Lucille Ball’s Shocking Final List: The 7 “Truly Evil” Hollywood Actresses She Exposed Before She Died
“Oh, her warning. Yeah, this is a girl who says that man is trouble.”
Lucille Ball built an empire with I Love Lucy, turned Desilu Studios into a television powerhouse, and became one of the most beloved stars in history. But behind the red hair and the laughter, she kept a private list — names of actresses she considered truly evil. Not in their movies. In real life.
Before she died, Lucille quietly revealed seven women whose behavior left scars she never forgot. Some were her co-stars. Some were global icons. Every single one of them showed her a side of Hollywood the public never saw. These are the stories she told in private — stories of cruelty, chaos, and cold calculation that stayed with her until the end.
Joan Crawford: The Ice Queen Who Terrified Lucille
Lucille met many difficult actresses, but none shook her like Joan Crawford. The public saw glamour and elegance. Lucille saw ice.
During Crawford’s guest appearance on Here’s Lucy in 1971, the demands started immediately: the studio had to be exactly 68 degrees, her chair angled at a precise degree, lighting adjusted to flatter her bone structure. Lucille didn’t argue.
What broke her was what happened next. A 22-year-old wardrobe assistant brought Crawford a dress with a tiny wrinkle. Crawford didn’t correct her. She destroyed her.
Witnesses heard her hiss, “You’re a useless little nothing. Toilets would be lucky to have you.” The girl ran out in tears. Crawford demanded she be fired on the spot. Lucille refused.
The second the cameras rolled, Crawford transformed into the charming legend everyone adored. The moment the red light went off, she froze again — cold and empty. Lucille later whispered to a friend, “I’ve worked with department store mannequins who felt more human.”
To Lucille, that was the diagnosis: Crawford wasn’t just cold. She was performing humanity, not living it. Cruelty toward the powerless revealed true character — and Crawford failed that test completely. Until her final days, Lucille considered Joan Crawford unmistakably evil.
Judy Garland: The Beautiful Chaos That Destroyed Everything Around Her
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Lucille never sugarcoated her feelings about Judy Garland. The moment her name came up, Lucille’s face hardened with exhausted disappointment.
She had known Garland since their MGM days and admired her tragic brilliance. But she also saw the wreckage Garland left behind. Late arrivals. Missed call times. Entire crews waiting for hours while Garland showed up radiant, delivered perfection for thirty minutes, then declared herself too tired and walked out.
One story stayed with Lucille forever: a 1970s TV shoot where Garland was scheduled for 5:00 a.m. The full crew waited until 2:00 p.m. Garland arrived, apologized, worked perfectly for half an hour, then left. The next morning, three crew members were fired because the production had gone over budget.
Lucille’s anger wasn’t moral judgment. It came from workplace scars. She had survived Hollywood by being reliable in a system that discarded women. Watching Garland waste her gift while innocent people paid the price felt unforgivable.
She said it bluntly: “Talent doesn’t excuse destruction, and with Judy, someone always got destroyed.” Lucille quietly avoided working with her again. When Garland died in 1969, Lucille mourned the talent — but not the turmoil.
Ava Gardner: The Beauty Lucille Said Was Savage Behind the Skin
Lucille once asked, “What kind of woman enjoys the hurt she causes?” For her, that woman was Ava Gardner.
Their feud began when Lucille witnessed Ava targeting people she considered beneath her. At an MGM wardrobe fitting in the mid-1960s, a young assistant presented a dress with a tiny flaw. Ava didn’t ask for a fix. She stared at the girl and said slowly, “Don’t bother fixing it. You can’t fix incompetence with more incompetence.”
Later, at an industry cocktail party, someone casually mentioned Lucille’s name. Ava smirked and said loudly, “Oh, the washed-up clown. She’s still working.”
Lucille told a confidant, “Ava didn’t make mistakes. She made victims.” She believed Ava’s beauty blinded people to the rot underneath. “If she hadn’t been beautiful, no one would have tolerated who she really was.”
They never reconciled. Decades later, whenever Ava’s name appeared in a magazine or documentary, Lucille would mutter under her breath, “People have no idea what she was behind the face.”
Bette Davis: The Talent Who Cut People for Sport
Everyone admired Bette Davis’s talent — except Lucille Ball, who once asked privately, “Why does she enjoy hurting people so much?”
Their worst encounter happened at an industry dinner in the mid-1960s. Lucille watched from a few tables away as Davis tore into a young waiter who brought the wrong wine. The room fell silent as Davis snarled, “Do you even know how to read a label or is that beyond you?” She continued humiliating him, savoring every second.
Later that night Davis raised her glass toward Lucille in mock friendliness. Lucille didn’t reciprocate. She had seen enough.
She told a friend, “Crawford was cold, but Bette enjoyed inflicting the wound.” To Lucille, greatness should protect people, not break them. She respected talent, but despised anyone who used power to crush those trying to survive in the same industry. Bette and Lucille avoided each other like oil and water for the rest of their lives.
Zsa Zsa Gabor: The Woman Lucille Said Was Fake Down to the Bone
The moment Zsa Zsa Gabor’s name came up, Lucille didn’t sigh or roll her eyes. She laughed — a short, bitter laugh.
She didn’t resent Zsa Zsa’s success or her looks. What she hated was the fraudulence. To Lucille, Zsa Zsa was a walking performance who weaponized charm while treating people like disposable props.
At a charity event in the late 1960s, Zsa Zsa floated in draped in diamonds and furs. The second the cameras left, she snapped at a volunteer, “I don’t sit with peasants.” Minutes later, a 20-year-old volunteer accidentally brushed her coat. Zsa Zsa leaned in with a sweet smile and whispered, “Sweetheart, you touch my coat again, and I’ll make sure you never work an event in this town again.”
Lucille felt sick. She told a colleague, “Nothing about her is real. Not the accent, not the elegance, not even the kindness.” Fake kindness, she believed, was worse than open cruelty because it could disarm people and fool the world.
Even decades later, when Zsa Zsa slapped a Beverly Hills police officer in 1989, Lucille wasn’t surprised. She simply said, “There she is. The real one.”
Lucille Ball kept these stories private for years. She didn’t seek revenge or public scandals. She simply observed — and remembered. In an industry that rewarded image over substance, she believed cruelty toward the powerless revealed who someone truly was.
Now that you’ve heard the names Lucille Ball revealed, which one shocked you the most? Do you think Hollywood still hides people like this today?
