Career Highlights |
||
Actor Credits
FilmographyActor CreditsThe Unguarded Moment [1956] |
||
Esther Williams Biography |
||
|
Esther Jane Williams (b. August 8, 1921 or 1922) is a retired United States competitive swimmer and movie star, famous for her musical films that featured elaborate performances with swimming and diving.
Williams was born in Inglewood, California to Bula Myrtle Gilpin and Louis Stanton Williams. She was enthusiastic about swimming in her youth. She was National AAU champion in the 100 meter freestyle. Williams went to Hollywood, where she quickly became a popular star of the 1940s and 1950s. Her brother, Stanton Williams, also had a brief acting career during the 1920s before his untimely death while still a teenager. She appeared with swimming star Johnny Weismuller in Billy Rose`s "Aquacade" during the San Francisco World`s Fair, 1939-41, where she first attracted attention from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts, as she noted in her autobiography. She also had to fend off the amorous attentions of Weismuller, whom she said acted as if he were Tarzan on and off the screen. A close dear friend of the late June Allyson. |
||
Trivia |
||
BiographyFriends and FamilyDavid Williams [Brother] :: Maurine Williams [Sister] :: June Williams [Sister] :: June Allyson [Friend] :: Stanton Williams [Brother]Trivia and QuotesQuotes "All they ever did for me at MGM was change my leading man and the water in my pool."
"I don`t know to this day how I managed to fit into those bathing suits when I was pregnant, but I did."
"The popular "Andy Hardy" series movies were MGM`s tests for its promising stars such as Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Donna Reed. If you didn`t make it in those pictures, you were never heard from again".
[International Swimming Hall of Fame] "If swimming would make his daughter grow up to look like Esther Williams, then father was willing to pay for the lessons."
I was called America`s mermaid, because it appeared that I could stay underwater indefinitely. I was just a swimmer who got lucky No one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movementsTrivia Born in Los Angeles, Esther was the youngest of five children. Her family had come to Los Angeles from Salt Lake City, where her older brother Stanton Williams was "discovered" by actress Marjorie Rambeau and brought to Hollywood for films. Stanton, who was born in Salt Lake City, died suddenly at the age of 16 when he developed intestinal blockage and his colon burst.
In Italy, all her films were dubbed by Dhia Cristiani, except Raw Wind in Eden (1958) where the talented Andreina Pagnani lent her voice to Williams.
Received her first screen kiss by Mickey Rooney in Andy Hardy`s Double Life (1942).
Second husband was singer/actor Ben Gage, a "Big Band" vocalist who dubbed Victor Mature, George Montgomery, Dana Andrews and Cornel Wilde in various musical films. They had three children.
She was offered roles in both The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) by Irwin Allen. She turned down both.
Stepmother of Lorenzo Lamas.
Was inducted into the Swimming Pool Hall of Fame in 1967.
A swimming champion, she was signed for the Olympics, which were to be held in Finland in 1940; the Olympics were canceled by the eruption of WWII.
Before her stint in MGM musicals, she had been training as a competitive swimmer, and probably would`ve participated in the 1940 and/or 1944 Olympics (she would`ve been 18 and 22 years old respectively) if World War II hadn`t canceled them.
Being an acclaimed swimming champion, her films usually had elaborate dance sequences involving swimming. Filed a lawsuit against MGM for use of some footage in That`s Entertainment! (1974).
Her first job was at age 8 at a local Inglewood, California neighborhood school`s swimming pool counting towels.
Her movie career played a major role in the promotion of competitive and synchronized swimming, which she is credited with popularizing.
In the 1950s she was known as "America`s Mermaid."
Longtime friend of June Allyson.
She lent her name to a brand of swimming pools that are still sold today, Esther Williams Pools.
Sister of Stanton Williams
Excerpts from her 1999 autobiography in major American magazines revealed that her one-time lover, actor Jeff Chandler, was obsessed about dressing in women`s clothing. Williams` revelations about Chandler angered many readers.The book also revealed Williams took LSD under a doctor`s supervision after Cary Grant recommended it. | ||
Top Contributors |
||
|
Top editors for this profile:
|
||
Related Links |
||
 Silver Sites Fan Sites
|
||
Related Profiles |
||
Comments
Continue the Conversation