Ann-Margret’s Life Now: Rare Public Appearances and Possible Biopic Starring Lindsay Lohan

Legendary actress Ann-Margret is busier than ever as she approaches her 65th year in the entertainment industry.

Once Ann-Margret (full name Ann-Margret Olsson) left her native Sweden for the U.S. with her family in the 1940s, she showed an early performing ability as a student at the Marjorie Young School of Dance. Ann-Margret quickly found success in Hollywood and forged an indelible legacy with her acting performances in Bye Bye Birdie and, later, Grumpy Old Men.

Ann-Margret costarred with Elvis Presley in the 1964 musical comedy Viva Las Vegas, with the pairing proving so successful that they recorded three duets together. Presley and Ann-Margret’s onscreen chemistry carried over into a real-life love affair, which was immortalized in the 2005 CBS miniseries Elvis. (In the CBS series, Rose McGowan portrayed Ann-Margret, while Jonathan Rhys Meyers played Presley.)

Looking back on their fling in 2023, Ann-Margret joked that she was especially attracted to Presley because he “always smelled great.”

“He might not have had anything on, but he just always smelled fabulous,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “[Elvis] was extremely funny. He would do his asides and I’d be breaking up. And he loved to tease me and I’d tease him right back. Sometimes I punched him. He didn’t punch me back. Because if he would’ve, I would’ve really punched him hard.”

Ann-Margret’s other great love was her late husband Roger Smith, star of the classic ABC detective series 77 Sunset Strip. The couple were one of Hollywood’s most enduring marriages, as they tied the knot in 1967 and remained together until Smith’s death from myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease , in 2017. (Ann-Margret was a stepmother to Smith’s three children from a previous marriage.)

“When I look back at my life, I am most proud of my marriage,” the actress told Closer Weekly in 2022. “We both wanted it to work. And it did work. We were together night and day. We loved each other and we were always in each other’s corner.”

The Bye Bye Birdie actress remained active in the Hollywood community into her 80s, having recently turned heads in July 2025 with a red carpet appearance at the Project Angel Food’s Lead With Love fundraiser in Los Angeles.

She was a guest of honor at the charity event and even received an onstage tribute from Will & Grace actor Eric McCormack. Describing the silver-screen icon as “the female Elvis,” McCormack highlighted Ann-Margret’s “’60s dance moves that captivated the world.”

“You changed how a generation hit the dance floor,” the McCormack declared. “Where do those incredible moves come from? Does everyone in Sweden dance like that?”

In September 2025, Ann-Margret was a guest of honor at the 7th Annual Daytime Beauty Awards, where she received a tribute from Emmy-winning fashion expert Lawrence Zarian. She also made a special appearance at Walt Disney World in Florida in November 2023 as the guest narrator for the theme park’s festive Candlelight Processional. The ceremonial honor has been given to luminaries such as Neil Patrick Harris, Kurt Russell, Sigourney Weaver and Helen Hunt in the past.

Us Weekly exclusively reported in May 2024 that a long-awaited biopic on Ann-Margret’s incredible life and career was in the works — with Lindsay Lohan as a top contender to play the actress. An insider told Us exclusively at the time that Lohan felt she was “the only one who [could] play the part,” and was hopeful the role could “win [her] an Oscar [or] an Emmy.”

“[This role can] take her career to the next level,” a source said of Lohan, following her recent career renaissance with Irish Wish and Freakier Friday.

Ann-Margret has supported Lohan’s casting, though she told IndieWire in July 2025 that there were still some key details that needed to be worked out before the biopic moved forward.

“I know that [Lohan] wants to do that [biopic],” Ann-Margret said. “It just depends on what the dialogue is like. What can I say? I adore her. I think she’s full of talent, and I just would like to see what they can come up with.”

While Ann-Margret’s appearances on the big and small screens are rare these days, she has definitely not retired from acting. In recent years, she had a supporting role opposite Ellen Burstyn and James Caan in the romantic comedy Queen Bees and made a cameo appearance in the Hallmark Channel movie A Holiday Spectacular, both in 2021.

Many may not know that Ann-Margret briefly considered retirement back in the 1970s, going so far as to headline a farewell tour. As Ann-Margret later told Interview Magazine, she quickly decided that she didn’t enjoy life off the grid and vowed to keep working as long as she could.

“I thought, ‘Well, that’s it. I’m leaving the industry,’” she recalled in 2014. “But then I was retired for a year, in my mind, and then I said, ‘Honey, I don’t think I want to be retired. I’d like to go on stage again.’”

The actress went on. “You know, I feel so blessed [about my life]. The fact that I’ve got so many friends who are just so honest and so loyal and forgiving and still care.”

When she’s not turning heads on the red carpet these days, the Viva Las Vegas actress is surrounded by her close friends. Ann-Margret told Closer Weekly in 2022 that her friends created a walking group to help keep her active and engaged in life following her husband’s 2017 death.

“On Monday, there might be three of us,” Ann-Margret said. “Another day, there might be 15. We go to a different place every weekend to walk. I’m excited to go.”