Esther Williams

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Esther Jane Williams (born August 8, 1922) was a United States competitive swimmer and movie star, famous for her musical films that featured elaborate performances with swimming and diving.

Born in Inglewood, California, Williams 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 death while still a teenager.

Many of her films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid and Jupiter's Darling, contained elaborately staged swimming scenes, obtained not without physical cost to the performer. She broke her neck filming a 50 ft (15 m) dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for the 1952 release Million Dollar Mermaid which landed her in a body cast for six months. She subsequently recovered, though she still suffers headaches as a result of the accident. Her many hours spent submerged resulted in her rupturing her eardrums numerous times. In her autobiography, Williams details several other occasions in which she nearly drowned shooting her oxygen-defying stunts; she rarely used a stunt double.

Her love life was a source of media interest. She has been married four times. From 1945 to 1958, she was married to singer/actor Ben Gage, with whom she had three children. In her autobiography, she portrays him as an alcoholic parasite who squandered her earnings. She was romantically linked with Jeff Chandler. Her third husband was actor Fernando Lamas (1969-1982).

Esther Williams retired from acting in the early 1960s and lives with her current husband, Edward Bell, in Beverly Hills. She lends her name to a line of women's swimwear.