Music career Ann-Margret began recording for
RCA Victor in 1961, first recording "Lost Love". Her debut album
And Here She Is ... Ann-Margret was recorded in Hollywood, arranged and conducted by
Marty Paich. Later albums were produced in Nashville with
Chet Atkins on guitar,
the Jordanaires (
Elvis Presley's backup singers), and the
Anita Kerr Singers, with liner notes by mentor George Burns. She had a sexy, throaty
contralto singing voice. RCA Victor attempted to capitalize on the "female Elvis" comparison by having her record a version of "
Heartbreak Hotel" and other songs stylistically similar to Presley's. She scored a minor success with "
I Just Don't Understand" (from her second LP), which entered the
Billboard Top 40 in August 1961 and stayed six weeks, peaking at number 17; Her only charting album was
Beauty and the Beard (1964), on which she was accompanied by trumpeter
Al Hirt. Other career highlights included appearing on
The Jack Benny Program in 1961 and singing the
Bachelor in Paradise theme at the
34th Academy Awards in 1962. Her contract with RCA Victor ended in 1966. In 1963,
Life Magazine mentioned that her recordings had sold in excess of half a million units. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she had hits on the dance charts, the most successful being 1979's "Love Rush", which peaked at number eight on the disco/dance charts. 2011 saw the release of
God is Love: The Gospel Sessions 2. In 2023, she went back into the studio to record a full-length album of new recordings for Cleopatra Records. "
Born to Be Wild" featured 13 covers including "
Splish Splash", "
Earth Angel", "
Son of a Preacher Man", and a new take on "
Teach Me Tonight" featuring
Pat Boone. Other guest performers included
Pete Townshend,
The Fuzztones,
Paul Shaffer,
The Oak Ridge Boys, and more. The album was released on 14 April 2023, on vinyl, compact disc, and all streaming platforms.
Rapid rise to Hollywood stardom (1961–1964) In 1961, Ann-Margret filmed a
screen test at
20th Century Fox and was signed to a seven-year contract. She made her film debut in a loan-out to
United Artists alongside
Bette Davis in
Frank Capra's
Pocketful of Miracles, a remake of Capra's own
Lady for a Day (1933). For her performance Ann-Margret was awarded her first
Golden Globe, for
New Actress of the Year, alongside
Jane Fonda and
Christine Kaufmann. In a 1962 remake of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical
State Fair, she played the "bad girl" role of Emily opposite
Bobby Darin and
Pat Boone. She had previously tested for the part of Margie, the "good girl", but the studio bosses deemed her too seductive for that role. In her autobiography, Ann-Margret wrote that the two roles seemed to represent the two sides of her real-life personality. She was shy and reserved offstage but wildly exuberant and sensuous onstage, transforming "from Little Miss Lollipop to Sexpot-Banshee", in her words. In a 2021 retrospective of Ann-Margret's career for
FilmInk, Stephen Vagg argued "she wasn't that well cast as a bad girl. Because she had so much energy and shape, producers thought she was; but she was more effective in parts closer to what she was in real life: an energetic good girl with a twinkle in the eye". Her performance as the all-American teenager Kim in
Bye Bye Birdie (1963) made her a major star. Its premiere at Radio City Music Hall, 16 years after her first visit to the famed theater, was the highest first-week grossing film to date at the Music Hall.
Life magazine put her on the cover for the second time and announced that the "torrid dancing almost replaces the central heating in the theater". Her performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for
Best Actress. She was then asked to sing "
Baby Won't You Please Come Home" at President
John F. Kennedy's private birthday party at the
Waldorf Astoria New York, one year after
Marilyn Monroe's famous "
Happy Birthday to You". A few months later, Ann-Margret voiced an animated version of herself, named "Ann-Margrock", on the television series
The Flintstones. She sang the ballad "The Littlest Lamb" as a
lullaby, as well as the rocker, "Ain't Gonna Be a Fool". Ann-Margret met
Elvis Presley on the
MGM soundstage when the two filmed
Viva Las Vegas (1964).
Filmink argued "She had so much energy and pep that she had blown her previous three male co-stars off screen, but Elvis could match her. He was the best on-screen partner she ever had, and she was his". Choreographer
David Winters was hired because Ann-Margret was his dance student and recommended him for the job. It was Winters' first choreographer credit on film. He would go on to become a common collaborator for both Presley and Ann-Margret.
Decline in fortunes and European sojourn (1965–1969) Bye Bye Birdie and
Viva Las Vegas had established Ann-Margret as Hollywood's biggest new star, but a string of box-office flops followed until October 1965. The first,
Kitten with a Whip, saw Ann-Margret give a "balls-to-the-wall performance" as a juvenile delinquent who entraps a politician. Ann-Margret broke her flop streak with
The Cincinnati Kid, in which she played a
femme fatale opposite
Steve McQueen. It was her first hit since
Viva Las Vegas, but her role was not a large one. In 1966, Ann-Margret starred in four films.
Made in Paris, the first of these, was a fashion-focused romantic comedy in which Ann-Margret received top billing.
FilmInk attributes its box office failure to "dodgy writing and uninspiring male leads". After the first Vegas run ended, she followed with a
CBS television special
The Ann-Margret Show, produced and directed by
David Winters on 1 December 1968, with guest-stars
Bob Hope,
Jack Benny,
Danny Thomas, and
Carol Burnett. Then, she returned to
Saigon as part of Hope's Christmas show. A second CBS television special followed,
Ann-Margret: From Hollywood With Love, produced, directed and choreographed by David Winters, with guest-stars
Dean Martin and
Lucille Ball. David Winters and the show were nominated for a Primetime Emmy in Outstanding Choreography.
Critical acclaim in supporting roles (1970s) in 1975 In 1970, she returned to films with
R. P. M., where she starred alongside
Anthony Quinn, and
C.C. and Company with
Joe Namath as a biker and her portraying a fashion journalist. In 1971, she starred in
Carnal Knowledge by director
Mike Nichols, playing the girlfriend of a neglectful, arguably abusive character played by
Jack Nicholson. She was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Filmink argued this amounted to a comeback "in a way...because she never really regained her former status as an above-the-title star of feature films—her follow-up movies were 'girl' parts... the seventies were tough times for female stars who were not Barbra Streisand." On Sunday, 10 September 1972, while performing at
Lake Tahoe, she fell from an elevated platform to the stage and suffered injuries including a broken left arm, cheekbone, and jawbone. She required meticulous
facial reconstructive surgery that required wiring her mouth shut and putting her on a liquid diet. Unable to work for ten weeks, she returned to the stage almost back to normal. Throughout the 1970s, Ann-Margret balanced her live musical performances with a string of dramatic film roles that played against her glamorous image. In 1973, she starred with
John Wayne in
The Train Robbers. Then came the musical
Tommy in 1975, for which she received her second Oscar nomination, this time for the
Academy Award for Best Actress. In addition, she has been nominated for ten
Golden Globe Awards, winning five, including her
Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for
Tommy. On 17 August 1977, Ann-Margret and Roger Smith traveled to Memphis to attend Elvis Presley's funeral. Three months later, she hosted
Memories of Elvis featuring abridged versions of the
Elvis 1968 TV and
Aloha from Hawaii specials. Other films she co-starred in during the late 1970s include
Joseph Andrews (1977),
The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), and the horror/suspense thriller
Magic (1978) with
Anthony Hopkins. She had a cameo in
The Cheap Detective (1978). Ann-Margret was an early choice of
Allan Carr's to play the role of Sandy Dumbrowski in the 1978 film
Grease. At 36 years of age when filming commenced, she was ultimately determined to be too old to convincingly play the role of a high school student. Twenty-eight-year-old
Olivia Newton-John got the role instead, and the character was renamed "Sandy Olsson" (after Ann-Margret's birth surname) in her honor. For her contributions to the film industry, Ann-Margret received a
motion picture star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1973. Her star is located at 6501
Hollywood Boulevard.
