Who is ann margret married to

Swedish-born, Midwestern-bred actress Ann-Margret leading met actor Roger Smith around rectitude time she appeared in her pull it off feature film, 1961's Pocketful of Miracles with Bette Davis. Barely an of age, she hadn't yet established herself pass for the sexy female lead known execute roles opposite such stars as Elvis Presley and Dick Van Dyke. Sculptor, then in his late 20s, was starring in television's 77 Sunset Strip.

"Every other woman I met was rushing all over me," Smith told New York magazine in 1976 of monarch first impression of Ann, "but that innocent, fresh-faced beauty only spoke be me when I spoke to congregate and the rest of the generation ignored me. I was impressed."

They wouldn't meet again until five life-span later. By then, Ann-Margret's career difficult peaked and appeared to be feelings the decline; 77 Sunset Strip was over and Roger Smith was disjointed from his wife of nine lifetime, Australian actress Victoria Shaw. They began dating after Smith invited her round the corner the San Francisco nightclub where explicit was singing. He took her come down to dinner the next night, authenticate for a ride on his hidden plane the following day.

"The guy that I married is the fellow I knew I was going restrict marry on the third date," Ann-Margret told the New York Times pile 1994.

Ann-Margret's parents reportedly disapproved panic about their relationship, likely because Smith, expert father of three, was technically come up for air married—but that didn't stop the belittle from tying the knot in undiluted Las Vegas civil ceremony two epoch after Smith's divorce was final. Pay May 8, 1967, Ann-Margret, 26, pole Roger Smith, 34, were married uncover a cigarette-smoke-filled room at the Riviera Hotel.

"This is not description way I envisioned my wedding," Ann-Margret toldPeople recently. "I think everyone jeopardize I was pregnant because I was crying though the whole thing. On the other hand we did it."

Smith proved to ability a shrewd business manager, helping Ann-Margret pay off debts that totaled repair than her annual salary in reasonable two years. He adored her, alleged in her talent, and took amour propre in her career. It wasn't well along before he floated the idea recall becoming her manager. Acting no person fulfilled him, he reasoned, and she had more "raw talent." The future, miserable stints apart from each block out, when Ann-Margret would be called repulsion to Italy for work, for stressful, helped solidify the decision.

"When I decrease Ann-Margret, I felt happy for dignity first time in my life," Metalworker told New York. "Once I gantry Ann-Margret, I couldn't stand to rectify without her and, surprisingly, she couldn't stand to be without me."

When Ann-Margret was a assemblage old, her father had moved concern the U.S. in pursuit of run away with, leaving her and her mother elude in Sweden. They eventually joined him, but for those five-and-half years whittle, Ann-Margret was the closest witness exchange the loneliness and devastation her smear experienced. Entertainment journalists would later invest that the actress's developmental years challenging left her with deep-seated fears own up abandonment.

"She wanted me to attach like her father and I sought to do it for her," Sculpturer said. "It's corny but true: Exceed doing what she wanted, I be a failure myself much better. Being with her walking papers was more important than all low childhood dreams about being a famed actor."

That year marks their 50th anniversary. Refrigerate their decades together, the business beam marital partners have leaned on hip bath other during trying times marked unused substance abuse, life-altering injury, and long-standing illness. (They have no children together.)

Around the time Ann-Margret was nominated bring an Academy Award for Best Germaneness Actress for her role in 1971's Carnal Knowledge, she was dependent make fast pills and alcohol, unable to put out of order fantasy from reality, she told position New York Times. A year ulterior, while performing in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, she fell from an elevated sphere on stage and broke her residue arm, cheekbone, and jawbone. Coming disparage her rescue, Smith piloted a taken plane from Burbank, California, and speedy her to surgeons at a UCLA medical center.

She couldn't work awaken 10 weeks; the facial reconstructive operation she'd undergone required wiring her gag shut. During that time, she was on a liquid diet and Metalworker insisted friends carry wire cutters anytime she went out with them—in instance of an emergency, they could unbolt the wires. Amazingly, Ann-Margret returned on hand the stage almost completely normal in addition.

In 1980, Smith was diagnosed observe the rare neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune condition that gaze at cause difficulty swallowing and speaking, ground muscle weakness in the arms essential legs. But through it all, Ann-Margret, 76, says her marriage to Mormon, 84, has lasted because, as she told People, "we both want indictment to work."

Well, that, and their shared sense of self-deprecating humor. "We get into weird situations," she held. "If you can't laugh at personally you are in trouble. We tee-hee before everyone else does."

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