Top 47 Quotes & Sayings by Esther Williams

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actress Esther Williams.

Last updated on December 3, 2024.

Esther Jane Williams was an American competitive swimmer and actress. She set regional and national records in her late teens on the Los Angeles Athletic Club swim team. Unable to compete in the 1940 Summer Olympics because of the outbreak of World War II, she joined Billy Rose's Aquacade, where she took on the role vacated by Eleanor Holm after the show's move from New York City to San Francisco. While in the city, she spent five months swimming alongside Olympic gold-medal winner and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller. Williams caught the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer scouts at the Aquacade. After appearing in several small roles, and alongside Mickey Rooney in an Andy Hardy film and future five-time co-star Van Johnson in A Guy Named Joe, Williams made a series of films in the 1940s and early 1950s known as "aquamusicals", which featured elaborate performances with synchronised swimming and diving.

American - Actress | August 8, 1921 - June 6, 2013

Source: Wikipedia

The newspapers loved pinup pictures of pretty young swimmers, and as a national champion, I got more than my share of space in the sports pages.

Esther Williams

I never walked the streets of New York hoping to be a musical comedy star. For one thing, they would have thought I was too tall, because l was five feet eight and a half, and they were all little bitty things running around in the studio at that time.

Esther Williams

The wisdom acquired with the passage of time is a useless gift unless you share it.

Esther Williams

I remember when I first walked into Mayer's cavernous office. You had to walk 50 yards to get to him, and in that time he could really study everything about you.

Esther Williams

Clark Gable was the first to have called me a mermaid.

Esther Williams

My training in Science of Mind had begun with my mother. She took me to a different church every Sunday, and she encouraged me to question the minister afterward.

Esther Williams

Marriage to Fernando offered shelter and security, but the shackle was the price I'd pay.

Esther Williams

Which Esther Williams do you want to hear about?

Esther Williams

Howard Hughes himself was a regular at the restaurant, and in a way it became his headquarters, too. Howard had recently relocated to Las Vegas, so when he wanted to do business in Los Angeles, he went into the back of our restaurant to use the telephone.

Esther Williams

I took a job at the pool in order to earn the five cents a day it cost to swim. I counted wet towels. As a bonus, I was allowed to swim during lunchtime.

Esther Williams

By the time I got home at night, my eyes were so chlorinated I saw rings around every light.

Esther Williams

With two little boys in diapers, I had to keep it simple if I were going to have a life at all.

Esther Williams

Critics established a snobbery toward me.

Esther Williams

I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air.

Esther Williams

I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookers.

Esther Williams

Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.

Esther Williams

I gave my eardrums to MGM. And it's true: I really did.

Esther Williams

I always felt that if I made a movie, it would be one movie; I didn't see how they could make 26 swimming movies.

Esther Williams

It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely delicious.

Esther Williams

I think it's so funny when people think they can't control a movie star. They can. We're just women, you know.

Esther Williams

There was a policy at Hughes against drinking at lunch, but the men ignored it.

Esther Williams

Traveling to swimming meets took me beyond my small-town existence, gave me a hint of the exciting world outside of my own home.

Esther Williams

We can't all win Olympic medals. Even I never won one.

Esther Williams

Once I married Fernando, I became invisible.

Esther Williams

Widowhood had done nothing to curb my smart mouth. So much for diplomacy.

Esther Williams

I always took it for granted that there would be life after Hollywood.

Esther Williams

What the public expects and what is healthy for an individual are two very different things.

Esther Williams

When you're out of sight for as long as I was, there's a funny feeling of betrayal that comes over people when they see you again.

Esther Williams

I was 15, and the years of hard swimming had packed muscle on my frame and made me very strong. Not as strong as a football player, but strong enough to inflict heavy damage.

Esther Williams

Somehow I kept my head above water. I relied on the discipline, character, and strength that I had started to develop as that little girl in her first swimming pool.

Esther Williams

I ended up buying a restaurant. Already we had invested in a gas station and a metal products plant.

Esther Williams

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.

Esther Williams

Victor Mature was a big man; he had a great swagger. I liked him and I knew we'd be good together on screen.

Esther Williams

Even though I had a lucrative contract with MGM, I had a husband who was drinking and gambling our money away faster than I could make it.

Esther Williams

I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suit.

Esther Williams

Three events. Three gold medals. I was news, big news, in the sports world.

Esther Williams

No one had ever done a swimming movie before so we just made it up as we went along. I ad-libbed all my own underwater movements.

Esther Williams

It appeared as if I had invited the audience into the water with me, and it conveyed the sensation that being in there was absolutely delicious

Esther Williams

I was all in gold sequins for Million Dollar Mermaid, 50 feet in the air

Esther Williams

The animus is symbolized by male figures appearing in a womans dreams and fantasies, as a husband, son, father, lover, Prince Charming.

Esther Williams

I took my daily swim at the Beverly Hills Hotel pool despite the presence of onlookers

Esther Williams

Life magazine ran a page featuring me and three other girls that was clearly the precursor of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues

Esther Williams

No one can avoid a challenge in life without breeding regret, and regret is the arsenic of life.

Esther Williams

I was the only swimmer in movies. Tarzan was long gone, and he couldn't have done them anyway; he could never have gotten into my bathing suit

Esther Williams

Barely a teenager, Elizabeth Taylor was already more beautiful and voluptuous than Miss America. When she arrived at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for our magazine shoot, I was bowled over. I couldn't believe she was only fourteen. She filled out a swimsuit better than I did. We did the pictures, including one shot of me teaching her to float. With that superstructure of hers, she floated just fine. What she couldn't do was sink.

Esther Williams

I think it's so funny when people think they can't control a movie star. They can. We're just women, you know

Esther Williams

There was a policy at Hughes against drinking at lunch, but the men ignored it

Esther Williams