William Clement Frawley was an American vaudevillian and actor best remembered for playing landlord Fred Mertz in the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy series My Three Sons, and the political advisor to the judge character in the film Miracle on 34th Street.
18 Facts About William Frawley
2.
William Frawley attended Catholic schools and sang in the choir at St Paul's Catholic Church.
3.
William Frawley finally formed a vaudeville act with his brother Paul, but six months later, their mother told Paul to return to Iowa.
4.
Meanwhile, William Frawley wrote a script titled Fun in a Vaudeville Agency, and sold it for over $500.
5.
William Frawley had his first dramatic role in 1932, playing press agent Owen O'Malley in the original production of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's Twentieth Century.
6.
William Frawley continued to be a dramatic actor at various venues until 1933.
7.
William Frawley subsequently performed in three more, but did not decide to develop a cinematic career until 1933, when he appeared in some short comedy films and the feature musical Moonlight and Pretzels.
8.
William Frawley moved to Los Angeles, where he signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.
9.
William Frawley appeared in Miracle on 34th Street as Judge Harper's political adviser, who warns his client in great detail of the dire political consequences if he rules that there is no Santa Claus.
10.
Contrary to the network's concerns, William Frawley never arrived at work drunk, and mastered his lines after only one reading.
11.
An avid New York Yankees baseball fan, William Frawley had it written into his I Love Lucy contract that he did not have to work during the World Series if the Yankees were playing.
12.
William Frawley did not appear in two episodes of the show as a result.
13.
William Frawley's brother Paul Frawley was an actor on Broadway with relatively few appearances in motion pictures.
14.
William Frawley had a reputation for being cantankerous and difficult, likely exacerbated by a drinking problem.
15.
William Frawley made two television appearances the year before his death.
16.
William Frawley had performed that song previously on television, as Fred Mertz, in the 1958 episode "Lucy Goes to Sun Valley" on the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
17.
William Frawley is buried in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills, Los Angeles.
18.
William Frawley is memorialized, as well, in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York, which contains his "Hippity-Hoppity" costume from an episode of I Love Lucy.