phlebotomycourses: Esther Williams, film and swimming star, dies at 91

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Esther Williams, film and swimming star, dies at 91

Swimming champion turned actor, nicknamed Hollywood's Mermaid after her popular aqua-musical roles, dies in her sleep

Esther Williams, whose talents as a young swimming champion led to a career starring in Hollywood "aqua-musicals", has died in Beverly Hills, California, aged 91.

Williams, one of the biggest box-office stars of the 1940s and 1950s, died in her sleep and had been in declining health due to old age, her spokesman, Harlan Boll, said.

The actor was nicknamed Hollywood's Mermaid and The Queen of the Surf and, at her peak, the woman with the wide smile and bright eyes was second in earnings only to Betty Grable and often in the top 10 box-office draws.

Williams' aqua-musicals were escapist comedies in lush colour, with lavish song and dance numbers and footage of synchronised swimming. They productions were so popular that some credited her with a jump in the popularity of home swimming pools.

A typical finale featured Williams diving into a pool or lagoon and surfacing to a crescendo of music, with water droplets glistening on her smiling face.

She regularly played down her talents, saying: "I can't act, I can't sing, I can't dance. My pictures are put together out of scraps they find in the producer's wastebasket."

After watching the films decades later, she softened that self-deprecating assessment, saying: "I look at that girl and I like her. I can see why she became popular with audiences. There was an unassuming quality about her. She was certainly wholesome."

Williams was born in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood on 8 August 1921. As a young swimmer, she set what were then world records in the 100m freestyle and 880-yard relay. She also worked as a model.

In her later career, Williams did a few 1960s television specials and hosted swimming events for ABC-TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympic Games.