Renowned as Ann-Margret, Ann-Margret Olsson became a megastar of the silver screen with an obvious mix of talent, charm, and beauty.
Born in Sweden and reared in the United States, her captivating personality in the entertainment business enthralled audiences.
But her multifarious skill—an actress, singer, and dancer—solidified her as an icon, not only her acting abilities.
Beginning in 1961, her professions in singing and acting span seven decades. She was first labeled as a female take-off of Elvis Presley.
Her voice is seductive and vivid contralto. She got a disco hit in 1979 and had a top 20 hit song in 1961 and a charting album in 1964.
Ann-Margret shot a screen test at 20th Century Fox in 1961 and was signed to a seven-year contract. Her cinematic début was in a loan-out to Frank Capra’s Pocketful of Miracles with Bette Davis; this retelling of Capra’s own Lady for a Day (1933).
Ann- Margret received her first Golden Globe for her performance alongside Jane Fonda and Christine Kaufmann in New Actress of the Year.
She then starred as the “bad girl” Emily opposite Bobby Darin and Pat Boone in a 1962 version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical State Fair.
She had already tested for Margie, the “good girl,” but the studio managers decided she was too attractive for the part.
Ann- Margret noted in her book that the two roles seemed to capture the two parts of her actual nature.
She was quiet and reserved offstage but, in her words, “from Little Miss Lollipop to Sexpot-Banshee,” she was outrageously joyful and seductive on stage.
She became a big star in Bye Bye Birdie (1963) playing the all-American teenage Kim.
Sixteen years after her initial visit to the esteemed theater, its premiere at Radio City Music Hall was the highest first-week grossing movie at the Music Hall.
Announcing that the “torrid dancing almost replaces the central heating in the theater,” life magazine placed her on the cover for a second time.
Her performance qualified her for a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination. One year following Marilyn Monroe’s legendary “Happy Birthday to You,” she was invited to sing “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home” at President John F. Kennedy’s special birthday celebration at the Waldorf Astoria New York.
Ann-Margret met Elvis Presley on the MGM soundstage when the two shot Viva Las Vegas (1964). Filmink said “She had so much energy and enthusiasm that she had blasted off screen her previous three male co-stars, but Elvis could equal her. She was his and he was the best on-screen partner she had ever had.
For the movie, she filmed three duets with Presley on “The Lady Loves Me,” “You’re the Boss,” and “Today, Tomorrow, and Forever.”
Concerns by Colonel Tom Parker over Ann- Margret’s presence threatened to eclipse Elvis, therefore only “The Lady Loves Me” made it into the last film and none of them were commercially released until years after Presley’s death.
Ann- Margret mixed TV and movies in the 1990s. Her part in the 1993 comedy hit Grumpy Old Men and its equally popular 1995 sequel Grumpier Old Men exposed her to a new generation.
She carried on her television career, getting her fourth Emmy nomination for the miniseries Queen (1993), in which she plays a woman who matures 60 years over the course of the show.
Ann-Margret was briefly engaged in 1962 and has been romantically associated to Eddie Fisher, Hugh O’Brien, Frankie Avalon, Vince Edwards, and Hollywood businessman Burt Sugarman during her career.
Until his death in 2017, she was married to Roger Smith 1967. From Smith’s earlier marriage, the pair reared three children.
(Photo credit: Pinterest / Wikimedia Commons).
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