Esther Williams
Also Known As: Esther Jane Williams, America's Mermaid
Biography: 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, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and 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 20 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 served as a commentator for synchronized swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Description above from the Wikipedia article Esther Williams, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Inglewood, California, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: August 08, 1921
Age: 103 years old
Gender: Female
Deathday: June 06, 2013
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Known For:
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Overview: The Wolves baseball team gets steamed when they find they've been inherited by one K.C. Higgins, a suspected "fathead" who intends to take an active interest in running the team. But K.C. turns outs to be a beautiful woman who really knows her baseball. Second baseman Dennis Ryan promptly falls in love. But his playboy roommate Eddie O'Brien has his own notions about how to treat the new lady owner and some unsavory gamblers have their own ideas about how to handle Eddie.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-03-09
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Hollywood Legenden
Overview: Documentary about Hollywood.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2004-01-01
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A Guy Named Joe
Overview: A cocky Air Force pilot stationed in England during World War II falls for a daring female flier. After he's killed on a mission, he is sent back to Earth by heavenly General with a new assignment.
Genres: Drama Romance War Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-12-24
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Easy to Love
Overview: Two men vie for the heart of a Cypress Gardens swimming star.
Genres: Music Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-11-26
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Texas Carnival
Overview: A Texas carnival showmen team is mistaken for a cattle baron and his sister.
Genres: Music Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-10-05
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Andy Hardy's Double Life
Overview: Andy is about to head off to college but he's got a few things to take care of before leaving. For starters, he must try and sell his junk car for $20 to pay for a bill and he must convince his father not to go with him to college. Worst of all is that Polly wants to make up but her best friend decides to give Andy a test.
Genres: Comedy Family Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-12-01
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Million Dollar Mermaid
Overview: After overcoming polio, Annette Kellerman achieves fame and creates a scandal when her one-piece bathing suit is considered indecent.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-12-04
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Dangerous When Wet
Overview: The health conscious, dairy-farming Higgins family begin each day with an invigorating swim. One day, traveling health-tonic salesman, Windy Weebe, comes to town and suggests they could swim the English Channel. Sponsored by "Liquapep" and coached by Windy, the family arrive in Europe. There it is decided that daughter Katie is the only one strong enough to enter the contest. But while she should be focused on the difficult and risky task ahead, Katie is pursed by dashing Frenchman, André Lanet... This comedic musical is well remembered for the scene when Katie dreams she is swimming with cartoon characters Tom & Jerry!
Genres: Music Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-06-18
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Neptune's Daughter
Overview: Scatterbrained Betty Barrett mistakes masseur Jack Spratt for Jose O'Rourke, the captain of the South American polo team. Spratt goes along with the charade, but the situation becomes more complicated when they fall in love. Meanwhile, Betty's sensible older sister Eve fears Betty's heart will be broken when Jose returns to South America. She arranges to meet with the real O'Rourke and love soon blossoms between them as well.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-06-10
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On an Island with You
Overview: A young navy lieutenant is brought in as technical adviser on a song-dance-and-swim film being made by screen star Rosalind Reynolds. Having once done a number with her at a Forces show, the young lad somehow believes she should be his girl. Her boyfriend is just one of those disagreeing.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-05-03
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Thrill of a Romance
Overview: A soldier falls in love with a newly-married woman after her husband abandons her for a business meeting on their honeymoon.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-05-23
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Bathing Beauty
Overview: After breaking up with her fiancé, a gym teacher returns to work at a women's college, but a legal loophole allows him to enroll as one of her students.
Genres: Music Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-06-27
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Easy to Wed
Overview: When a newspaper accuses a wealthy socialite of being a homewrecker, she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit. The publication's frazzled head editor now must find a way to discredit her.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-07-25
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Fiesta
Overview: When a matador leaves town to focus on his music, his twin sister takes on his identity in the bullfighting ring.
