As she approached her final years, Esther Williams, the legendary Hollywood icon, took a nostalgic journey back to her early films. At 91, shortly before her passing in 2013, Esther revisited some of her classic MGM musicals. "I'm watching this beautiful young girl," she told her son Ben Gage. "She’s so pretty and charming. I really like her." Ben fondly recalls her saying to Closer, "The sweetest thing was that she was admiring herself." It was a touching moment, where Esther, the timeless star, found joy in her own legacy.
In the 1940s and '50s, Esther Williams captivated the nation. She wasn't just any star; she was the dazzling Olympic hopeful turned Hollywood sensation, known for her extravagant aquatic musicals. "[Very early] I sensed the water was my natural element," Esther reflected in her 1999 memoir, where she estimated she swam an astonishing 1,250 miles for the cameras. Her films weren't just entertainment—they were a celebration of her unparalleled talent and love for the water.
Esther's journey began in Los Angeles, where she was the fifth child in a family where her mother was weary of child-rearing. Raised largely by her older sister, Esther learned to swim early on. To afford the nickel entrance fee to the public pool, she earned her keep by counting towels in the pool house. The male lifeguards took a shine to her and taught her advanced strokes, including the butterfly. "She basically learned how to swim like a man," Ben says. "She blew all these other girls out of the water." Her early experiences shaped her into the swimmer and star she would become.
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Tragedy struck Esther's life early on. Her older brother, Stanton, who had acted in silent films, died at 16 from a burst colon. Then, at 14, Esther endured a harrowing incident when she was raped by a family friend her mother had taken in after his mother's death. Despite the trauma, Esther refused to let this define her. "Her greatest strength was her indomitable nature," Ben says. "She never gave up. That's what made her a champion swimmer. That's what made her a movie star. She tackled everything with just absolute certainty that she was going to dominate." Esther's resilience became the foundation of her success.
Hollywood Stardom: A 'Consolation Prize' for Esther Williams
By the age of 17, Esther was a competitive swimmer. "She was world class," Ben notes. She had earned her place on the U.S. swim team for the summer Olympics when the games were canceled due to World War II. Throughout her life, Esther viewed her rise to film stardom as a "consolation prize" for her unfulfilled Olympic dreams.
While performing with Billy Rose’s Aquacade, which originated from the 1939 New York World's Fair, Esther caught the attention of talent scouts from MGM Studios. Initially skeptical, it took a year of persuasion before she agreed to a screen test, where she was paired with the legendary Clark Gable. He kissed her repeatedly and called her a "mermaid." Esther made her big screen debut opposite Mickey Rooney in the 1942 film Andy Hardy's Double Life, marking the beginning of her illustrious career.
Two years later, Esther became a sensation in Bathing Beauty, a musical that featured water ballet around fountains, fire, and turquoise pools. "No one had ever done a swimming movie before, so we just made it up as we went along," Esther said. "I adlibbed all my own underwater movements." Recognizing the potential, the studio invested $250,000 in a state-of-the-art pool, setting the stage for Esther's other big-budget aquatic musicals.
As her career progressed, Esther's onscreen feats grew increasingly daring. She suffered a miscarriage and ruptured her eardrum seven times. During the filming of 1952’s Million Dollar Mermaid, the heavy gold crown she wore during a swan dive off a 50-foot platform snapped her head back upon hitting the water. Esther broke three vertebrae in her back, necessitating six months in a cast. "She went to Louis B. Mayer and said, 'I'm quitting,'" Ben recounts, explaining that the MGM executive eventually agreed to Esther's demand to stop performing stunts.
A Roller-Coaster Ride of Love and Marriage
In her personal life, Esther's early marriage to a medical student she described as "dull" ended after four years. Her relationship with singer/actor Ben Gage, the father of her three children, lasted 13 tumultuous years. "He was the love of her life," Ben says, acknowledging there was discord early on. "An L.A. Times article said that 'Ben Gage’s job is holding Esther Williams’ towel.' I think my dad burned down the empire to restore his ego." At the time of their split, Esther accused Ben of alcoholism, financial mismanagement, and squandering $10 million of her earnings. "I remember her, head in her hands, crying in our 27-room, three-story mansion in Pacific Palisades, months before it was gone," Ben says. "She looked at me and said, 'Honey, don’t ever do anything you don't want published on the front page of the L.A. Times.'"
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Esther rebounded by "running away to Rome" with her Dangerous When Wet co-star, Fernando Lamas. "He was her only leading man that could actually swim," Ben says, noting that this marriage created a significant rift between Esther and her children. "Fernando didn’t want any kids along. My brother and I went to military school. My sister, at 6, left with them but never really recovered from the experience. He was a bully." Their 1963 film, Magic Fountain, marked Esther's final movie. She retired and negotiated a new arrangement with Fernando. "The contract she signed was, You be the breadwinner, so I don’t have to," Ben says. "Promise me that the IRS isn’t going to knock on my door again and I’ll be your dutiful wife." They honored this agreement until Fernando's death in 1982.
Esther met her fourth husband, Edward Bell, in 1986 when she was asked to be a commentator at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. Over lunch, Edward expressed his admiration for her and Betty Grable. "She said to me, Betty Grable? That’s a dime-store girl!" he recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. The couple wed in 1994 and remained together until Esther's passing in 2013.
Her later years were devoted to nurturing relationships with her grandchildren and close friends. "She loved my kids. Loved to get them in the pool. Loved to show them her movies," Ben says. "They saw her differently and had a different relationship than I did — but then, they weren’t put in military school." Ben admits that despite his efforts, it was challenging to get close to his mother. She found solace with her circle of female celebrities, including Debbie Reynolds, June Allyson, Ann Miller, and Joanne Carson. "She used to call it the Fossils Club," Ben says. "They spent a lot of time together and were all really good friends. They understood the life they all shared — the troubles with men, money, and fame."
