Zsa Zsa Gabor

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Zsa Zsa Gabor
from the trailer for Lili (1953)
Born	Sári Gábor February 6, 1917 (1917-02-06) (age 91) Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Spouse(s)	Burhan Belge (1937-1941) Conrad Hilton (1942-1947) 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 (1983-1983) Frédéric von Anhalt (1986- Present)
Awards won Golden Globe Awards Special Award 1958 Most Glamorous Actress

Zsa Zsa Gábor (pronounced /ˈʒɑːʒɑː/; born February 6, 1917) is a Hungarian-born American actress and socialite.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Personal life 1.3 Legal difficulties 1.4 Recent health 2 Appearances 2.1 Films 2.2 Television work 2.3 Plays 3 Bibliography 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Gábor was born Sári E. Gábor in Budapest, Hungary (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) on February 6, 1917, the daughter of Vilmos Gábor, then a soldier, and Jolie Gábor (née Tilleman), a manager.^[1] She had two sisters, Magda and Éva, both well-known actresses and socialites. Gábor's mother was of Jewish ancestry and was related to Annette Tillemann, the wife of politician Tom Lantos.^[2] Gábor was named after the then top Hungarian actress Sári Fedák, also called Zsa Zsa because her daughter was unable to pronounce the name Sári, which is the Hungarian equivalent of Sarah. Following studies at a Swiss boarding-school, Gábor won the Miss Hungary beauty contest in 1936, but was disqualified for being underage. On a trip to Vienna in the same year, she was discovered by the famous tenor Richard Tauber and was invited to sing the soubrette rôle in his new operetta Der singende Traum ("The Singing Dream") at the Theater an der Wien, her first stage appearance. Gábor had a romance with a composer named Willi Schmidt-Kentner, according to the 1960 "bio-autobiography" Zsa Zsa Gábor, by Gerold Frank.

[edit] Personal life

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

• Burhan 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 – 1976) (divorced)
• Michael O'Hara (August 27, 1976 – 1982) (divorced)
• Felipe de Alba (April 13, 1983 – April 14, 1983) (annulled)
• Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt (August 14, 1986 to present)

In 1974, Gábor purchased from Elvis Presley a two-story Bel Air home with an eccentric-looking French roof, built by Howard Hughes.^[3]

Gábor is the only daughter in her family to bear a child. According to Gábor's book, One Lifetime Is Not Enough, her pregnancy resulted from her being raped by Conrad Hilton.^[4] Hilton and Gábor's only child, born after their divorce, is Francesca Hilton (Gábor) born March 10, 1947. In 2005, Gábor accused her daughter of larceny and fraud, and filed a lawsuit against her in a California court.^[5]

In the late 1950s, Gábor had dinner with Frank Sinatra at LaRue's on the Sunset Strip and spent only one romantic evening with him. Gábor also had a relationship with Porfirio Rubirosa, a noted Dominican international playboy and sometime diplomat. She refused to leave George Sanders to marry Rubirosa, whereupon Rubirosa married Barbara Hutton (for 73 days) and then renewed his relationship with Gábor. Gábor claimed that Rubirosa proposed to her every time he could, and would change the subject when she refused. She just wouldn't budge. They had a four-year relationship and were at one time engaged. Technically, Gábor broke the engagement when "Rubi" claimed he would break the engagement, if she took a part in the movie Death of a Scoundrel, which starred her ex-husband George Sanders.

Gábor's initial fame came from her work as an actress, and grew from her public appearances in the 1970s and 1980s.

[edit] Legal difficulties

On June 14, 1989, Gábor was accused of slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer named Paul Kramer when he stopped her for a traffic violation.^[6] 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 Gábor 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.

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

• In the 1991 film The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, Gábor 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 1993 film version of The Beverly Hillbillies, Gábor claimed that the officer had slapped her in what was described as a "drive-by slapping."
• In A Very Brady Sequel, Gábor gloated upon the publicity she earned from the incident.
• 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." Gábor 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, Gábor replied by saying, "I have witnesses, it wasn't me."

[edit] Recent health

Gábor 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. Gábor sued and was awarded $2 million.

On July 7, 2005, Gábor suffered a massive stroke, leaving her in critical condition at a local hospital. She underwent surgery to remove a blockage in her carotid artery. She returned home on July 15 and was said to be making a good recovery.

In early September 2007, Gábor underwent surgery to deal with after-effects of her previous stroke. On September 18, 2007, she underwent successful surgery to treat a leg infection, which developed as a result of her immobility.^[7]

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Films

(Incomplete list)

[edit] Television work

(Incomplete list. Gabor has made hundreds of television appearances.)

[edit] Plays

(Incomplete list. Gabor has starred in several plays.)

• Forty Carats, on Broadway, 1970.

[edit] Bibliography

• Zsa Zsa Gábor, My Story Written for Me by 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 Gábor, Doubleday, 1970.
• One Lifetime Is Not Enough, by Zsa Zsa Gabor, assisted by, edited by, and put into proper English 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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Zsa Zsa Gabor at the Internet Movie Database
• Zsa Zsa Gábor at the TCM Movie Database
• Gábor Family Website