Early life and career

Gabor was born February 6, 1917 in Budapest (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) as Sári Gábor (Gábor Sári in Hungarian order, ), the middle of three daughters born to Vilmos Gábor (circa 1876-1962), a soldier, and Jolie Gabor (née Tilleman; 1896-1997). She was reportedly named after Sári Fedák, a popular Hungarian entertainer. 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, the wife of Hungarian-born U.S. congressman and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos. Jolie was Jewish, 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 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 1934 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, who often squired Zsa Zsa's younger sister Eva socially, 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 (April 10, 1942 - 1947; divorced)
• George Sanders (April 2, 1949 - April 2, 1954; divorced)
• Herbert Hutner (November 5, 1962 - March 3, 1966; divorced)
• Joshua S. Cosden, Jr. (March 9, 1966 - October 18, 1967; divorced)
• Jack Ryan (January 21, 1975 - August 24, 1976; divorced)
• Michael O'Hara (August 27, 1976 - 1983; divorced)
• Felipe de Alba (April 13, 1983 - April 14, 1983; annulled)
• Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt (August 14, 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?" Gabor later claimed to have had a sexual encounter with her stepson, Nicky.

In 1970, Gabor purchased a 8,878-square-foot Hollywood Regency-style home in Bel Air, which once belonged to Elvis Presley. It was originally built by Howard Hughes and featured a unique-looking French style roof. In June 2011, it was announced that Gabor placed the house for sale as it had "gotten too big to manage" for her. Originally put up for sale for $15 million, it was reduced to $12.9 million, and then pulled from the market. In 2012, the house was listed for sale again, at $14.9 million.

Gabor's only child, a daughter named Constance Francesca Hilton, was born on March 10, 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 out 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. Francesca Hilton died on January 5, 2015, at the age of 67 from a massive stroke.

On March 4, 2014, John Blanchette, Gabor's publicist for 30 years, died in Santa Monica.

On 11 April 2016, Gabor expressed her wishes to move back to Hungary during 2017 to live out the rest of her life there. Her husband stated that he was determined to make her wish come true and that he intended to arrange for "a big party in the summer" to celebrate the actress' 100th birthday, after which she would return to Budapest.

Legal difficulties

On June 14, 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 at 8551 Olympic Boulevard. On September 29, 1989, it was announced that a jury convicted the actress of slapping a police officer, driving without a license and possessing an open container of alcohol--a flask of Jack Daniels--in her $215,000 Rolls-Royce, but also acquitted her on charges of disobeying officer Kramer when she drove away from a routine traffic stop. On October 25, 1989, it was announced that Beverly Hills Municipal Judge Charles G. Rubin had sentenced Gabor to serve three days in jail, to pay fines and restitution totaling $12,937, to perform 120 hours of community service -- and to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. On June 14, 1990, Gabor decided to drop her conviction appeal and agreed to serve her sentence. However, Gabor refused to take part in community service and served three days in jail between July 27 and July 30, 1990

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.

2009 financial problems

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 Bernie 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 records of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York reportedly do not list Gabor as a victim.

Health

On November 28, 2002, Gabor was a front seat passenger in an automobile crash in Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, from which she remained partially paralyzed and reliant on a wheelchair for mobility. She survived strokes in 2005 and 2007 and underwent surgeries. In 2010, she fractured her hip and underwent a successful hip replacement.

In August 2010, Gabor was admitted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in serious condition and received last rites from a Catholic priest.

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.

