DIED. ESTHER RALSTON, 91, silent-movie star; in Ventura, California. Dubbed the "American Venus" for her role in the film of that name, the classic blonde beauty was one of the nation's highest-paid stars during her heyday in the 1920s, enchanting audiences in works like Peter Pan (1924), while achieving a degree of artistic success in Josef Von Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith (1929), in which she portrayed a peasant girl who takes a job as a servant in her lover's home. She continued acting well into the talkie era, appearing with such latter-day stars as Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott.