Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool (eBook)

Ann-Margaret

This voluptuous rock-'em-sock-'em fireball starred in a dozen major '60s movies.

TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS

Ann-Margret had a meteoric rise to international stardom,and that was stardom with staying power. Even though her movie career has slowed, as it did in the late '60s, she has stayed in the spotlight, often with live Vegas shows that have only enhanced her reputation as a dynamic performer.

Born in Sweden, Ann-Margret Olsson and her family moved to America in the late '40s. She landed an agent at 16 and soon had gigs with a Midwestern vocal quartet called the Subtle Tones. When the group got jobs in Hollywood nightclubs, the studios spotted her, tested her, and quickly signed her to record and movie contracts. TV appearances, especially a show-stopper at the '62 Academy Awards, brought her national attention, and Bye Bye Birdie ('63), in which she was a 22-year-old playing a ninth grader, got her on the cover of Life magazine. JFK certainly appreciated Ann-Margret's exciting talent-she sang for him at his private birthday bash in '63.

A year later Kitten with a Whip (in which she went blonde) turned up the heat, but even more electric was her high-powered pairing with the King. In Viva Las Vegas ('64), she was as confident and sexy as Elvis (she was even called 'the female Elvis'). Off the screen, she headlined Vegas in '67 in a splashy five-week engagement at the Riviera Hotel, toured Vietnam twice with Bob Hope, and recorded albums of jazz, country, and Broadway tunes. After a brief slump and a bout with alcohol, her career revived in '71 with Carnal Knowledge and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. A year later she fell 22 feet while performing on a Tahoe stage-the accident put her in a comawith broken facial bones. Amazingly, within three months she reopened in Vegas to standing ovations.

Throughout the '70s and '80s she continuedto headline Vegas, looking more beautiful and drawingbigger crowds than ever. Her film career rebounded too, and she made dozens of movies into the 21st century, including Tommy ('75, bringing her a second Oscar nomination) and Grumpy Old Men ('93). Her '94autobiography, My Story, became a New York Timesbestseller, in '99 she got her fifth Emmy nomination, in2001 and 2002 she toured triumphantly with the hitmusical Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and in 2002she got a Grammy nomination for her gospel albumGod Is Love. Honoring her vivacious curves, Playboy put her thirteenth among the 100 sexiest stars of the century, right between KimBasinger and Anita Ekberg.

EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY

The press romantically linked her with Johnny Carson,Eddie Fisher, Steve McQueen, and Elvis. It was with theKing, whom she met on the set of Viva Las Vegas, thatshe got the most attention. She wrote in her autobiographythat when she and Elvis met in '63, they simultaneouslysaid the same words to each other: 'I've heard a lot about you.'

Their on-screen pairing was so hot, the chemistry so obvious, that when the studio released a publicity shot that showed them in wedding clothes, the fan magazines reported that the couple really was married. She later wrote: 'We were indeed soulmates, shy on the outside, but unbridled within.' After Elvis died in '77, she admitted that she would 'never recover from Elvis's death.' But she did find true love.

In '61 she met actor Roger '77 Sunset Strip' Smith, who was almost 10 years her senior, they hooked up again in '64, and married in Vegas in '67, moving into the Hollywood house formerly owned by Bogie and Bacall.