Recent Obituaries, Classic Films Only

[CBHagman]

44. Esther Williams, 91.

[url]http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-esther-williams-dies-20130606,0,68760.story[/url]

Esther Williams, a swimming champion known for the MGM “aqua musicals” of the 1940s and '50s that turned her into a major Hollywood star, died early Thursday in her sleep, her longtime publicist, Harlan Boll, announced. She was 91.

Her films had such titles as “Bathing Beauty,” “Neptune’s Daughter” and “Million Dollar Mermaid” and received mixed reviews, but they packed theaters. For seven years she was in the top 10 box-office list.

She and choreographer Busby Berkeley “turned a swimming pool into a seraglio, a sultan’s dream with breathtaking production numbers of gorgeous girls swimming in geometric shapes around blue water while Esther, with orchids and exotic plants wound round her hair framing that beauteous face, was the centerpiece,” former Times columnist Jim Murray once wrote.

Over 20 years, Williams made 26 movies; later they would be credited with paving the way for synchronized swimming as an Olympic sport.