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No, Desi Arnaz Jr. did not play Little Ricky on I Love Lucy
How Arnaz felt about losing out on the role.
Let's be honest: One of the biggest perks of having famous parents is the doors it opens. Suddenly, opportunities are accessible to you, simply because of who your parents are.
Nepo babies get a bad rep, sometimes rightfully so. However, we regular folk can't deny that it would be pretty great to have a few famous relatives to make life a little bit easier.
As the son of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, you might assume that there was no door unopened to Desi Arnaz Jr. However, that was simply not the case. According to an article with The Daily Herald, Arnaz revealed that as the son of two performers, he wasn't even cast in the role that he was arguably born for: The role of Ricky Jr.
That's right; Arnaz did not play the role of Ricky Ricardo Jr., son of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo in I Love Lucy.
"Hardly a day goes by when I'm not asked that question," Arnaz said during an interview with The Daily Herald. "No, I never acted in that show."
However, Arnaz said that he wasn't too sore about the slight, and even became close with the actor that did appear as Ricky Jr. "The boy who did play Ricky in the show, Richard Keith, and I are still very good friends. He now lives in Texas and we talk on the phone and correspond quite often," he said.
Arnaz did eventually become an actor, a feat that seemed to surprise his mother, Lucille Ball. During an interview with The Toronto Star, Ball explained that she tried to treat her children like any other person and that she made sure her son worked for what he wanted.
"He'd be asleep on the sidelines and I'd be ready to smack him," Lucy said during an interview with the Toronto Star. "When he said he was interested in serious acting, I said, 'Oh really?' But he got out and worked. He surprised me. He surprised everybody. He even surprised himself."
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