To support the family, Ann-Margret's mother became a funeral parlor receptionist[citation needed] after her husband suffered a severe injury on his job.

She was part of a group known as the Suttletones, which went to the Dunes hotel and casino in Las Vegas, which also headlined Tony Bennett and Al Hirt at the time.

Variety proclaimed that "George Burns has a gold mine in Ann-Margret... she has a definite style of her own, which can easily guide her to star status".

[10] A keen motorcyclist, Ann-Margret rode a 500 cc Triumph T100C Tiger in The Swinger (1966) and used the same model, fitted with a nonstandard electric starter, in her stage show and her TV specials.

She had a sexy, throaty contralto singing voice,[14] and 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;[15] the song was later performed by the Beatles in 1963.

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.

[21] Then came a 1962 remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical State Fair, in which she played the "bad girl" role of Emily opposite Bobby Darin and Pat Boone.

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.

"[24] She recorded three duets with Presley for the film: "The Lady Loves Me", "You're the Boss", and "Today, Tomorrow, and Forever"; only "The Lady Loves Me" made it into the final film and none of them were commercially released until years after Presley's death, due to concerns by Colonel Tom Parker that Ann-Margret's presence threatened to overshadow Elvis.

Ann-Margret was excited to do her next project, Bus Riley's Back in Town; its writer William Inge had penned her favorite film Splendor in the Grass (1961).

She then featured in Once a Thief, a crime film intended to be a star-making vehicle for French actor Alain Delon in the United States.

She then starred in the "hopelessly confused" sex comedy The Swinger which, in Stephen Vagg's words, "came close to killing her Hollywood career more than any other [film] by virtue of its sheer incompetence.

Looking at Ann-Margret's uneven draw at the box office, Vagg points out that after Viva Las Vegas, her roles in hit films "had been parts any girl could have played" but the star vehicles that were tailored for her were all flops.

[24] During a lull in her film career in July 1967, Ann-Margret gave her first live performance in Las Vegas, with her husband Roger Smith (whom she had married that May) taking over as her manager after that engagement.

[34] 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.

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.

"[24] On the set of The Train Robbers in Durango, Mexico, in June 1972, she told Nancy Anderson of Copley News Service that she had been on the "grapefruit diet" and had lost almost 20 pounds (134 to 115) eating unsweetened citrus.

[36] On Sunday, 10 September 1972, while performing at Lake Tahoe, she fell 22 feet (6.7 meters) from an elevated platform to the stage and suffered injuries including a broken left arm, cheekbone, and jawbone.

In addition, she has been nominated for ten Golden Globe Awards, winning five, including her Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Tommy.

[39] Other notable films she co-starred in during the late 1970s include Joseph Andrews (1977), The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977), the horror/suspense thriller Magic (1978) with Anthony Hopkins.

To round out 1982, she appeared alongside Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, and Julie Christie in the film adaptation of The Return of the Soldier.

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 1987 she co-starred with Elizabeth Ashley (and also with Claudette Colbert, in the last on-screen role of the film legend's career) in the NBC two-part series "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles".

The illustration was rendered so tightly in color pencil by freelance artist Chris Notarile that most people thought it was a composite photograph.

She played Belle Watling in Scarlett (1994), a television miniseries loosely based on the 1991 book of the same name written by Alexandra Ripley as a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind.

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.

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.

[48] 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.

[49] In 2006, Ann-Margret had supporting roles in the box-office hits The Break-Up with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, and The Santa Clause 3 with Tim Allen.