Esther Williams

When Esther Williams was winning national championships in swimming, female athletes rarely achieved fame, much less fortune. They were few in number and generally marginalized. Still, Esther was a preternaturally talented swimmer and likely would have won a gold medal at the 1940 Olympics to be held in Tokyo, perhaps becoming an exception to the times. World War II intervened, however, and stole that singular opportunity from her.

Nevertheless, she had attracted attention anyway. From her official website:

In 1940 newspaper sports reportage, swimmers were frequently lined up for cheesecake photos, flashing big smiles and lots of leg. With her stunning good looks and tall, well-muscled frame, Esther was a standout! It didn't take long for legendary showman Billy Rose to notice the photogenic champion. Rose needed a female lead to star opposite Olympian and screen star Johnny Weismuller in his San Francisco Aquacade review. He invited Williams up for an audition and, so the story goes, Weismuller himself picked her out of a casting call of 75 hopefuls. Her performing career had begun.

Williams went on to make several movies, and for a time was among MGM's biggest stars. She was most famous, of course, for her scenes in the water. There she did most the work herself, which led to many injuries, even breaking her neck once during filming of a 115 ft dive. (Something to keep in mind when watching scenes from her movies, like the clip below.)

Resilient as ever, Esther recently fought back from a stroke; not only that, she is still swimming, as revealed in a GMA interview from 2007.

Want to know where the sport of synchronized swimming came from? Look no further than Esther Williams: