Esther Williams a star in the pool and on the silver screen
Esther Williams' Olympic dreams were dashed by war but Hollywood fame was soon to follow
As a teenager, Esther Williams dreamed of Olympic glory on the US swim team. She had to settle instead for becoming a movie star.
The self-described "Million Dollar Mermaid", whose wholesome beauty, shapely figure and aquatic skills launched an entire genre of movies - the Technicolor "aqua musicals" - died on June 6 at the age of 91. She was remembered for her Hollywood fame but also her influence on fashion and on synchronised swimming, the Olympic sport inspired by her cinematic water ballet.
Williams followed in the footsteps of Sonja Henie - who went from skating champion to movie star - and became one of Hollywood's biggest moneymakers after she lost the chance to compete in the Olympics when they were cancelled due to the onset of the second world war. She appeared in glittering swimsuit numbers that featured towering fountains, waterfalls, pools, lakes, slides, water skis and anything else that involved water.
"The girl you will dream about!" raved the 1944 trailer for Bathing Beauty, the first big aqua musical. It showed a smiling Williams posing in a bright pink one-piece suit with the pointy chest popular at the time, a matching pink bow in her hair.
Co-starring Red Skelton, the show was first called Mr Coed. But MGM executives changed the title when they realised how big the actress was going to be during filming, according to a biography on Williams' website.
"No one had ever done a swimming movie before," Williams said later. "So we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements."