A signed publicity still of Annette Kellerman.

Films starring Annette Kellerman almost always found a way to showcase her skills as a diver, swimmer and underwater ballet artist.

Coming at the tail end of her silent film career, Venus of the South Seas (USA, 1924) was directed by Kellerman's husband and manager James (Jimmie) Sullivan.

Annette Kellerman was 70 years old when this silent home movie footage was filmed.

In this newsreel excerpt, Annette Kellerman is training her troupe of performers in Sydney for a 'musical marine fantasy' hospital benefit – complete with piano accordion accompaniment.

After wowing Australia, England and Europe with her marathon swimming prowess, Annette Kellerman became famous for her vaudeville performances.

Born Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann on 6 July 1886 in Sydney, Kellerman (her stage name) was diagnosed with rickets as a young child. Rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency, resulting

This studio portrait of Annette Kellerman, taken around 1907, shows her wearing a revolutionary one-piece swimming costume.

‘After making examinations of ten thousand girls, Annette Kellerman is the closest to physical perfection of any’ declared Dr Dudley Sargent, director of the Harvard University Gymnasium in 1912.

This is an excerpt from a mute trailer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Million Dollar Mermaid (Mervyn LeRoy, USA, 1952).