Photo: Getty
Esther Williams, iconic actress and bathing beauty of the forties and fifties, died today, her publicist announced this afternoon. She was 91. Williams, a one-time Olympic hopeful, made a slew of “aquamusicals” for MGM and was famous for her onscreen swimming in movies like Million Dollar Mermaid (also the title of her autobiography), Dangerous When Wet (half live-action, half animated), and Neptune’s Daughter. Her elaborate underwater ballets made her the godmother of synchronized swimming and one of the most popular pinups of her day. Here she is in 1955’s Jupiter’s Darling:
