he is best known for his role on I Love Lucy but I feel like that was mad disrespect. You could have shown clips of him by himself on the show. Just my opinion.