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Zsa Zsa Gabor

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Zsa Zsa Gabor
Publicity photo of Gabor, 1955
Born
Sári Gábor
NationalityHungarian American
OccupationActress
Years active1936–1997
Spouse(s)Burhan Asaf Belge
(1937–1941; divorced)
Conrad Hilton
(1942–1946; divorced)
George Sanders
(1949–1954; divorced)
Herbert Hutner
(1962–66; divorced)
Joshua S. Cosden, Jr.
(1966–1967; divorced)
Jack Ryan
(1975–1976; divorced)
Michael O'Hara
(1976–1983; divorced)
Felipe de Alba
(1983; annulled)
Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt
(1986–present)
ChildrenFrancesca Hilton (b. 1947)
Parent(s)Vilmos and Jolie Gabor
RelativesMagda Gabor, Eva Gabor (sisters, deceased)
The native form of this personal name is Gábor Sári. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Zsa Zsa Gabor (/[invalid input: 'icon']ˈʒɑːʒɑː/; born February 6, 1917) is a Hungarian actress on stage, film and television.

She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936.[1] 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".[2] 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.[3] 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."[4]

Early life and career

Born as Sári Gábor in Budapest (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), the middle of the three daughters of Vilmos Gábor (1884–1962), a soldier, and Jolie Gábor (1894–1997).[5] Her elder sister Magda was a socialite and her younger sister Eva was an actress and businesswoman.

Gabor's mother, Jolie (née Tillemann Jánosné), was a cousin of Annette Tilleman Lantos, the wife of Hungarian-born U.S. congressman and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos.[6][7] Jolie was of Jewish descent[8] and barely escaped from Hungary after the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944. She credits Magda's husband for helping her: "For Magda's Portuguese Ambassador I thank God. It was this man who saved my life."[9] Gabor's maternal grandparents chose to remain in Budapest feeling they "had a good place to hide." However, the U.S. later bombed Nazi positions in Budapest near where her grandparents were in hiding, and they both died during one of the bombing raids.[9]

Following studies at Madame Subilia's, a Swiss boarding school, Zsa Zsa Gabor was discovered by the 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, 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.'[10]

Television host Merv Griffin, in his autobiography, 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."[11]

A biopic is to be made on her life by Italian director Gabriela Tagliavini[12] who claimed that Gabor "is a perfect celebrity to be the focus of a movie". According to Insider, Gabor is "an original. Her free spirit, eccentricity and wicked wit made her one of the most memorable celebrities of our time."[12] Gabor's husband will reportedly be involved in the film's production.[12]

Personal life

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

File:Gabor, Zsa Zsa - 57.jpg
At a social affair, c. 1954

Gabor's high number of divorces inspired her to make numerous quotable puns and innuendos about her marital (and extramarital) history:

  • "I am a marvelous housekeeper: Every time I leave a man I keep his house."[21][22]
  • Asked "How many husbands have you had?", she replied "You mean other than [or 'apart from'] my own?".[23]

While Gabor was still married to Conrad Hilton, she once admitted to having sexual relations with her stepson Nicky, future husband of Elizabeth Taylor.[24]

In 1974, she purchased a home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California from Elvis Presley's estate. It was originally built by Howard Hughes[25] and featured a unique looking French style roof.

Gabor's only child, a daughter named Constance Francesca Hilton, was born on March 10, 1947.[14] 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 ever become pregnant.[24] In 2005, Gabor accused her daughter of larceny and fraud, alleging that she had forged her signature to get a $2 million loan on her mother's Bel Air house, and filed a lawsuit against Francesca in a California court. However, the Santa Monica Superior Court threw out the case due to Gabor's refusal 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 Prinz von Anhalt.[26]

Gabor said in a November 27, 1991, interview with David Letterman that she is a Democrat. [citation needed]

Health

In 2002, Gabor was a passenger in an automobile crash, partially paralyzed, and was hospitalized for several weeks. In 2005, she suffered a stroke, underwent surgery to remove an arterial blockage, and returned home a few weeks later. In 2007, she had surgery related to her previous stroke, and then underwent surgery to treat an infection.[27]

In July 2010, Gabor was taken to the hospital after she fell at home,[28] requiring hip replacement.[29][30] She was discharged from the hospital but soon returned, and was in critical condition after the removal of two blood clots.[31]

On August 16, 2010, she left the hospital, but was in and out of the hospital for several months thereafter.[32] She was hospitalized again on January 2, 2011, and was erroneously reported to be close to death.[33] Gabor's leg was amputated above the knee on January 14, 2011.[34]

On May 18, 2011, it was announced that Gabor had been rushed to the hospital again due to bleeding around her feeding tube. [35]

File:Gabor2.jpg
Publicity photo, c. 1955

On June 14, 1989, in Beverly Hills, California Gabor was accused of slapping the face of a police officer named Paul Kramer when he stopped her for a traffic violation.[36] She poked fun at her role in the incident in various cameo appearances:

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.[37]

Financial problems (2009)

On January 25, 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.[38][39] Marcus Prinz von Anhalt, a German nightclub owner and adopted son of Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, reportedly provided significant financial assistance to the couple.[40] However, official New York Bankruptcy Court records reportedly do not show Gabor as a victim.[41]

Filmography

Television

Plays

Gabor appeared in several plays, most notably Forty Carats, on Broadway, and Blithe Spirit (as Elvira), in the national tour.

