Friday 18 January 2008

In the 40s, 50s, and 60s, it was considered very strange for a movie star to appear on TV. The truly big Hollywood legends would never think of doing a small TV series. Picture Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant as the Beaver's parents. I dont think so!

But in the early days of television, established movie actors and actresses began making the switch to TV and stayed there. TV was a new medium, and needed talent. With a few exceptions, though, it was pretty much a single minded street.

While there were many, many stars who had careers in both TV and film, this article focuses on a very special 15 people who had either great success, or at least long careers, in both mediums.

We begin with one of those exceptions to the rule -- a big TV star who quit the small screen and turned in some exceptional performances on film. Here we start with Lucille Ball.

Lucille Ball

The star of I Love Lucy. who was unquestionably the biggest female TV star of the time, had a long movie career even before that happened, appearing in about 75 films from 1929 to 1949. She was a Ziegfeld Girl and a Goldwyn Girl, but rose from the crowd of leggy starlets to become the first woman to own a film studio. Some of her more memorable films included Top Hat (1935), Stage Door (1937) -- in which she held her own with Kate Hepburn and Ginger Rogers -- and The Long, Long Trailer, made during her "I Love Lucy" days. Her last screen appearance was in a movie version of Mame in 1974, but it was unfortunately a terrible failure.

Try classicmoviestore.co.uk for I love Lucy DVD

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