Zsa Zsa Gabor

The native form of this personal name is Gábor Sári. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Zsa Zsa Gabor
from the trailer for Lili (1953)
Born	Sári Gábor
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1952–1996
Spouse(s)	Burhan Asaf Belge (1937–1941) Conrad Hilton (1942–1946) George Sanders (1949–1954) Herbert Hutner (1962–1966) Joshua S. Cosden, Jr. (1966–1967) Jack Ryan (1975–1976) Michael O'Hara (1976–1982) Felipe de Alba (1983) Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt (1986–present)

Zsa Zsa Gabor (born February 6, 1917), also known as Sári Prinzessin von Anhalt since her marriage to Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, is a Hungarian-American actress, socialite and former beauty queen.

Early life

Zsa Zsa Gabor was born as Sári Gábor (Sári is the diminutive for the Hungarian first name Sarolta) in Budapest (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), the middle daughter of Vilmos Gábor (1884-1962), a soldier, and Jolie Gábor(1894-1997). Her sisters, Magda and Eva, also became actresses and socialites. The family was of Jewish descent; their mother, Jolie (Tillemann Jánosné), was a cousin of Annette Tilleman Lantos, the wife of California Congressman and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos. Gabor, however, is a Catholic.

Following studies at Madame Subilia's, a Swiss boarding school, Zsa Zsa Gabor was discovered by the famous 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. Gabor reportedly had a romance with a composer named Willi Schmidt-Kentner, according to the 1960 "bio-autobiography" Zsa Zsa Gábor, My Story, written by Gabor with Gerold Frank. Her initial fame came from her work as an actress, and grew from her public appearances in the 1950s and 1960s.

Personal life

Zsa Zsa Gabor with Dominican playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, circa 1954

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, chairman of the board of Struthers Wells Corporation (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)

Due to her high number of divorces, she once claimed that she was a good housekeeper because every time she divorced, she kept the house.

In 1974, she purchased a two-story Bel Air home from Elvis Presley. It was built by Howard Hughes and featured an eccentric-looking French roof.

Zsa Zsa was the only Gabor sister to bear a child, Constance Francesca Hilton, born March 10, 1947. According to Gabor's 1991 autobiography One Lifetime Is Not Enough, her pregnancy resulted from rape by then-husband Conrad Hilton.

In 2005, Gabor accused her daughter, known as Francesca, 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 Zsa Zsa Gabor's refusal to appear in court or to sign an affidavit that she indeed was a co-plaintiff on the original law suit filed by Fredrick von Anhalt.

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

Legal difficulties

On June 14, 1989, Gabor was accused of slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer named Paul Kramer when he stopped her for a traffic violation. She was found guilty of the assault in a well-publicized trial and sentenced to three days (72 hours) in the El Segundo jail. The judge also required her to pay $13,000 in court costs. She testified that her behavior had been provoked by the officer, who she said had behaved extremely rudely and insulted her with obscenities. This fiasco was published in the documentary, The People vs. Zsa Zsa Gabor, without her consent.

She poked fun at her role in the incident in various cameo appearances:

• In the 1991 film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, Gabor was pulled over by the police car at the end of the opening credits. She then proceeded to step out of the car and slap the red light, then walked away, muttering, "Ach, this happens every fucking time when I go shopping."
• In the November 18, 1991, season 2, episode 10 of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Gabor showed up as a guest at the Banks' residence, Hilary Banks asked, "There's something that I'm just dying to know." Gabor responded by saying, "Yes, I did it ... and he deserved to be slapped." Subsequently, when Carlton Banks accidentally slapped a cop with a pair of gloves while trying to slap his cousin Will Smith, Gabor replied by saying, "I have witnesses, it wasn't me."
• She discussed the incident in an appearance on Howard Stern's show, making her the oldest celebrity to appear on Stern's program. She also debunked rumours of George Sanders's sexuality, which Stern called into question.
• In the 1993 film version of The Beverly Hillbillies, in a line-up the detective described Zsa Zsa's character as a woman who was involved in what was described as a "drive-by slapping."

Gabor also had a long-running feud with Elke Sommer that escalated into a libel suit.

Recent health

Gabor was a passenger in an automobile accident that occurred on November 27, 2002. She was initially reported as being in a coma when she was actually conscious at the time medical assistance arrived. She left the hospital in early January 2003 but required continued physical therapy.

On July 7, 2005, she suffered a stroke, leaving her in temporarily critical condition at a local hospital. She underwent surgery to remove a blockage in her carotid artery. She returned home on July 15. In early September 2007, she underwent surgery to deal with aftereffects of her previous stroke. On September 18, 2007, at age 90, she underwent surgery to treat a leg infection, which developed as a result of her immobility.

On July 17, 2010, Gabor was taken to the hospital after she fell out of bed while watching television at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. She suffered several broken bones. She had a successful hip replacement surgery on July 19, 2010.

On July 23, 2010, there were conflicting reports on Gabor's recovery. Gabor's present husband told reporters that as of July 23, 2010, her condition has become more critical and that she has not been responding to any human contact due in large part to a concussion she suffered when she fell out of her bed. Gabor's daughter, Francesca, on July 23, 2010, denied reports that her mother was critically ill and not responding to human contact. Hilton issued her statement while visiting Gabor at the Los Angeles hospital. "She is not in a coma. She is not on any kind of death watch. She is responsive and on medications. All vital signs are still going strong, and she is talking," Hilton said in a statement to Reuters.

She was discharged from the hospital on August 11; however, on August 13, Gabor returned to the hospital due to bleeding and pain. On August 15, 2010, she was in a critical condition after the removal of two blood clots, and a priest was called to the hospital to administer last rites. On August 16, 2010 she left the hospital after declining to undergo any further surgery, deciding instead to "spend her final days at home." On August 29th, she declined further hospital treatment and was read her last rites.

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 with swindler Bernard Madoff, possibly through a third-party money manager. Marcus Prinz von Anhalt, a German nightclub owner and adopted son of Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, reportedly provided significant financial assistance to the couple. However, the official New York Bankruptcy Court victims documents do not show Zsa Zsa Gabor as a victim. An attorney for Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband claims that Gabor may have lost the money because of Madoff. .

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 (1966)
• Arrivederci, Baby! (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

• 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
• 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
• 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 (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)
• City (1990), as Babette Croquette
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1991), as Sonya Lamor
• The Late Show with David Letterman (1994), as herself in a sketch

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

External links

• Zsa Zsa Gabor at the TCM Movie Database
• Gabor family's website
• Zsa Zsa Gabor in Her Heyday - slideshow by Life magazine