Zsa Zsa Gabor (born Sári Gábor; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian and American socialite and actress. Her sisters were socialite Magda Gabor and actress and businesswoman Eva Gabor.
Gabor competed in the 1933 Miss Hungary pageant, where she placed as second runner-up. She began her stage career in Vienna the following year. Gabor emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style". Her first film role was a supporting role in Lovely to Look At, released in 1952. The same year, she appeared in We're Not Married! and in her most famous film, Moulin Rouge. Gabor appeared in more than 70 movies, and her acting career continued into the 1990s.
Outside of her career, Gabor was famous for her glamour, her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, and her series of marriages. Gabor had nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders.
Zsa Zsa Gabor was born Sári Gábor on February 6, 1917, in Budapest, Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The middle of three daughters, her parents were Jolie (née Janszieka Tillemann, 1896–1997) and Vilmos Gábor (né Grün, 1881–1962). Jolie owned a jewelry shop in Budapest, while Vilmos was a Royal Hungarian Army officer. Her parents were both Jewish.
Gabor was named after Sári Fedák, a Hungarian actress. Gabor was called Zsa Zsa because, as a little girl, she couldn't pronounce her own name.
In 1941, Gabor left Hungary for the United States. During a layover at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska en route to Hollywood, she made headlines by telling the Associated Press that she had danced with Adolf Hitler twice. On July 8, 1944, aided by Gabor's then-husband, Conrad Hilton, Gabor's parents fled Budapest during the Nazi invasion and occupation of Hungary. In 1949, she received American citizenship.
Gabor's elder sister, Magda, later became an American socialite and her younger sister, Eva, became an American actress and businesswoman. The Gabor sisters were first cousins of Annette Lantos, wife of California Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA).
In January 1933, following her time as a student at a Swiss boarding school, Gabor placed second runner-up in the fifth Miss Hungary pageant behind Lilly Radó and crown winner Júlia Gál. In 1934, she began her acting career in Vienna. On August 31, 1934, she sang the soubrette role in Richard Tauber's operetta, Der singende Traum (The Singing Dream), at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. This was her first stage appearance.
After emigrating to the United States, Gabor became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style".
In 1944, Gabor co-wrote a novel with writer Victoria Wolf entitled Every Man For Herself. According to Gabor, the fictional story was derived, in small part, from Gabor's life experiences. The book was bought by an American magazine, Ladies' Home Journal. In 1949, Gabor declined an offer to play the leading role in a film version of the classic book Lady Chatterley's Lover. According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, she turned down the role of Lady Chatterley due to the story's controversial theme.
Gabor's film credits include Moulin Rouge (her most famous film), Lovely to Look At, and We're Not Married!, all from 1952, and 1953's Lili. In 1958, she ran the gamut of moviemaking, from Touch of Evil to the camp oddity Queen of Outer Space. Later, she appeared in such films as Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) and Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (1984).
She did cameos for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), and A Very Brady Sequel (1996), as well as voicing a character in the animated Happily Ever After (1989). John Huston, who directed Gabor in Moulin Rouge, later described her as a "creditable" actress. Gabor appeared in more than 70 movies, and her acting career continued into the 1990s.
She was a regular guest on television shows, appearing with Milton Berle, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Howard Stern, David Frost, Arsenio Hall, Phil Donahue, and Joan Rivers. She was a guest on the Bob Hope specials, the Dean Martin Roasts, Hollywood Squares, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, and It's Garry Shandling's Show.
In 1968, she appeared in the role of Minerva on an episode of Batman, becoming the show's final "special guest villain" before it was cancelled. In 1973, she was the guest roastee on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. She appeared on Late Night with David Letterman in 1987, where she told host David Letterman about her blind date with Henry Kissinger, which was arranged by Richard Nixon.
Gabor was a socialite known for her glamour, her series of marriages, and her Hollywood extravagance.
Author Gerold Frank, who helped Gabor write her autobiography in 1960, described his impressions of her:
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 was known to spend time with Gabor's younger sister Eva socially, wrote of the Gabor sisters' arrival in New York and Hollywood: