Couples
‘I Love Lucy’ Actor William Frawley Was Married Once: Get to Know His Ex-Wife Edna Louise Broedt
For six seasons, William Frawley portrayed Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, one of the most popular sitcoms in television history. Vivian Vance portrayed his onscreen wife, Ethel Mertz, in a number of hilarious scenes during the show’s run from 1951 to 1957. Prior to gaining popularity on the hit series, William was married to Edna Louise Broedt.
Who was William Frawley’s ex-wife Edna Louise Broedt?
William, born in 1887, got his start in the entertainment industry performing a vaudeville act that eventually led him to Broadway. Edna was also a vaudeville performer and actress looking for her big break. The pair were married in 1914 after performing as a comedy duo together on stages across the U.S.
They divorced in 1927 after 13 years of marriage. The pair did not have any children together. William continued to pursue an acting career in film and television after their split. He appeared in hundreds of films before snagging his breakout role on I Love Lucy in 1951. Though he made it work in front of the cameras during his scenes with Vivian, Geoffrey Mark, author of The Lucy Book, told Closer that the Iowa native “detested Vivian.”
“His story is a sad one. You have to keep in mind who he was, what he came from and how he felt about I Love Lucy,” Geoffrey added. “With William Frawley at the time, we have a man who is in his early 60s. He has been in a hundred films. He’s been on radio. He has been on the vaudeville stage, first with his wife Louise, the only wife he ever had, who broke up with him years and years and years earlier. He had been a handsome song and dance man. He had introduced the songs ‘Carolina in the Morning’ and ‘My Melancholy Baby.’”
The My Three Sons actor did encounter his ex-wife again in the ‘60s when he was featured on an episode of This is Your Life. The show brought together people that William had worked with during his career and at different stages of his life. Many of his former costars attended the taping, along with Lucille Ball. He was shocked to see Edna during the episode.
“The third guest was his ex-wife, Edna Louise Broedt, who he absolutely hated. She comes marching out and he goes, ‘What are you f—kers up to?’ He did not hold back one bit. He was not happy to see her, and all it did was revive very bad memories,” Barry Livingston recalled to Closer. “I would love to see that episode, because I’m sure they either edited her out or bleeped it because he just lost his mind and blew his top when she showed up. I guess the audience back in the day was stunned.”
William died on March 3, 1966, at the age of 79 after suffering a heart attack. He left behind a tremendous legacy that impacted the entertainment world and has since been portrayed by J.K. Simmons in the 2021 film Being the Ricardos.
