Saturdays with the Stars: Ann-Margret

Each month of 2020 we will be looking at the movies of some of Hollywood's most famous sex symbols, women whose intense beauty frequently overshadowed their filmic careers.  Last month, our focus was on Nancy Kwan, an actress born in China who found international fame in American movies in the early 1960's.  For the final two months of the year, we'll continue bridging the series back to the states with an actress born in Europe but quintessentially known as an American starlet, a woman who somehow toed the line between girl-next-door and fire-haired temptress.  This month, our star is Ann-Margret.

Ann-Margret, despite working almost exclusively in the states during her long film career, was not actually born in America but in Sweden.  She moved to the US at the age of 5, becoming a citizen when she was eight, and quickly showed a propensity for dance.  After high school, she started to appear in shows in Los Angeles and Nevada, eventually catching the eye of George Burns of all people, who saw her potential and put her in one of his television specials, which brought her to the attention of pretty much every casting director in town (Burns & Ann-Margret enjoyed a longtime friendship and would frequently appear together in acts until his death).

Ann-Margret's success in film was almost instantaneous (she had a bit of fame with music at the time, trying to be both a pop star & a film actress, but it was the latter that made her a household name).  After appearing opposite Bette Davis in Pocketful of Miracles, she had massive hits with Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas, the latter with Elvis Presley in one of his more memorable onscreen roles.  Throughout the decade she'd play sexpots opposite people like Louis Jourdan and Steve McQueen, including Kitten with a Whip, which would become her nickname.  In the 1970's she was the rare sex symbol who transitioned into critically-acclaimed work, getting two Oscar nominations for Carnal Knowledge and Tommy (she didn't win for either).  By the decade's end, she was starting to see her film career slow, and like many other actresses of her generation, began to move into television, where she had solid success, even winning an Emmy Award for her work on Law & Order: SVU.

Today if people talk about Ann-Margret, it's almost always in the context of her "kitten with a whip" persona.  When she was featured as a subplot in a Mad Men episode, it was to do with her distinctive beauty singing the opening of Bye Bye Birdie rather than anything to do with her as an actress.  This month, I want to turn that on its head-we'll be discussing the woman behind the gorgeous face and mane of red hair, and on her career, focusing in on both of her Oscar-nominated films as well as some of her earlier work.  Ann-Margret was the rare sex symbol who enjoyed genuine critical success during her time in the sun, but still is remembered today for her looks more than her thespian talents-let's take a look as to why.