Television-movie era (1980s) Ann-Margret starred opposite
Bruce Dern in
Middle Age Crazy (1980). In 1982, she co-starred with
Walter Matthau and
Dinah Manoff in the
film version of
Neil Simon's play
I Ought to Be in Pictures. That same year also saw the release of ''
Lookin' to Get Out'', filmed two years prior in 1980, in which she co-starred with
Jon Voight and played the mother of a five-year-old
Angelina Jolie in Jolie's screen debut. To round out 1982, she appeared alongside
Alan Bates,
Glenda Jackson, and
Julie Christie in the film adaptation of
The Return of the Soldier. She also starred in the TV movies
Who Will Love My Children? (1983) and a remake of
A Streetcar Named Desire (1984), winning Golden Globe Awards for both performances. After
Barbara Stanwyck won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie in 1983 for her role in
The Thorn Birds, she mentioned Ann-Margret's performance in
Who Will Love My Children?, stating at the podium "I would like to pay a personal tribute at this time to a lady who is a wonderful entertainer...I think she gave one of the finest, most beautiful performances I have ever seen...Ann-Margret, you were superb." In
Twice in a Lifetime (1985) Ann-Margret portrayed a waitress for whom
Gene Hackman's character left his wife. The next year she appeared as the wife of
Roy Scheider's character in the crime thriller
52 Pick-Up. In 1987 she co-starred with
Elizabeth Ashley, and
Claudette Colbert, in the last on-screen role of the film legend's career, in the NBC two-part series
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. It earned Ann-Margret another
Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Mini Series or a Special. In 1989, an illustration of
Oprah Winfrey appeared on the cover of
TV Guide, and although the head was Oprah's, the body was from a 1979 publicity shot of Ann-Margret. The illustration was rendered so tightly in color pencil by freelance artist Chris Notarile that most people thought it was a composite photograph. Ann-Margret also starred in several television films, including
Queen: The Story of an American Family (1993),
Following Her Heart (1994), and
Life of the Party (1999), the latter of which she received nominations for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a
Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2000, she recorded the theme song, a modified version of the
Viva Las Vegas theme, to the live-action film
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. She made guest appearances on the television show
Touched by an Angel in 2000 and three episodes of
Third Watch in 2003. In 2001, she made her first appearance in a stage musical, playing the character of
brothel owner Mona Stangley in a new touring production of
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The production co-starred
Gary Sandy and
Ed Dixon. She played
Jimmy Fallon's mother in the 2004 comedy
Taxi, co-starring
Queen Latifah. In 2001, Ann-Margret worked with
Art Greenhaw on the album
God Is Love: The Gospel Sessions. The project resulted in her second Grammy Award nomination and first Dove Award nomination for Best Album of the Year in a Gospel category. They teamed up again in 2004 for the album ''Ann-Margret's Christmas Carol Collection
. She performed material from the album at two auditorium church services at Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, and broadcast worldwide on the program Hour of Power''. In November 2005, Ann-Margret reunited with
Chuck Day and
Mickey Jones for an encore of their 1966 USO tour for veterans and troops at
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. In the fall of 2011, she co-starred with
Andy Williams for a series of concerts at his Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri. These proved to be Williams' last performances before his death in 2012. In 2014, she began appearing in a recurring role in the Showtime original series
Ray Donovan. On 1 October 2018, it was announced that she had joined the second season of the
Syfy series
Happy! in a recurring role. In 2018, she guest-starred in
The Kominsky Method, portraying Diane, a widow and possible love interest for the recently widowed Norman, played by
Alan Arkin. On 28 November 2023, she was a guest narrator of
Disney's Candlelight Processional at
Walt Disney World. ==Personal life==