Lucie Arnaz

Made her professional debut at about age 12 on her mother's TV series "The Lucy Show". She plays a teenage employee in the ice cream shop in "The Lucy Show: Lucy Is a Soda Jerk (#1.23)" (1963).

First choice for the role of Rizzo in Grease, she was allegedly dropped from consideration when her mother, Lucille Ball, called Paramount and said, "I used to own that studio; my daughter's not doing a screen test!" Ball actually owned the studio which was bought by Paramount, Desilu. The part went to Stockard Channing when the casting director remembered seeing her with Arnaz in the 'fifties-themed play' "Vanities." On KGO Radio, in San Francisco (Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009), Ms. Arnaz denied this to be the case, saying that she was offered the role of Rizzo in "Grease," but that a lack of solid confirmation, coupled with a conflicting contract, were the deciding factors in her not playing the role. She said that her mother had no participation, aside from counseling her that *she* had to decide between the two offers.