Esther Williams

American swimmer and actress (1921–2013)

OverviewAI-generated

Esther Jane Williams (1921–2013) was an American actress, autobiographer, and athlete. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her professional career in 1942 and worked until 1963. Her acting roles included the film *The Million Dollar Mermaid*. As a competitor in the United States, she participated in synchronized swimming, competitive swimming, and diving.

Williams was educated at Los Angeles City College and spoke English. She was the mother of four children. Her contributions to swimming were recognized with induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, and she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She died in Beverly Hills.

Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, Last.fm, TMDb, MusicBrainz, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1923
Works: 8

Top works

The million dollar mermaid
The million dollar mermaid
Million Dollar Mermaid Bookmark
The Path of Prayer
A new pebble in science

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Inglewood, California, USA

Known for

Esther Williams: Hollywood's Mermaid — Self (archive footage)2024
The Fabulous Allan Carr — Self (archive)2017
Hollywood Legenden — Self2004
Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof — Self2003
Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer — Self (archive footage)2002
The Original Mermaid — Herself (archive footage)2002
Hollywood Musicals of the 40's — Self (archive footage)2000
Glorious Technicolor — Self1998
Parkinson — Self1998
The Rosie O'Donnell Show — Self1996

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Female
Country: United States
Active from: 1921
Active to: 2013

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 19,877
Total plays: 68,124

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

The PHQ-9
· 2001 · cited 39,428x
A Brief Measure for Assessing Generalized Anxiety Disorder
· 2006 · cited 28,895x
Learning representations by back-propagating errors
· 1986 · cited 24,340x
Geant4—a simulation toolkit
· 2003 · cited 21,254x
Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome
· 2001 · cited 18,608x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“You can work out in a pool and sweat, but you don't smell. In the water you are weightless. You are ageless. It feels exhilarating to get wet. And you know the water is a very sexy medium. Why do you think people always get in a hot tub?”
“Just make the point we come from the water. It's the most natural medium in the world. It's the only sport you can do from your first bath to your last without hurting yourself.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born: Esther Jane Williams , ( 1921-08-08 ) August 8, 1921, Inglewood, California , U.S.
Died: June 6, 2013 (2013-06-06) (aged 91), Beverly Hills, California , U.S.
Alma mater: Los Angeles City College
Occupations: Swimmer actress
Years active: 1942–1963
Height: 5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Spouses: Leonard Kovner ( married"}]]}'>m. 1940 ; divorced"}]]}'>div. 1944 ) Ben Gage ( married"}]]}'>m. 1945 ; divorced"}]]}'>div. 1958 ) Fernando Lamas ( married"}]]}'>m. 1969 ; died 1982 ) Edward Bell, ( married"}]]}'>m. 1994 )
Website: esther-williams .com

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Jane
Family name: Williams
Gender: female
Citizenship: United States
Place of birth: Inglewood
Place of death: Los Angeles
Spouse: Fernando Lamas
Occupation: swimmer
Languages spoken: English language
Native language: English language
Award: star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
Instrument: voice
Sport: competitive swimming
Country for sport: United States
Official website: esther-williams.com
Image: Esther Williams 1951 crop.jpg
Number of children: 4

Show 10 more facts

date of birth: 1921-08-08
date of death: 2013-06-06
Commons category: Esther Williams
Commons gallery: Esther Williams
name in native language: Esther Jane Williams
start of work period: 1942-00-00
end of work period: 1963-00-00
writing language: English language
short name: Esther Williams
birth name: Esther Jane Williams

Sources (8)

via Wikidata · CC0

~28 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Esther Williams” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.