Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor Biography

Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 6 February 1917) is a Hungarian-born American socialite and actress who acted in supporting roles in movies, on Broadway, and occasionally on television.

She began her stage career in Vienna at age 15, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that "exuded charm and grace". Her first movie role was as supporting actress in Lovely to Look At. She later acted in We're Not Married! and played one of her few leading roles in Moulin Rouge (1952), directed by John Huston, who described her as a "creditable" actress. Besides her film and television appearances, she is best known for having nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, "Men have always liked me and I have always liked men. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman – not just a man with muscles."

Early life and career

Born in Budapest (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), her birth name was Gábor Sári (). She is the middle of three daughters born to Vilmos Gábor (1884"1962), a soldier, and Jolie Gábor (née Tilleman; died 1997). Gabor was named after Sári Fedák, a popular Hungarian actress. Her elder sister Magda was a socialite and her younger sister Eva was an actress and businesswoman.

Gabor's mother, Jolie, was an aunt of Annette Lantos, wife of Hungarian-born U.S. congressman and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos. Jolie was of Jewish descent and barely escaped Hungary after the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, crediting Magda's influential connections with rescuing her: "For Magda's Portuguese Ambassador I thank God. It was this man who saved my life." Gabor's maternal grandmother and uncle Sebastian (Annette Lantos's father) chose to remain in Budapest feeling they "had a good place to hide". However, both died during an Allied bombing raid. The fate of Zsa Zsa's three maternal aunts, Jolie's three sisters, remains unclear.

Following studies at Madame Subilia's, a Swiss boarding school, Zsa Zsa was discovered by tenor Richard Tauber on a trip to Vienna in 1936 and was invited to sing the soubrette role in his new operetta, Der singende Traum (The Singing Dream), at the Theater an der Wien, making her first stage appearance. Author Gerold Frank, who helped Gabor write her autobiography in 1960, describes his impressions of her while the book was being written:

Zsa Zsa is unique. She's a woman from the court of Louis XV who has somehow managed to live in the 20th century, undamaged by the PTA ... She says she wants to be all the Pompadours and Du Barrys of history rolled into one, but she also says, "I always goof. I pay all my own bills ... I want to choose the man. I do not permit men to choose me."

In his autobiography, television host Merv Griffin described the Gabors "in their heyday" as "glamour personified": "All these years later, it's hard to describe the phenomenon of the three glamorous Gabor girls and their ubiquitous mother. They burst onto the society pages and into the gossip columns so suddenly, and with such force, it was as if they'd been dropped out of the sky."

Personal life

Gabor has been married nine times. She was divorced seven times, and one marriage was annulled. Her husbands, in chronological order, are:

Burhan Asaf Belge (1937 " 1941; divorced)
Conrad Hilton (10 April 1942 " 1947; divorced)
George Sanders (2 April 1949 " 2 April 1954; divorced)
Herbert Hutner (5 November 1962 " 3 March 1966; divorced)
Joshua S. Cosden, Jr. (9 March 1966 " 18 October 1967; divorced)
Jack Ryan (21 January 1975 " 24 August 1976; divorced)
Michael O'Hara (27 August 1976 " 1983; divorced)
Felipe de Alba (13 April 1983 " 14 April 1983; annulled)
Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt (14 August 1986 " present)

Gabor's divorces inspired her to make numerous quotable puns and innuendos about her marital (and extramarital) history. She commented: "I am a marvelous housekeeper: Every time I leave a man I keep his house." When asked, "How many husbands have you had?", she was quoted as responding, "You mean other than my own?"

While Gabor was still married to Conrad Hilton, she once admitted to having sexual relations with her stepson Nicky, future husband of Elizabeth Taylor.

In 1974, she purchased a home in Bel Air, which once belonged to Elvis Presley. In June 2011, it was announced that Gabor placed the house for sale. It was originally built by Howard Hughes and featured a unique-looking French style roof.

Gabor's only child, a daughter named Constance Francesca Hilton, was born on 10 March 1947. According to Gabor's 1991 autobiography One Lifetime Is Not Enough, her pregnancy resulted from rape by then-husband Conrad Hilton. She was the only Gabor sister to have a child. In 2005, a lawsuit was filed accusing her daughter of larceny and fraud, alleging that she had forged her signature to get a US$2 million loan on her mother's Bel Air house. However, the Santa Monica Superior Court threw the case due to Gabor's failure to appear in court or to sign an affidavit that she indeed was a co-plaintiff on the original lawsuit filed by her husband, Frédéric von Anhalt.

Legal difficulties

On 14 June 1989, in Beverly Hills, California, Gabor was accused of slapping the face of Beverly Hills police officer Paul Kramer when he stopped her for a traffic violation. Gabor also had a long-running feud with German-born actress Elke Sommer that began in 1984 when both appeared on Circus of the Stars and escalated into a multi-million dollar libel suit by 1993.

Health

In 2002, Gabor was a passenger in an automobile crash in Los Angeles, from which she would remain partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair for mobility. She survived strokes in 2005 and 2007 and underwent surgeries. In 2010, she fractured and underwent a successful hip replacement.

In 2011, her right leg was amputated above the knee to save her life from an infection. She was hospitalized again in 2011 for numerous emergencies.

