Ann-Margret recalls Bette Davis looking out for her on Pocketful of Miracles

People reports Ann-Margret, 84, recently told Interview Magazine she has fond memories of working with Bette Davis on the 1961 film Pocketful of Miracles.

The actress said Davis, who was known as a perfectionist whose standards sometimes led to clashes on set, was motherly toward her during a close-up. Ann-Margret recalled that Davis stopped filming and instructed, "Ann-Margret, this is your close-up, I want you to look as good as you possibly can. Makeup! Hair!" After the hair and makeup team finished, Davis said, "Okay, now we can go on. Oh, she was lookin’ out for me." Ann-Margret added, "I played her daughter and I really felt like it."

Pocketful of Miracles was Ann-Margret's first film; she went on to appear in more than 55 films, including Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas and Tommy. Of Tommy, she said director Ken Russell had a calm presence in her experience: "I had been told about him, and that he screamed a lot, so I was ready for that... In my presence, he didn’t scream at all. He just was very… calm. I really had a good relationship with him." Her later credits include a 2010 Emmy win for a guest role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and, most recently, 2021’s Queen Bees and two episodes of Netflix’s The Kominsky Method; she married actor Roger Smith in 1967 and they were together until his death in 2017.

Key Topics

Culture, Ann-margret, Bette Davis, Tommy, Ken Russell, Roger Smith