Zsa Zsa Gabor born Gábor Sári; February 6, 1917) is a Hungarian-born American actress and socialite. Gabor began her stage career in Vienna 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".
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."
Her first film role was a supporting role in Lovely to Look At. She later acted in several films and played one of her few leading roles in Moulin Rouge (1952), directed by John Huston, who described her as a "creditable" actress.
Outside of her acting career, Gabor is best known for having nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders.
Zsa
Zsa Gabor is an actress and socialite famous for her bubbly,
flirtatious persona -- referring to nearly everyone as "darling." She's
been married nine times.
Synopsis
Born
Sari Gabor on February 6, 1917, in Budapest, Hungary, Zsa Zsa has been a
celebrity and socialite for decades mostly for being herself. She's
acted in films with Fred Astaire, José Ferrer and Orson Welles. Her
television resume includes Gilligan's Island, Batman, The Love Boat and countless talk show appearances. Gabor has been married nine times, most recently to Prince Frederick von Anhalt.
Early Life
Sari Gabor was born on February 6, 1917 (some
sources say 1918) in Budapest, Hungary, the middle daughter of Vilmos
Gabor, a soldier, and Jolie Gabor, the heiress to a European jewelry
business. Gabor and her two sisters, Eva and Magda, lived a life of
luxury, which included a staff of servants, extensive vacations and
stints at expensive boarding schools. Sari started referring to herself
as "Zsa Zsa" during childhood.
At the age of 13, Gabor was sent
to Switzerland to attend boarding school. While finishing her studies,
Gabor was discovered by the famous operatic tenor Richard Tauber, who
invited the teenager to sing the soubrette in his new operetta Der singende Traum, or The Singing Dream.
After spending three months at the Vienna Acting Academy, Gabor made
her stage debut.
In 1936, Gabor was crowned Miss Hungary, though she was
later disqualified as she'd fibbed about her true age. In 1937, she
married her first husband, 35-year-old Turkish government official
Burhan Asaf Belge, to whom she proposed. In celebration of the
engagement, Gabor's parents gave their daughter a 10-karat diamond,
among other lavish gifts.
Gabor's marriage began to deteriorate
and by 1941 Gabor and her husband agreed to go their separate ways. That
same year, Gabor's parents also began the process of divorce. Gabor and
her mother decided to head to the U.S. to join Eva, who was already
living in the country with her new husband. Zsa Zsa applied for an
official divorce shortly after she was on American soil.
Not long
after her arrival in the U.S., Gabor met hotel magnate and recent
bachelor Conrad Hilton. The couple began flirting at an upscale club
and, according to Gabor, the millionaire offered Zsa Zsa $20,000 to
accompany him to Florida that night. She refused. Four months later, on
April 10, 1942, the two married. They had one child together, daughter
Francesca, with the couple divorcing in 1946.
Hollywood Career
Zsa Zsa's good looks and charm landed her a film career in Hollywood, and in 1952 she made her big-screen debut in Lovely to Look At. That same year, she also had a part in We're Not Married! with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, and a starring role in Moulin Rouge with José Ferrer. Garbor later appeared opposite actor George Sanders in Death of a Scoundrel (1956) and had a small role in Orson Welles' classic Touch of Evil (1958).
Over the years Gabor worked in television as well, making guest appearances on such shows as The Life of Riley, Playhouse 90, Matinee Theatre, Burke's Law, Gilligan's Island and Batman. Vivacious and humorous, Gabor was also a popular guest on talk shows and celebrity game shows.
Scandals
What
audiences seemed most interested in, however, was Zsa Zsa's personal
life. To many, she appeared as an icon of European glamour, luxury and
self-indulgence. Often portrayed as a wily seductress, she frequently
appeared on television as an alluring, witty and sometimes challenging
guest who had a habit of calling nearly everyone "darling."
But as a
vivacious and dramatic personality, Gabor quickly became tabloid fodder,
more famous for her marriages and conspicuous wealth than for her
acting abilities. One of her most infamous incidents came in 1989,
when the former beauty queen made headlines for slapping a police
officer after he stopped Gabor for a driving violation. She was arrested
for assault. During the trial, Gabor made remarks about the officer,
who then filed a slander suit against the actress. She was sentenced to
serve three days in jail in the criminal case after failing to complete
the terms of her probation. The civil suit was settled out of court in
1991.
Gabor once again talked her way into trouble during her
long-standing feud with actress Elke Sommer. This battle reached the
courts in the 1990s when Sommer sued Zsa Zsa Gabor and Gabor's husband,
Prince Frederick von Anhalt, for defamation of character and libel after
the couple made disparaging remarks about the actress to several German
publications. The jury ruled in favor of Sommer.
More legal
issues surfaced in June 2005 when Zsa Zsa and her husband filed suit
against Gabor's daughter, Francesca Hilton, accusing her of larceny and
fraud. The actress made headlines again in 2009, when her lawyer
announced that she had lost at least $7 million from investments with
Bernard Madoff, the convicted investment adviser who admitted to
operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.
Health Problems
Zsa
Zsa began dealing with serious health problems in 2002, when she was
badly injured in a car crash. She suffered broken bones, cuts and
bruises, and spent several days in a coma. It took her months to recover
from the accident, but the resulting injuries left the actress confined
to a wheelchair. In 2005, Gabor faced more medical issues when she
suffered a stroke.
Her health began to seriously falter further
in July 2010, when she broke her hip and underwent replacement surgery.
Soon after, she landed in critical condition after a blood transfusion.
Then in January 2011, doctors were forced to amputate her right leg when
an untreated blood clot led to a gangrenous infection.
On March
23, 2011, Gabor had to be hospitalized for high blood pressure when she
learned of the death of actress Elizabeth Taylor. According to her
publicist, John Blanchett, Gabor was distraught by Taylor's death,
saying "I'm next." She experienced another health crisis that May and
was taken to the hospital for a stomach infection. In October, she
underwent surgery to replace her feeding tube.
Gabor's fragile
health led her daughter Francesca to file suit against her stepfather,
Prince Frederic von Anhalt. The two parties settled their dispute in
July 2012, with von Anhalt serving as Gabor's conservator and Hilton
regaining visitation rights to her mother. Von Anhalt must supply the
court with monthly reports on Gabor's health and financial data.
Personal Life
Gabor
was once renowned as "the most successful courtesan of the 20th
century," and reportedly conducted romances with famous figures such as
Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra and even Henry Kissinger.
Gabor has had nine marriages in total, although the actress claims she
has only had eight different husbands.
Following her divorces from
Belge and Hilton, Gabor had a six-year marriage to actor George
Sanders, who later married Zsa Zsa's sister, Magda, just to spite his
ex-wife. This was followed by a string of husbands: financier Herbert
Hutner, oil tycoon Joshua Cosden, inventor Jack Ryan, attorney Michael
O'Hara and actor Felipe de Alba. In 1986, she married her current
husband, Prince Frederick von Anhalt, a man roughly 30 years her junior.
As his wife, Gabor was awarded the title Princess von Anhalt, Duchess
of Saxony. Some royal genealogists questioned this title, however, when
further research revealed that Frederick von Anhalt received the title
from an adult adoption by Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt.
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