Genres: Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-06-12
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This Time for Keeps
Overview: An ex-GI falls for a bathing beauty.
Genres: Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-10-17
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Till the Clouds Roll By
Overview: Light bio-pic of American Broadway pioneer Jerome Kern, featuring renditions of the famous songs from his musical plays by contemporary stage artists, including a condensed production of his most famous: 'Showboat'.
Genres: Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-12-05
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Pagan Love Song
Overview: Island girl Mimi plans to leave Tahiti, but maybe she'll have a reason to stay when Mr. Endicott arrives.
Genres: Drama Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-12-26
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The Hoodlum Saint
Overview: A former reporter comes back home after serving in the army during World War I and finds that it's much more difficult to find work than he expected. Desperate, one day he crashes a wedding attended by many of the city's rich and powerful, meets a beautiful girl named Kay who turns out to be his ticket to meeting those rich and powerful people, and he soon manages to land a job on a newspaper. He gets caught up in the "make money at all costs" game but receives a rude awakening when the stock market crashes in 1929.
Genres: Drama Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-04-04
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The Unguarded Moment
Overview: A high-school music teacher is the victim of a student who writes indecent notes and assaults women.
Genres: Crime Drama Mystery Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-12-27
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That's Entertainment! III
Overview: Some of MGM'S musical stars review the studios history of musicals. From The Hollywood Revue of 1929 to Brigadoon, from the first musical talkies to Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1994-07-01
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Duchess of Idaho
Overview: Ellen Hallit is in love with her playboy boss, Douglas Morrison, but is too timid to do anything about it. To help her, her roommate Chris decides to step in, and devises a plan. Chris follows Morrison on his trip to Sun Valley, Idaho and plays the overattentive female, hoping that he will send for Ellen (who often played his "fiancée" when he had a female he couldn't discourage otherwise.) Complications arise when Chris catches the eye of band leader Dick Layne, and finds herself caught in a triangle between the two men.
Genres: Romance Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-07-14
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Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Overview: A documentary about the glorious history of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and its decline leading to the sale of its back lot and props. By extension this provides a general history of Hollywood's Golden Age and the legendary studio system.
Genres: Documentary History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-10
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Jupiter's Darling
Overview: Rome is on the verge of being conquered by Hannibal. While Rome's ruler, Fabius Maximus, plots a defense against Hannibal's armies, Fabius' fiancée, Amytis, is curious about the fearless conqueror. Amytis travels to Hannibal's camp just to get a look at him, but she ends up being captured. However, she is instantly smitten by the Carthaginian commander, so she tries to shift his attentions away from Rome -- and to her instead.
Genres: Music Adventure Romance History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-02-18
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Raw Wind in Eden
Overview: Passengers struggle to survive after their plane crashes on a remote island. Director Richard Wilson's 1958 drama stars Esther Williams, Jeff Chandler and Rosanna Podesta.
Genres: Adventure Crime Drama Mystery Romance Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-09-19
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Skirts Ahoy!
Overview: Three young ladies sign up for some kind of training at a naval base. However, their greatest trouble isn't long marches or several weeks in a small boat, but their love life.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-05-28
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Glorious Technicolor
Overview: The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company's work.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1998-12-07
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The Big Show
Overview: A European circus family is torn apart by greed and jealousy.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-05-10
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Inflation
Overview: The Devil works with Adolf Hitler to cause inflation in the United States.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-01-01
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Dance Crazy in Hollywood
Overview: American dancer and choreographer Hermes Pan recalls his life and work as he relives the glorious history of the Hollywood musical.
Genres: Documentary History Music TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-01-01
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That's Entertainment!
