Esther Williams

About 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, then with Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film, and with 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 twenty 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 then later served as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Williams married four times. She met her first husband, Leonard Kovner, while attending Los Angeles City College. They were married in the San Francisco suburb of Los Altos on June 27, 1940; the couple divorced on September 12, 1944.

She married singer/actor Ben Gage on November 25, 1945; they had three children: Benjamin Stanton (born August 6, 1949), Kimball Austin (October 30, 1950 – May 6, 2008), and Susan Tenney (born October 1, 1953). In her autobiography, she portrayed Gage as an alcoholic parasite who squandered $10 million of her earnings. Gage and Williams separated in 1952 and divorced in April 1959.

She married her former lover, Argentine actor/director Fernando Lamas, on December 31, 1969. She later claimed that for 13 years she lived in total submission to him. She had to stop being "Esther Williams" and could not have her children live with her although their marriage made her stepmother to Fernando's son, actor Lorenzo Lamas. In return, he would be faithful. They remained married until Lamas's death from pancreatic cancer on October 8, 1982.

She resided in Beverly Hills with actor husband Edward Bell, whom she married on October 24, 1994; they remained married until her death.