Esther Williams

Esther Williams

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.

Known For: Acting

Born: Inglewood, California, USA, 1921-08-08

Died: 2013-06-06

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1942	Inflation	Mrs. Smith	50
2	1942	Personalities	Sheila Brooks (screen test footage) (uncredited)	0
3	1942	Andy Hardy's Double Life	Sheila Brooks	48
4	1943	A Guy Named Joe	Ellen Bright	66
5	1944	Twenty Years After	(archive footage)	60
6	1944	Bathing Beauty	Caroline Marie Brooks	58
7	1945	Thrill of a Romance	Cynthia Glenn	62
8	1945	Parade of Aquatic Champions	Herself	10
9	1945	Ziegfeld Follies	Esther Williams (segment "A Water Ballet")	61
10	1946	The Hoodlum Saint	Kay Lorrison	52
11	1946	Easy to Wed	Connie Allenbury	62
12	1946	Till the Clouds Roll By	Esther Williams - Signing Autographs (uncredited)	57
13	1947	Fiesta	Maria Morales	47
14	1947	This Time for Keeps	Nora Cambaretti	52
15	1948	On an Island with You	Rosalind Rennolds	56
16	1949	Take Me Out to the Ball Game	K.C. Higgins	67
17	1949	Neptune's Daughter	Eve Barrett	58
18	1950	Screen Actors	Self (uncredited)	60
19	1950	The Costume Designer	Self (archive footage)	0
20	1950	Duchess of Idaho	Christine Riverton Duncan	50
21	1950	Pagan Love Song	Mimi Bennett	48
22	1951	Texas Carnival	Debbie Telford	44
23	1951	Callaway Went Thataway	Esther Williams (uncredited)	51
24	1952	Skirts Ahoy!	Whitney Young	50
25	1952	Million Dollar Mermaid	Annette Kellerman	64
26	1953	Dangerous When Wet	Katy Higgins	60
27	1953	Easy to Love	Julie Hallerton	61
28	1955	Jupiter's Darling	Amytis	43
29	1956	The Unguarded Moment	Lois Conway	62
30	1958	Raw Wind in Eden	Laura	51
31	1958	Andy Hardy Comes Home	Sheila Brooks (archive footage) (uncredited)	45
32	1961	The Big Show	Hillary Allen	50
33	1963	Magic Fountain	Hyacinth Tower	0
34	1972	Hollywood: The Dream Factory	Self (archive footage)	60
35	1974	That's Entertainment!	(archive footage)	73
36	1976	That's Entertainment, Part II	(archive footage)	69
37	1985	That's Dancing!	From 'Bathing Beauty' (archive footage)	70
38	1985	Night of 100 Stars II	Self	80
39	1987	Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood	Self	57
40	1990	Dance Crazy in Hollywood	Self - Actress (archive footage)	60
41	1990	Tom & Jerry's 50th Birthday Bash	Self	66
42	1991	Stars and Stripes: Hollywood and World War II	Self	0
43	1994	That's Entertainment! III	Self - Co-Host / Narrator	70
44	1998	Glorious Technicolor	Self	67
45	2000	Hollywood Musicals of the 40's	Self (archive footage)	0
46	2002	The Original Mermaid	Herself (archive footage)	0
47	2002	Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer	Self (archive footage)	77
48	2003	Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof	Self	0
49	2004	Hollywood Legenden	Self	20
50	2024	Esther Williams: Hollywood's Mermaid	Self (archive footage)	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1948	The Ed Sullivan Show	Self	68
2	1950	What's My Line?	Self - Mystery Guest	69
3	1950	What's My Line?	Self - Panelist	69
4	1950	Lux Video Theatre	Vicki	63
5	1952	Omnibus		60
6	1953	The Oscars	Self	71
7	1954	Reflets de Cannes	Self	20
8	1954	The Jimmy Durante Show	Self	0
9	1955	MGM Parade	Self - Water Ballerina in 'Ziegfeld Follies' (archive footage)	0
10	1956	The Steve Allen Show	Self - Swimmer	56
11	1956	The Dinah Shore Chevy Show	Self	60
12	1956	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	Sarah Harmon	55
13	1958	The Donna Reed Show		62
14	1996	The Rosie O'Donnell Show	Self	35
15		Private Screenings	Self	80
16	1959	The Big Party	Self	0
17	1991	Burt Reynolds' Conversations with...	Self	60
18	1991	Pebble Mill	Self	31
19	1992	MGM: When the Lion Roars		78
20	1998	Parkinson	Self	0

Esther Williams

Film

Television