Lucy's First Sitcom:
A 50th Anniversary Reunion
Benefitting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS
Foundation
Who's Who in the Cast
Peggy Rea, who appears as a member of Lucy's bridge
club in our second My Favorite Husband episode, feels right at home
in that role-she played the same bridge hand with Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance
and Doris Singleton in the TV version of this episode in 1953 (Episode #62
of I Love Lucy - "Lucy is Matchmaker"). She had previously
appeared on the series as a member of Lucy's "Wednesday Afternoon Fine
Arts League" in "The Club Election" (Episode #47), as a bridge
club member in "No Children Allowed" (Episode #57), and as the
nurse who wheels expectant father Ricky into the hospital in "Lucy
Goes to the Hospital" (Episode #56). Ms. Rea's "Lucy connection"
began when she was a secretary at CBS Radio, where she got to know CBS Lucy's
writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Davis, who worked on the same floor.
Quitting her CBS job to pursue a theatrical career, Ms. Rea appeared on
Broadway in the Cole Porter musical Out of This World and toured
for two years with Anthony Quinn in the national road company of A Streetcar
Named Desire, before returning to Hollywood for her TV debut on I Love
Lucy. Ms. Rea is familiar to TV audiences as "Jean Kelly"
(Grace's ex-mother-in-law) on Grace Under Fire, "Rose"
on The Waltons, and "Lulu Hogg" on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Her many other TV appearances include such shows as All in the Family,
Maude, Mannix, Wild, Wild West, Charlie's Angels, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Mission
Impossible, and Ben Casey. Ms. Rea's feature film credits include
Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, The Learning Tree, Grumpy Old Men, In Country,
Love Field, Made in America, and Devil in a Blue Dress.