Richard Keith ( actor ) - wikipedia Richard Keith ( actor ) `` Little Ricky '' redirects here. For the Lucy fictional character, see Ricky Ricardo, Jr. For the football player, see Keith Thibodeaux ( American football ). This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. ( June 2013 ) Keith Thibodeaux ( born December 1, 1950 ) is a former American child actor of television and film and musician, best known for playing Little Ricky on the television sitcom 's I Love Lucy and The Lucy - Desi Comedy Hour, his last name `` Thibodeaux '' which was Cajun French was changed by co-star Desi Arnaz, to `` Keith '' because his surname was more difficult to pronounce. He is the last living regular appearing cast member from I Love Lucy Contents 1 Career 2 Personal life 3 References 4 External links Career From left : Thibodeaux, Dinah Shore, Desi Arnaz, Jr. and Desi Arnaz, Sr., 1960. Thibodeaux is a musician who showed skill on the drums at a young age. Thibodeaux was making $500 a week at the age of 3, touring with the Horace Heidt Orchestra, when he was `` discovered '' by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, who hired him for the role of `` Little Ricky '' on the I Love Lucy show because he looked so much like Desi. He frequently played the drums on the show. Jan 19, 1953 was the television birthday of Little Ricky Jr., which was also the real birthday of her brother Desi Arnaz Jr. However, only two years later, the part of little Ricky was cast and played by five year old Thibodeaux. According to Lucie Arnaz, who was interviewed on the TV show Archive of American Television he became like part of the family. `` Desi considered him his best friend and was responsible for teaching him the drums. He came over their house on many weekends and traveled with them during the summer. My mother kind of adopted him. He is in all of our home movies and photograph 's and was a great kid and still is. '' ( EmmyTVLegends.org ) As a child, he made numerous appearances on The Andy Griffith Show, between 1962 and 1966, as Opie 's friend `` Johnny Paul Jason ''. He also accepted small roles on other popular television shows. In 1969, Thibodeaux joined the rock group David and the Giants who were based in Laurel, Mississippi. The group primarily toured throughout the South and enjoyed a few regional hits which were recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. and were well known in the Northern Soul music scene in England. After turning 21 in 1971, Keith received the final payment of $8000, according to his autobiography Life After Lucy, from a trust fund set up during his days on I Love Lucy. He spent half of that payment on a sports car and the rest on sound equipment for the band and clothes, drugs, and whatever he wanted. He went through the whole $8000 in about two weeks according to his autobiography Life After Lucy. Thibodeaux had developed a drug problem and left the band, which broke up. His difficulties led to his becoming a born - again Christian in 1974. He witnessed to the leader of the band David Huff and the other members which later converted and the group got back together. The band released nearly ten albums in the 1980s and 1990s for CBS Priority Records ( Epic Records ), The Benson Company, ABC Word Records ( Myrrh ) label, and the band 's own label Giant Records. David and the Giants released a live CD in 2014 titled Still Rockin. In 2017 the band was honored along with other notable Mississippi musicians by receiving `` The Jimmie '' ( Jimmie Rodgers Award ) for their musical contributions as Mississippi artists at a special concert at Peavey Electronics headquarters in Meridian, Ms. A live concert CD / DVD was recorded in St. Louis, Mo. in August of 2017 celebrating 40 years of David and the Giants music. In 1990, he became the Executive Director for his wife 's company, Ballet Magnificat !. The couple pioneered Ballet Magnificat ! Brasil a Dance company and Trainee Program in Curitiba, Brazil in 2017. Thibodeaux 's role in I Love Lucy is featured in the Lucille Ball -- Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York. Personal Life Raised as a Roman Catholic, Thibodeaux went to school at St. Victor 's elementary in West Hollywood and St. Jane Frances de Chantel in North Hollywood. He attended Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks for two years before his parents separated in 1966. After his parents separated, Keith, his mother, and siblings moved back to Lafayette, Louisiana. He graduated from Lafayette High School where he continued to play drums in rock and rhythm and blues bands. He left Louisiana for Mississippi in late 1969 after going to college for a short period where he said he `` majored in drinking beer and playing pool '' to pursue a career with the band David and the Giants. In 1976, he met and married a ballet dancer named Kathy Denton in Jackson, Mississippi. The couple moved briefly to Southern California in 1977 where he was asked to join the pop band Starbuck famous for the late 70s hit `` Moonlight Feels Right ''. After 2 weeks of rehearsals in Atlanta, Thibodeaux returned to Mississippi in 1978, where he, his wife and daughter Tara ( born 1979 ) eventually settled in Jackson, Mississippi. Thibodeaux played with jazz bands locally for a brief time before joining a newly revamped Christian David and the Giants in 1979. His wife, Kathy, Founder and Artistic Director of Ballet Magnificat !, was a former principal dancer of Ballet Mississippi who won a Silver Medal in the Senior Division of the 1982 II USA IBC International Ballet Competition Their daughter, ( Tara ), also a dancer and choreographer, was a semi-finalist at the age of 15 in the V USA IBC International Ballet Competition held in 1994. In 2001 and 2002 she was an Atlanta Hawks cheerleader. She was awarded the prestigious Outstanding Choreographer Award at the 2017 Youth American Grand Prix in Chicago for her `` Dying Swan '' and has set choreography for Ballet Magnificat `` The Arrival '' and `` Stratagem ''. Currently teaching and training young dancers in Nashville, Tennessee. She married Bryce Drew in 2004 who is the head basketball coach of Vanderbilt University. He is famous for `` The Shot '' in the 1998 NCAA Sweet Sixteen Tournament. Drew was a 1st round draft pick in the NBA and played professionally for six seasons for the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets, and Charlotte Hornets. Thibodeaux 's autobiography Life After Lucy was published in 1994. References Jump up ^ Heldenfels, Rich ( 2011 - 11 - 17 ). `` Mailbag : What ever became of Little Ricky ? How did Stabler leave SVU ? ''. Akron Beacon - Journal. Retrieved 2011 - 11 - 18. Bernard, Shane ( 2003 ). The Cajuns : Americanization of a People. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1 - 57806 - 523 - 2. External links Richard Keith on IMDb Ballet Magnificat ! website Keith Thibodeaux : best quotes David and the Giants website Keith Thibodeaux interview video at the Archive of American Television VIAF : 41075384 LCCN : n94094975 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Keith_(actor)&oldid=804937634 '' Categories : 1950 births Living people American male child actors American male film actors American male television actors American Christians American male musicians American musicians Converts to Protestantism Notre Dame High School ( Sherman Oaks, California ) alumni Hidden categories : BLP articles lacking sources from June 2013 All BLP articles lacking sources Articles using Template : EmmyTVLegends name Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Português Edit links This page was last edited on 12 October 2017, at 01 : 22. 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Question: who was the actor that played little ricky
Answer: Keith Thibodeaux