On February 8, 2016, two days after her 99th birthday, Gabor was rushed to hospital after suffering from breathing difficulties. She was diagnosed with a feeding tube-related lung infection and was scheduled to undergo surgery to have her feeding tube removed.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Director	Note
1952	Lovely to Look At	LeRoy
	We're Not Married!	Goulding
	Moulin Rouge	Huston
	The Million Dollar Nickel	Ballbusch
1953	The Story of Three Loves	Minelli
	Lili	Walters
	L'ennemi public no. 1 (Public Enemy Number 1)	Verneuil
1954	Sangre y luces (Love in a Hot Climate)	Rouquier/Suey
	Ball der Nationen	Ritter
	3 Ring Circus	Pevney
1956	Death of a Scoundrel	Martin
1957	The Girl in the Kremlin	Birdwell
1958	The Man Who Wouldn't Talk	Wilconx
	Country Music Holiday	Ganzer
	Touch of Evil	Welles
	Queen of Outer Space	Bernds
1959	For the First Time	Mate
1960	La Contessa azzurra (The Blue Countess)	Gora
	Pepe	Sidney
1962	Lykke og krone	Helander/Saelen
	The Road to Hong Kong	Panama
	Boys' Night Out	Gordon
1966	Picture Mommy Dead	Gordon
	Drop Dead Darling	Hughes
1967	Jack of Diamonds	Taylor
1972	Up the Front	Kiliett
1976	Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood	Winner
1978	Every Girl Should Have One	Hyatt
1984	Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie	Gold
1986	Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment	Frank	Video
	Smart Alec	Wilson
1987	A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors	Russell	Cameo
	Johann Strauß: Der König ohne Krone (Johann Strauss: The King Without a Crown)	Antel
1991	The People vs Zsa Zsa Gabor		Documentary
	The Naked Gun 2.5: the Smell of Fear	Zucker
1992	The Naked Truth	Mastorakis
1993	Est & Quest: Les Paradis Perdus (East & West: Paradises Lose)	Rival
	Happily Ever After	Blossom	voice only
	The Beverly Hillbillies	Spheeris	Cameo
1996	A Very Brady Sequel	Sanford	Cameo

Television

Year	Series	Role	Notes
1953	Jukebox Jury	Musical Judge
1955	The Red Skelton Show	Movie Star
	Climax!	Mme Florizel, Princess Stephanie
1956	The Milton Berle Show
	Sneak Preview	Sneak Preview
	The Ford Television Theatre	Dara Szabo
	The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford	Herself	October 18, 1956
1956-1961	General Electric Theater	Flora
1956-1958	Matinee Theatre	Eugnenia
1957	The Life of Riley	Gigi
	What's My Line?	Mystery guest	August 18, 1957
	Playhouse 90	Erika Segnitz, Marita Lorenz
	The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom	Herself
1958	Shower of Stars
1959	Lux Playhouse	Helen
	The Dinah Shore Chevy Show	Herself
1960	Ninotchka
	Make Room for Daddy	Lisa Laslow
1962	Mister Ed	Herself
1963	The Dick Powell Show	Girl
1963-1964	Burke's Law	Anna, the Maid
1965	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Pilot
	Gilligan's Island	Erika Tiffany Smith
1966	Alice in Wonderland (or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?)	The Queen of Hearts	voice
	The Rounders	Ilona Hobson	Episode "The Scavenger Hunt"
	F Troop	Marika
1967	Bonanza	Madama Marova
1968	My Three Sons	Herself
	Rowan & Martin's Laugh In	Herself
	The Name of the Game	Mira Retzyk
	Batman	Minerva
1969	Bracken's World	Herself	Cameo
1971	Mooch Goes to Hollywood	Narrator	Voice
	Night Gallery	Mrs. Moore
1976	Let's Make a Deal	Home Viewer
1977	3 Girls 3
1979	Supertrain	Audrey	Episode "A Very Formal Heist"
1980	The Love Boat	Annette
	Hollywood, ich komme	Stargast
1981	The Facts of Life	Countess Valvet
	As the World Turns	Lydia Marlowe	cast member
1982	Hart to Hart	Jennifer Hart's aunt Renee
	Matt Houston
1983	California Girls
1986	Charlie Barnett's Terms of Enrollment	"Star Hungry" Celebrity	Video
1988	Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special
1989	It's Garry Shandling's Show	Goddess of Commitment
1989	The Munsters Today	Herself
1990	City	Babette Croquette
1991	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Sonya Lamor
1994	Late Show with David Letterman	Self	Sketch

Plays

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

Bibliography

• Gabor, Zsa Zsa; Frank, Gerold (1960). Zsa Zsa Gábor: My Story. Cleveland, Ohio: World Pub. Co. OCLC 1069078.
• —— (1970). How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. OCLC 92114.
• ——; Leigh, Wendy (1991). One Lifetime Is Not Enough. New York, NY: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-385-29882-X.
• Turtu, Anthony; Reuter, Donald F. (2001). Gaborabilia: An Illustrated Celebration of the Fabulous, Legendary Gabor Sisters. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80759-5.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]