Ann-Margret born 28 April 1941

Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye, Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy. Her later career includes character roles in Grumpy Old Men, Any Given Sunday, The Santa Clause 3, and The Break-Up. She has won five Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for two Academy Awards, two Grammy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and five Emmy Awards.

Ann-Margret has remained one of the most famous sex symbols and actresses since the early 1960s, and has continued her career through the following decades. Born in Sweden on April 28, 1941, she came to America at age 6. She studied at Northwestern University and left for Las Vegas to pursue a career as a singer. She was discovered by George Burns and soon afterward got both a record deal at RCA and a film contract at 20th Century Fox.

Her first RCA recording was "Lost Love" from her debut album And Here She Is: Ann-Margret, 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 singing voice, and RCA 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 the minor hit "I Just Don't Understand" (from her second LP), which entered the Billboard Top 40 in the third week of August 1961 and stayed six weeks, peaking at #17. The song was later covered in live performances by The Beatles and was recorded during a live performance at the BBC. 

Her only charting album was The Beauty and the Beard (1964), on which she was accompanied by trumpeter Al Hirt. She also sang at the Academy Awards presentation in 1962, singing the Oscar-nominated song "Theme from Bachelor in Paradise." Her contract with RCA ended in 1966. 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 #8 on the disco/dance charts. In 2001, working with Grammy Award-Winning producer-arranger-musician Art Greenhaw who calls Ann-Margret his favorite female vocalist, she recorded the critically acclaimed album God Is Love: The Gospel Sessions. The album went on to earn a Grammy Nomination and a Dove Nomination for best album of the year in a gospel category. Her album Ann-Margret's Christmas Carol Collection, also produced and arranged by Art Greenhaw, was recorded in 2004 and continues to be available every year during the holiday season.

Her acting debut was portraying 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 the following year. 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 winning actress. She was marketed as Hollywood's hottest young star and in the years to come got awarded the infamous nickname "sex kitten." Some of her pictures, like The Cincinnati Kid (1965) with Steve McQueen, were hits. While others such as Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) and Murderers' Row (1966), were ripped apart by critics. She couldn't escape being typecast because of her great looks. By the late 1960s, her career stalled, and she turned to foreign films and television for new projects. She returned and was back in the public image with Hollywood films like C.C. and Company (1970), Las Vegas sing-and-dance shows and her own television specials.

She finally overcame her image when she co-starred with Jack Nicholson in Carnal Knowledge (1971), receiving an Academy Award nomination and succeeding 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 plummeted 22 feet from a stage scaffold, suffering a brain concussion and fracturing five facial bones, her jaw and her left arm. Coming out of four days in a coma she made a full recovery. Later she was again Oscar-nominated in for her performance in Tommy (1975), the rock opera film of the British rock band The Who. Her film career continued successfully into the late '70s with starring roles in films like Magic (1978). She wowed the critics with her performances in Who Will Love My Children? (1983) (TV) and the remake of A Streetcar

Named Desire (1984) (TV) (TV), the first of many projects to earn her Emmy nominations.

After starring in a string of forgettable films throughout the 80s, she had one of the biggest commercial successes of her career with Grumpy Old Men (1993) as the object of desire for Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and it's equally successful sequel, Grumpier Old Men (1995) with Sophia Loren. Ann-Margret has also performed with such notable leading men as Al Pacino, John Wayne, Anthony Hopkins, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gene Hackman, Vince Vaughn, and John Travolta, vintage actresses such as Julie Andrews and Janet Leigh, as well as contemporary female stars like Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz. She continued to act in the 1990s and 2000s, with lead roles in TV and independent films, and supporting roles in Hollywood mainstream pictures such as Any Given Sunday (1999), Taxi (2004/I), The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), and The Break-Up (2006). On August 29, 2010, she won an Emmy Award for Guest Performance by an Actress for her "SVU" performance. It was the first Emmy win of her career, and she received a standing ovation from the Emmy venue audience as she approached the stage to receive her award.

Since 1967 she has been married to Roger Smith, and is the stepmother of his three children. Ann-Margaret is considered iconic and legendary, remaining one of Hollywood's top sex symbols and one of the most famous women in America.(Info edited mainly  from IMDB & Wikipedia)