Biography

Actress and singer Ann-Margret is one of the most famous sex symbols and actresses of the 1960s and beyond. She continued her career through the following decades and into the 21st century.

Ann-Margret was born Ann-Margret Olsson in Valsjöbyn, Jämtland County, Sweden, to Anna Regina (Aronsson) and Carl Gustav Olsson, who worked for an electrical company. She came to America at age 6. She studied at Northwestern University and left for Las Vegas to pursue a career as a singer. Ann-Margret was discovered by George Burns and soon afterward got both a record deal at RCA and a film contract at 20th Century Fox. In 1961, her single "I Just Don't Understand" charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. Her acting debut followed the same year as Bette Davis' daughter in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles (1961). She appeared in the musical State Fair (1962) a year later before her breakthrough in 1963. With Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Viva Las Vegas (1964) opposite Elvis Presley, she became a Top 10 Box Office star, teen idol and even Golden Globe nominated actress. She was marketed as Hollywood's hottest young star and in the years to come got awarded the infamous nickname "sex kitten." Her following pictures were sometimes ripped apart by critics (Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and The Swinger (1966)), sometimes praised (The Cincinnati Kid (1965)). She couldn't escape being typecast because of her great looks. By the late 1960s, her career stalled, and she turned to Italy for new projects. She returned and, by 1970, she was back in the public image with Hollywood films (R.P.M. (1970) opposite Anthony Quinn), Las Vegas sing-and-dance shows and her own television specials. She finally overcame her image with her Oscar-nominated turn in Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and succeeded in changing her image from sex kitten to respected actress. A near-fatal accident at a Lake Tahoe show in 1972 only momentarily stopped her career. She was again Oscar-nominated in 1975 for Tommy (1975), the rock opera film of the British rock band The Who. Her career continued with successful films throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s. She starred next to Anthony Hopkins in Magic (1978) and appeared in pictures co-starring Walter Matthau, Gene Hackman, Glenda Jackson and Roy Scheider. She even appeared in a television remake of Tennessee Williams's masterpiece play "A Streetcar Named Desire" in 1983. Another late career highlight for her was Grumpy Old Men (1993) as the object of desire for Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. She continues to act in movies today.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Moonie

Strawberry blonde hair

Voluptuous figure

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#10). [1995]

Was a cheerleader at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. Other New Trier graduates include Ralph Bellamy, Charlton Heston, Rock Hudson, Hugh B. O'Brien, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Virginia Madsen and Liz Phair.

She formed a lifelong bond of friendship with Elvis Presley in their first pairing in Viva Las Vegas (1964). It was kept alive by Elvis' habit of sending a bouquet of flowers to all of her stage-show appearances, until he died in 1977. She reveals her romance with Elvis in her autobiography.

Discovered by actor/comedian George Burns when he heard her sing in a campus musical at Northwestern University and hired her to be a part of his Las Vegas act. [November 1960]

Speaks Swedish fluently.

Rode a 500cc Triumph T100C Tiger motorcycle in The Swinger (1966) and the same model fitted with a non-standard electric starter in her stage show. A keen motorcyclist, she was featured in Triumph Motorcycles' official commercials in the 1960s -- for obvious reasons.

She had two Billboard Club Play charting hits: in 1979 with "Love Rush" which climbed to #8, and in 1980 with "Midnight Message" that peaked at #12.

Is not a natural redhead. That was Sydney Guilaroff's idea. The legendary hairdresser was also responsible for turning Lucille Ball into a redhead.

Wrote her autobiography when she heard that an unauthorized biography was in the works and wanted to beat the unauthorized biography to press.

She and George Burns (who discovered her) were both Oscar nominees in 1975 (respectively for Tommy (1975) and The Sunshine Boys (1975). Burns won but she did not.

Almost married Burt Sugarman in 1962.

Paul Lynde played her father in Bye Bye Birdie (1963). He later appeared as a producer on an episode of I Dream of Jeannie (1965), and a character asks him what Ann-Margret is really like.

In 2013, she experienced a resurge in popularity thanks to her most famous film being the center of attention during an episode of the television series Mad Men (2007).

Is one of 27 actresses to have received an Academy Award nomination for their performance in a musical; hers being Tommy (1975). The others, in chronological order, are: Bessie Love (The Broadway Melody (1929)), Grace Moore (One Night of Love (1934)), Jean Hagen (Singin' in the Rain (1952)), Marjorie Rambeau (Torch Song (1953)), Dorothy Dandridge (Carmen Jones (1954)), Deborah Kerr (The King and I (1956)), Rita Moreno (West Side Story (1961)), Gladys Cooper (My Fair Lady (1964)), Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Victor Victoria (1982)), Debbie Reynolds (The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)), Peggy Wood (The Sound of Music (1965)), Carol Channing (Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)), Kay Medford (Funny Girl (1968)), Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl (1968)), Liza Minnelli (Cabaret (1972)), Ronee Blakley (Nashville (1975)), Lily Tomlin (Nashville (1975)), Lesley Ann Warren (Victor Victoria (1982)), Amy Irving (Yentl (1983)), Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge! (2001)), Queen Latifah (Chicago (2002)), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago (2002)), Renée Zellweger (Chicago (2002)), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls (2006)), Penélope Cruz (Nine (2009)), Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables (2012)), Meryl Streep (Into the Woods (2014)), and Emma Stone (La La Land (2016)).

Is one of six Swedish actresses to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award. The others are Ingrid Bergman, Anita Ekberg, Lena Olin, Rebecca Ferguson and Alicia Vikander.

Her favorite impersonator was Michael A. Andrews.

Inducted into the Hair Fan's Hall of Fame. [2014]

Her husband Roger Smith died less than a month after their 50th wedding anniversary.

As of 2018, has never appeared in a Best Picture Oscar nominated film.

The critics had an image of me, and they wouldn't accept any other... I was a cartoon character. A joke.

[on Elvis Presley] He's an animal. Definitely an animal. A very interesting animal.

[1975, on the hallucination scene in Tommy (1975) in which she cavorts in food] I knew when I read the script that that was going to be a rough scene to film, if we could do it at all. We shot 'Tommy' during a period of three months, and the TV scene was the second to the last one we shot. Russell [director Ken Russell] needed all that time to prepare it.

People ask me how we did it. It was done exactly the way it seems to have been done. Those were real soapsuds, and real baked beans, and that was real chocolate. After we got the chocolate smeared all over, we had to take a day off from shooting - we didn't work on Sundays - and you wouldn't believe what that set was like by Monday, with the chocolate under the hot lights.

They only knew in theory how it would work; they'd never tried it. What happened was that the room filled with suds - literally filled up. And I was rolling on the floor under the soap and I caught a piece of glass in my hand. Under liquid like that, you don't really feel the cut very much. I thought I'd nicked something, and then I saw the suds turning pink. And the next thing I knew, I'd had 23 stitches taken. That was bad enough, but as for the beans... To this day, I can't look a bean in the face.