Posted on 11/13/2013 4:13:25 PM PST by lowbridge
Shirley Mitchell, the comic actress who played Marion Strong, Lucy Ricardo's friend with the cackling laugh on the TV classic I Love Lucy, has died. She was 94.
Mitchell, who was believed to be the last surviving adult castmember from the legendary CBS sitcom, died Nov. 11 of heart failure at her condominium in Westwood, her sister-in-law, the Oscar-nominated Sunset Blvd. actress Nancy Olson, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Mitchell was the widow of Jay Livingston, the pop composer and lyricist who collaborated with Ray Evans on the Academy Award-winning songs “Mona Lisa” (performed by Nat King Cole), “Que Sera, Sera” (Doris Day) and “Buttons and Bows” (Bob Hope). The couple was married from 1992 until his death in 2001.
Mitchell joined the cast of Lucille Ball’s I Love Lucy for the 1953-54 season and appeared in three episodes. In one, “Lucy Tells the Truth,” Marion gets frank opinions about her new hat and her laugh during the girls’ weekly bridge game. (Lucy has bet Fred and Ethel Mertz $100 that she can go 24 hours without telling a lie.)
“Marion, stop cackling. I’ve been waiting 10 years for you to lay that egg!” Lucy says.
(Excerpt) Read more at hollywoodreporter.com ...
RIP.
“Radio’s Sweetheart.” That’s what they’re calling Toledo’s Shirley Mitchell in Hollywood these days …
Usually cast as the ingenue romantic interest, Shirley is now one of the busiest microphone performers on the west coast. Not only that, she is one of the best liked and best known. Only last week she was the subject of a two-page illustrated spread in the kilocycle publication, Radio Life Weekly. And the article by Coy Williams is very flattering in its praise of the local miss.
“There’s an ever-smilin’ blonde around town who’s gone and built herself the doggonest monopoly we’ve come across,” Mr. Williams writes. “She’s cornered the market on long term romance and won the unique title of ‘Radio’s Sweetheart’.”
They just don't make 'em like they used to...
Her husband Jay Livingston wrote Silver Bells, Que Sera Sera, the theme music for Rocky and Bullwinkle, and his crowning achievement the theme to Mr Ed
Marion????
It was Fred and ETHEL MERTZ.
i GOOFED...she wasn’t Ethel...sorry.
And the "turkey Incident" Episode (A.K.A. the Thanksgiving Episode) of WKRP in Cincinnati...
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly"
Where they were playing cards and Lucy says to her, “I’ve been waiting years for you to lay that egg!”?
& “Mona Lisa,” among others.
Rest in peace.
Mona Lisa is one of my favorite songs!
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