Overview: Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
Genres: Documentary Family Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-06-21
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Callaway Went Thataway
Overview: Two smart marketing people resurrect some old films starring cowboy Smoky Callaway and put them on television. The films are a big hit and the star is in demand. Unfortunately no one can find him. When a lookalike sends in a photo, the marketing team hires him to impersonate Callaway. Things get sticky when the real Callaway eventually shows up.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-11-15
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Magic Fountain
Overview: A financier decides to take a vacation somewhere where nothing can disturb him. He travels to the south of Spain, to a small village where he lives a primitive life. A chance meeting with a young American sociologist who works to guide women towards a healthier and more comfortable life change the pace of his life.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: es
Release Date: 1963-02-04
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Night of 100 Stars II
Overview: This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was taped February 17, 1985, at New York's Radio City Music Hall, this sequel to the 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" special features 288 celebrities.
Genres: Comedy Music TV Movie Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-03-10
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Esther Williams: Hollywood's Mermaid
Overview: The story of Esther Williams is that of an improbable encounter. That of the glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s with a swimming champion. A meeting that gave birth to the most kitsch and flamboyant genre films in Technicolor: the Aqua-musicals! A dive into the troubled waters of post-war Hollywood, where only her qualities as an athlete allow an extraordinary actress to fight to emancipate herself and avoid the traps of the predators who lurk around her
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2024-08-11
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Gene Kelly: Anatomy of a Dancer
Overview: American Masters Series. Documentary on Gene Kelly that gives insight into his dancing, how he formed a style (first "blue collar dancer") and developed different cinematique techniques, such as brilliantly shot dancing sequences.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-09-24
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Ziegfeld Follies
Overview: The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-08-26
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Hollywood Musicals of the 40's
Overview: Highlights from the great musicals of the 1940s. Stars featured include Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Durante and Frank Sinatra.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2000-09-01
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Tom & Jerry's 50th Birthday Bash
Overview: Celebrate the fiftieth birthday of the animated cat-and-mouse team, Tom & Jerry, including clips from their animated shorts!
Genres: Animation Documentary Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1990-11-30
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That's Entertainment, Part II
Overview: Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1976-05-16
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Twenty Years After
Overview: This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-01-01
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The Costume Designer
Overview: This short focuses on the job of the costume designer in the production of motion pictures. The costume designer must design clothing that is correct for the film historically and geographically, and must be appropriate for the mood of the individual scene. We see famed costume designer Edith Head at work on a production. The Costume Designer was part of The Industry Film Project, a twelve-part series produced by the film studios and the Academy. Each series episode was produced to inform the public on a specific facet of the motion picture industry. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-07-13
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That's Dancing!
Overview: A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.
Genres: Documentary Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-18
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Parade of Aquatic Champions
Overview: Johnny Weismuller, Esther Williams and other aquatic champions present an exhibition of swimming and diving.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1945-07-22
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The Original Mermaid
Overview: Story of Annette Kellerman, the international swimming vaudeville and silent screen star whose life story inspired the MGM classic Million Dollar Mermaid starring Esther Williams, which featured lavish Busby Berkeley scenes.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2002-02-20
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Personalities
Overview: In this "Romance of Celluloid", MGM showcases performers whose careers are just starting. Excerpts from their recently released films are included. The narrator says that moviegoers will have to decide whether these fledgling actors and actresses have that certain quality that made superstars out of MGM players Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Lana Turner.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-01-01
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Screen Actors
Overview: This short film takes a look at the off-screen personas of screen actors. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-05-13
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Busby Berkeley: Going Through the Roof
Overview: Documentary profile of legendary dance choreographer Busby Berkeley.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-03-28
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Andy Hardy Comes Home
Overview: Andy Hardy, now a grown man with a wife and children, returns to his hometown on a business trip and finds himself getting mixed up in local politics.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-12-22
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Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Overview: A TV special on the 100th anniversary of the birth of film.
Genres: Family Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-05-18
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Stars and Stripes: Hollywood and World War II
Overview: American Movie Classics produced this original salute to those celebrities who worked to improve the morale of the soldiers in World War II. Hosted by Tony Randall the one hour presentation included many clips from the news, USO shows, Armed Forces Radio, US Savings Bonds and more.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-11-01
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