Ann-Margret, 85, Makes Rare Appearance Following Injury

Ann-Margret is back in the spotlight after breaking her elbow last month.

The Bye Bye Birdie star was honored on Wednesday by the USO for her three tours with the organization in Southeast Asia, a celebration she attended just one day after marking her 85th birthday.

The Oscar-nominated actress was also presented with the USO Challenge Coin during her rare public appearance, becoming the second-ever recipient of the honor alongside comedian Bob Hope.

“I have always had such a great time doing these tours,” Ann-Margret told Deadline at the event, “and then to see my guys since then come up to me and say I saw you in Vietnam and Da Nang. And then to say, ‘Well, I liked you in Bye Bye Birdie and Viva Las Vegas.’”

“Those tours and all my guys mean the world to me,” she added. “I remember all of them, all of them.”

Ann-Margret looked to be in high spirits after telling Parade earlier in the month that she had suffered a broken elbow after falling at her Beverly Hills home.

“I fell the other day and so now my right elbow is broken,” the performer revealed at the time. “That’s okay … I have fallen so many times. I don’t intend to, but I do! What can I say?”

While she was forced to cancel an autograph signing in the aftermath of her injury, Ann-Margret assured her fans that she was on the road to recovery, saying at the time, “Yes, I am. I sure am!”

The star noted that the fall was far from her first, as she once fell from a 22-foot-high platform while preparing for a performance at a Lake Tahoe, Nev., casino in 1972.

“My face was collapsed and swollen beyond recognition. Numerous bones in my face were either broken or fractured. My jaw was broken in two places. My left arm was broken,” she wrote in her 1994 autobiography, My Story, as per Parade. “The doctors feared I’d never dance again—if I survived.”

Less than 10 weeks later, Ann-Margret was able to return to the stage and was almost completely healed. “I have always learned from my parents that you just get up,” she said. “You just start all over again.”