Esther Williams

Known for ActingBorn 1921-08-08Died 2013-06-06Inglewood, California, USA

Esther Jane Williams (August 8, 1921 – June 6, 2013) was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving. Every year from 1945 to 1949, Williams had at least one film among the 20 highest-grossing films of the year. In 1952, Williams appeared in her only biographical role, as Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid, which went on to become her nickname while she was at MGM. Williams left MGM in 1956 and appeared in a handful of unsuccessful feature films, followed by several extremely popular water-themed network television specials, including one from Cypress Gardens, Florida. Williams was also a successful businesswoman. Before retiring from acting, she invested in a "service station, a metal products plant, a manufacturer of bathing suits, various properties and a successful restaurant chain known as Trails." She lent her name to a line of swimming pools, retro swimwear, and instructional swimming videos for children, and served as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Description above from the Wikipedia article Esther Williams, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.Read more

Movies & web series

Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof

The Jimmy Durante Show

The Costume Designer

The Original Mermaid

MGM Parade

Private Screenings

Night of 100 Stars II

MGM: When the Lion Roars

Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer

Magic Fountain

Twenty Years After

That's Entertainment!

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

That's Entertainment! III

Burt Reynolds' Conversations with...

Glorious Technicolor

That's Entertainment, Part II

That's Dancing!

What's My Line?

The Oscars

Tom & Jerry's 50th Birthday Bash

The Ed Sullivan Show

Lux Video Theatre

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

A Guy Named Joe

The Donna Reed Show

The Unguarded Moment

Thrill of a Romance

Million Dollar Mermaid

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show

Dance Crazy in Hollywood

Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood

Easy to Wed

Omnibus

Screen Actors

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

Inflation

The Steve Allen Show

Raw Wind in Eden

Fiesta

Easy to Love

Neptune's Daughter

Dangerous When Wet

Ziegfeld Follies

The Big Show

Bathing Beauty

On an Island with You

Skirts Ahoy!