2009 financial problems

On 25 January 2009, the Associated Press reported that her attorney stated that forensic accountants determined that Gabor may have lost as much as $10 million invested in Bernard Madoff's company, possibly through a third-party money manager. Marcus Prinz von Anhalt, a German nightclub owner and adopted son of Gabor's husband, reportedly provided significant financial assistance to the couple. Official New York Bankruptcy Court records reportedly do not list Gabor as a victim.

Filmography

Lovely to Look At (LeRoy, 1952)
We're Not Married (Goulding, 1952)
Moulin Rouge (Huston, 1952)
The Million Dollar Nickel (1952) (short subject)
The Story of Three Loves (Minnelli, 1953)
Lili (Walters, 1953)
L'ennemi public no.1 ("The Most Wanted Man") (Verneuil, 1953)
Sangre y luces ("Love in a Hot Climate") (Rouquier/Suey, 1954)
Ball der Nationen ("Ball of the Nations") (Ritter, 1954)
3 Ring Circus (Pevney, 1954)
Death of a Scoundrel (Martin, 1956)
The Girl in the Kremlin (Birdwell, 1957)
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (Wilcox, 1958)
Country Music Holiday (Ganzer, 1958)
Touch of Evil (Welles, 1958) (as a "guest star")
Queen of Outer Space (Bernds, 1958)
For the First Time (Maté, 1959)
La contessa azzurra ("The Blue Countess") (Gora, 1960)
Pepe (Sidney, 1960) (Cameo)
Lykke og krone (Helander/Sælen, 1962) (documentary)
The Road to Hong Kong (Panama, 1962) (unbilled cameo)
Boys' Night Out (Gordon, 1962)
Picture Mommy Dead (Gordon, 1966)
Drop Dead Darling (Hughes, 1966)
Jack of Diamonds (Taylor, 1967) (cameo)
Up the Front (Kellett, 1972)
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (Winner, 1976)
Every Girl Should Have One (Hyatt, 1978)
Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (Gold, 1984)
Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment (1986)
Smart Alec (Wilson, 1986)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (Russell, 1987) (cameo)
Johann Strauß: Der König ohne Krone ("Johann Strauss: The King Without a Crown") (Antel, 1987)
"The People vs. Zsa Zsa Gabor" (1991) (documentary)
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (Zucker, 1991) (cameo)
The Naked Truth (Mastorakis, 1992)
Est & Ouest: Les paradis perdus ("East & West: Paradises Lost") (Rival, 1993)
Happily Ever After (Blossom, 1993) (voice only)
The Beverly Hillbillies (Spheeris, 1993) (cameo)
A Very Brady Sequel (Sanford, 1996) (cameo)

Television

Jukebox Jury, as musical judge (1953)
The Red Skelton Show (1955), as Movie Star
Climax! (1955), as Mme. Florizel, Princess Stephanie
The Milton Berle Show (1956)
Sneak Preview (1956)
The Ford Television Theatre (1956), as Dara Szabo
The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (October 18, 1956), as Herself
General Electric Theater (1956"1961), as Gloria
Matinee Theatre (1956"1958), as Eugenia
The Life of Riley (1957), as Gigi
Playhouse 90 (1957), as Erika Segnitz, Marta Lorenz
The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, as Herself
Shower of Stars (1958)
Lux Playhouse (1959), as Helen
Queen of Outer Space (1959), with Eric Fleming
Ninotchka (1960)
Make Room for Daddy (1960), as Lisa Laslow
Mr. Ed (1962), as herself
The Dick Powell Show (1963), Girl
Burke's Law (1963"1964), as Anna, the Maid
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1965), Pilot
Gilligan's Island (1965), as Erika Tiffany Smith
Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1966), as The Queen of Hearts (voice)
The Rounders (1966), as Ilona Hobson in "The Scavenger Hunt"
F Troop (1966), as Marika
Bonanza (1967), as Madame Marova
My Three Sons (1968), as herself
Rowan and Martin's Laugh In (1968), as herself
The Name of the Game (1968), as Mira Retzyk
Batman (1968), as Minerva
Bracken's World (1969), Cameo
Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971), as Narrator
Night Gallery (1971), as Mrs. Moore
Let's Make a Deal (1976) (playing for a home viewer)
3 Girls 3 (1977)
Supertrain 1 episode "A Very Formal Heist" (1979), as Audrey
The Love Boat (1980), as Annette
Hollywood, ich komme (1980), as Stargast
The Facts of Life (1981), as world-renowned beautician Countess Calvet
As the World Turns (cast member in 1981), as Lydia Marlowe
Matt Houston (1983)
California Girls (1985)
Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment (1986)
Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (1988)
It's Garry Shandling's Show as goddess of commitment (1989)
The Munsters Today (1989) as herself
City (1990), as Babette Croquette
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1991), as Sonya Lamor
Late Show with David Letterman (1994), as herself in a sketch

Plays

Miss Gabor appeared in Forty Carats on Broadway, as well as in the national tour of Blithe Spirit (as Elvira).

Bibliography

Zsa Zsa Gabor, My Story By Zsa Zsa Gabor with Gerold Frank, The World Publishing Company, 1960.
How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, and How to Get Rid of a Man, by Zsa Zsa Gabor, Doubleday, 1970.
One Lifetime Is Not Enough, by Zsa Zsa Gabor, assisted by and edited by Wendy Leigh, Delacorte Press, 1991. ISBN 0-385-29882-X
Gaborabilia, by Anthony Turtu and Donald F Reuter, Three Rivers Press, 2001. ISBN 0-609-80759-5