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

References

  1. ^ Hischak, Thomas S. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television, Oxford Univ. Press (2008) p. 271
  2. ^ Barris, George. Barris Cars of the Stars, MBI Publishing (2008), p. 71
  3. ^ Huston, John. John Huton: Interviews, Univ. Press of Mississippi (2001) p. 11
  4. ^ "Love Hints from Zsa Zsa", Life magazine, Oct. 15, 1951, cover story
  5. ^ Zsa Zsa Gabor Film Reference biography
  6. ^ Tom Lantos: the master storyteller, communicator
  7. ^ Vanity Fair article on Zsa Zsa Gabor
  8. ^ Bennetts, Leslie. "It's a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World", Vanity Fair, 6 September 2007.
  9. ^ a b Adams, Cindy. Jolie Gabor, Mason/Charter Publ. (1975) pp. 135-149, 173
  10. ^ "Ghost", Life magazine, 29 June 1959, pp. 129-139.
  11. ^ Griffin, Merv. Merv: Making the Good Life Last, Simon & Schuster (2003) p. 179
  12. ^ a b c http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/zsa-zsa-gabor-the-movie_1167774
  13. ^ a b c Gabor, Zsa Zsa; Frank, Gerold. Zsa Zsa Gabor: My Story, The World Publishing Company, 1960.
  14. ^ a b Feinberg, Alexander. "Bandit Gets $600,000 Gems in Raid on Penthouse Home: Mrs. Sari Hilton, Hotel Chain Owner's Wife, Reveals Hiding Place of Jewel Box After Intruder Threatens to Shoot Baby", The New York Times, 5 October 1947.
  15. ^ "Zsa Zsa Gabor Is Married Here to Corporation Head, The New York Times, 6 November 1962.
  16. ^ "Herbert L. Hutner, Arts Adviser, Is Dead at 99", The New York Times, 19 December 2008.
  17. ^ "Zsa Zsa Decides It's Time to Sell Beauty Formulas", The New York Times, 29 January 1969.
  18. ^ "Jack Ryan Dies at 65, Designer of Barbie Doll", The New York Times, 21 August 1991.
  19. ^ Gabor, Zsa Zsa; Leigh, Wendy. One Life is Not Enough (Delacorte Press, 1991), p.311.
  20. ^ Current Biography Yearbook (H. W. Wilson Company, 1989), p.177.
  21. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001248/bio
  22. ^ "Xenophobe's guide to the Hungarians". Ovalbooks.com. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
  23. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001248/bio
  24. ^ a b Bennetts, Leslie (6 September 2007). "It's a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World". Vanity Fair. p. 2. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  25. ^ "Gabor dispute heads to courtroom", BBC, 4 June 2005.
  26. ^ "Zsa Zsa says daughter stole $2m"
  27. ^ Report on Zsa Zsa Gabor's health
  28. ^ "Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor hospitalized in a 'bad condition' after fall at home". BNO News. July 17, 2010. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  29. ^ "Zsa Zsa Gabor hip surgery successful, her husband says". Los Angeles Times. July 19, 2010. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
  30. ^ Oldenburg, Ann (July 18, 2010). "Zsa Zsa Gabor hospitalized". USA Today. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  31. ^ "Zsa Zsa Gabor asks for 'last rites' from priest". CNN. August 15, 2010.
  32. ^ "Zsa Zsa Gabor Home From Hospital", Reuters via ABC News, 13 November 2010.
  33. ^ Griffing, John. Zsa Zsa Gabor Not Having Leg Amputated, Canyon News, 5 January 2011.
  34. ^ "UCLA statement on Zsa Zsa Gabor's condition following today's surgery". UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
  35. ^ "Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor rushed to hospital again". CNN.com. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
  36. ^ Mugshots.net Retrieved on 2007-04-18
  37. ^ Pool, Bob. $3.3-Million Libel Award in Sommer-Gabor Feud, Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1993, Accessed January 15, 2011.
  38. ^ CNBC report on financial losses due to Bernie Madoff
  39. ^ "Gabor's Husband Says They Lost $10 Million Due to Madoff", The Times Online, 26 January 2009.
  40. ^ "Sein Adoptivsohn hilft ihm aus der Patsche" Freizeitwoche, 18 February 2009. Template:De icon
  41. ^ "Madoff Affidavit Exhibits" (PDF). Wall Street Journal. 2009. Retrieved 2011-01-12. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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