- Born
- Birth nameKeith Raymond Thibodeaux
- Nickname
- Little Ricky
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Keith Thibodeaux, billed as "Richard Keith" in I Love Lucy (1951) episodes, started playing drums at the age of two in Lafayette, Louisiana. He began touring the United States at the tender age of three and ended up in Hollywood, California auditioning for Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's popular comedy "I Love Lucy". Along with "I Love Lucy", Keith had various acting stints on television, including The Andy Griffith Show (1960), Route 66 (1960), Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958), and Hazel (1961).
While attending the University of Louisiana, Keith joined a mainstream rock band, "David and the Giants" as a drummer, singer, and songwriter. He left the band several years later but after Keith became a Christian, the band regrouped under the same name and went on to become one of the nation's top contemporary Christian bands. Keith and the band toured the world, recording more than a dozen albums before he left in 1989 to pursue other interests.
In January of 1991, he joined his wife Kathy, a professional ballet dancer and silver medalist in the 1982 International Ballet Competition, in their Christian ballet company and ballet school, Ballet Magnificat! In 1993, he became executive director of the national touring company. In addition to his responsibilities at Ballet Magnificat!, Keith still plays the drums and records.
Keith and Kathy Thibodeaux have one daughter, Tara.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ruth Palhang, Webmaster, www.balletmagnificat.com
- SpouseKathy Denton Thibodeaux(1976 - present) (1 child)
- Children
- RelativesBryson Drew(Grandchild)
- Desi Arnaz gave him the stage name Richard Keith.
- He is the last surviving regular cast member of I Love Lucy (1951).
- Before I Love Lucy (1951), he was a professional drummer since age 3. He never had any professional training with drumming. As a child he played drums with the Horace Heidt orchestra.
- As of September 2005 was executive director of Ballet Magnificat! in Jackson, MS. Still plays the drums and spends time in the recording studio.
- Profiled in the book "X Child Stars: Where Are They Now?" by Kathy Garver and Fred Ascher.
- I really think the person I identified with the most was Desi Arnaz because of his Latin culture; I was a Cajun from Louisiana and our cultures were very similar, and the fact that he was a percussionist and I was a percussionist, we had something in common. When he died [in 1986] I really took his death harder than anyone else's.
- I Love Lucy (1951) - $461 /week (1956)
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