US swimming champion-turned-movie star Esther Williams has died in Los Angeles aged 91.

1.
Her spokesman said she died peacefully in her
sleep. She had been in declining health due to
old age.
A national swimming champion by the time she
was 16, her success led to a career in Hollywood
"aqua-musicals" designed just for her, in the
1940s.
She became known as Hollywood's Mermaid,
starring in films including Dangerous When Wet
and Easy to Wed.
Williams became one of cinema's biggest box-
office stars in the 1940s and 1950s, famously
appearing in spectacular swimsuits that
capitalised on her physical beauty.
Her films were typically lavish song-and-dance
affairs, following the same formula of romance,
music and comedy - held together by a
lightweight plot that provided infinite excuses
for the actress to get into the water.
Finales usually featured Williams diving into a
pool or lagoon and surfacing to a crescendo of
music, with water glistening on her beaming
face.
Her string of successful films included Thrill of a
Romance, Fiesta, On an Island With You and
Duchess of Idaho.
Co-stars included Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Red
Skelton, Ricardo Montalban and Howard Keel.
"I look at that girl and I like her," she said on
watching her films decades later, Reuters
reports.
"I can see why she became popular with
audiences. There was an unassuming quality
about her. She was certainly wholesome," she
said.
Esther Williams appeared on the BBC's Parkinson
show in 2000.
In the 1950s she attempted to branch out into
non-swimming roles, but met with little success.
"I guess what MGM found was that my audience
wanted that bathing suit," she said, when her
autobiography was released in 1999.
"And you know, when Cinemascope came in and
you've got that water all wrapped around you
and they'd do big close-ups of me... I think it
had too much pleasure connected with it for
them to change it."
She retired from the movies in 1962, following
her marriage to her third husband, Hollywood
playboy Fernando Lamas.
In her later years she hosted swimming events
for ABC-TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympic Games
and turned her attention to business, launching
her own line of swimwear.
Williams was married to Mr Lamas for 20 years
until his death in 1982. She and her last
husband Edward Bell lived in Los Angeles'
Beverly Hills.
Her autobiography also told of many romances,
including one with actor Jeff Chandler.
According to Williams, she discovered he was a
cross-dresser and walked out, explaining: "Jeff,
you're too big for polka dots." Several of Mr
Chandler's colleagues denied Williams' claims
when the book was published