Diane Varsi

Varsi suffered from Lyme disease, which contributed to her death from respiratory failure. Esther Williams retired from acting in the early 1960s. It was the last time she was seen on film. Her brother, Stanton Williams, also had a brief acting career during the 1920s before his death while still a teenager. Varsi appears only for a moment in the film and is almost unrecognizable; Deborah, the central character, crumples in misery on the floor of the dayroom, and Varsi breaks away from the wall, kneels by Deborah's side, and whispers a Roman Catholic blessing. Her third husband was actor Fernando Lamas. In the book, Sylvia was a patient in the mental hospital who ordinarily stood frozen by the wall and very rarely spoke, although completely aware of everything around her. She was romantically linked with Jeff Chandler, and has been married four times.

Another very brief but memorable Varsi role was Sylvia in I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, based on the Joanne Greenberg novel about a Jewish teen whose allegiance to an alternate universe called the Kingdom Of Yr has led to her being diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Her love life was a source of media interest. Varsi was rendered virtually mute and had to dub in her voice parts later. In her autobiography, Williams details several other occasions in which she nearly drowned shooting her oxygen-defying stunts. The director, John Korty, would not let Varsi off for her dad's funeral. Her many hours spent submerged resulted in her rupturing her eardrums numerous times. Her portrayal of the would-be Oldest One with a dead-flat affect but compassionate expression and soft, recollected speaking voice was partly caused by the death of her father just before filming began. She broke her neck filming a 50-foot dive off a tower during a climactic musical number for the 1952 release Million Dollar Mermaid which landed her in a body cast for six months (she subsequently recovered though she still suffers headaches as a result of the accident).

Science fiction and fantasy film fans probably remember Varsi best as Valancy Carmody in The People, a 1972 ABC-TV Movie of the Week based on a story by Zenna Henderson about peaceful alien refugees living on earth. Many of her films, such as Million Dollar Mermaid and Jupiter's Darling, contained elaborately staged swimming scenes, obtained not without physical cost to the performer. She appeared in the films Ten North Frederick (1958) and Compulsion (1959) and worked steadily throughout the 1960s. Her film career faded by the end of the decade and during the 1970s she played several television roles. Williams instead went to Hollywood, and quickly became a popular star of the 1940s and 1950s. The same year, she shared a Golden Globe as "Most Promising Newcomer" with Sandra Dee and Carolyn Jones. She qualified to be in the United States swim team in the 1940 Olympics, but the games were canceled due to World War II. Born in San Mateo, California, Varsi made her screen debut in Peyton Place (1958), and received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Esther Williams was born in Inglewood, California, and was enthusistic about swimming from her youth.

Diane Marie Varsi (February 23, 1938 - November 19, 1992) was an American film and television actress. Esther Jane Williams (born 8 August 1922) is a United States swimmer and movie star. Williams, Esther, The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography, Simon & Schuster, 1999.