Ann-Margret

Ann-Margret Olsson celebrates her 68th birthday today.
The actress, singer and dancer was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden - a "small town of lumberjacks and farmers high up near the Arctic Circle".She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1949.

Ann-Margret met Elvis Presley on the MGM soundstage when the two filmed Viva Las Vegas (1964). They began a one-year affair that received considerable attention from the gossip columnists.Comparisons of Ann-Margret as the "female Elvis" were not confined to the publicity agencies. The two of them were truly similar in many ways--both were quiet and shy offstage and electric onstage, treasured their families and believed strongly in God, loved speed and motorcycles, could be defiant of danger, and could be self-destructive at times.






In 1963, Ann-Margret guest-starred in a popular episode of the animated TV series The Flintstones, voicing Ann-Margrock, an animated version of herself.



Throughout the 1970s, Ann-Margret balanced her live musical performances with a string of dramatic film roles that played against her glamorous image.Then came the musical Tommy in 1975, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.


Below is a clip from Tommy in which a drunken Ann-Margret is seen rolling around in Champagne suds, baked beans, and chocolate syrup gushing from her television set.