Zsa Zsa Gabor Biography

Zsa Zsa Gabor (born on February 6, 1917) is a Hungarian-American actress and socialite, who, like her two sisters, is best known for her beauty and wealthy lifestyle.

Biography

Zsa Zsa is known for her affection for jewels, her quick wit, as well as referring to everyone she speaks with as "darling", but acquired a reputation for matrimony. Zsa Zsa is also the only Gabor sister to bear a child.

Gabor was born Sári Gábor in Budapest, Hungary, the second of three daughters born to Vilmos Gábor (a soldier) and Jolie Gabor (née Jancsi Tilleman). The name Zsa Zsa (Zsuzsa) is a nickname for the Hungarian version of the name Susan.

The birth years of the Zsa Zsa Gabor sisters may be fabrications to make them appear younger. Her sisters are Magda and Eva. Zsa Zsa often claimed to have won the "Miss Hungary" beauty contest in 1936, but Jolie sometimes claimed she had won it. Gabor's maternal family was Jewish and her maternal grandparents died in the Holocaust.

She has had nine husbands:

• Burhan Belge, press director for the foreign ministry of Turkey, later known as a writer and diplomat (1937-1941).
• Conrad Hilton, Hilton Hotel magnate (1942-1946)
• George Sanders, actor (1949-1954)
• Herbert Hutner, financial consultant (1964-1966)
• Joshua S. Cosden, Jr., oil heir and businessman, (1966-1967)
• Jack Ryan, inventor associated with the Barbie and Chatty Cathy dolls, (1975-1976)
• Michael O'Hara (1977-1982)
• Felipe de Alba was an invalid marriage; it was bigamous, Zsa Zsa was still married to Michael O'Hara, and it was performed by a ship's captain at sea, but not in international waters. An annullment was received. (1982)
• Frederick Prinz von Anhalt, (since 1986)

Zsa Zsa Gabor and Conrad Hilton had one daughter, Francesca Hilton. Zsa Zsa is the only Gabor sister to bear a child. George Sanders later married Zsa Zsa's sister, Magda, and committed suicide in 1972. In 2005 Zsa Zsa accused her daughter, Francesca Hilton, of larceny and fraud, and was forced to file suit against her in a California court.

Zsa Zsa also had a relationship with Porfirio Rubirosa, a noted Dominican international playboy and sometime diplomat. She refused to leave George Sanders to marry him, whereupon Rubirosa married Barbara Hutton (for seventy-three days) and then renewed his relationship with Zsa Zsa.

Among the movies Zsa Zsa Gabor appeared in were her starring role as dancer Jane Avril in Moulin Rouge (1952), Lili (1953), Queen of Outer Space (1958), and Touch of Evil (1958). She also had a cameo appearance as herself in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Never really considered an actress, Zsa Zsa thrived as a media personality, and from the 1950s to 1970s was a staple of television talk shows hosted by Jack Paar, Mike Douglas, Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin, where she could be counted on to be amusing and combative.

Though Gabor's movies continued, their quality did not, and her later career was as a celebrity rather than a serious actress. The Gabor sisters (competing with each other for the limited number of roles they might play with Hungarian accents) often engaged in always well-publicized "feuds," but it was Zsa Zsa who seemed to thrive on adverse publicity.

Because of her B-Movie stardom and her corresponding private life she was called Hollywood's "most expensive courtesan since Madame de Pompadour" (Ephraim Katz's "The Film Encyclopedia).

On June 14, 1989, Zsa Zsa was accused of slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer 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 in jail (and required 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.

Gabor poked fun of her role in the incident by way of cameo appearances in movies such as The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (wherein she slapped a police car's light that was following her and remarked "This happens every fucking time that I go shopping"), the 1993 film version of The Beverly Hillbillies (in which she claimed that the officer had slapped her in what was described as a "drive-by slapping"), and A Very Brady Sequel (wherein she gloated upon the publicity she earned from the incident).

Zsa Zsa Gabor was a passenger in an automobile accident that occurred November 27, 2002, that was initially reported as having sent her into a coma, but the report was in error. She was conscious by the time medical assistance arrived. She left the hospital in early January 2003, facing continued physical therapy.

On July 7, 2005, Zsa Zsa suffered a massive stroke leaving her in critical condition at a local hospital.  Gabor underwent surgery to remove a blockage in her carotid artery. She returned home on July 15 and is said to be making quite an excellent recovery, given her age, and her husband appears to be taking very good care of her.

Quotes

• "To be loved is a strength. To love is a weakness."
• "A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished."
• "As a woman, you have to choose between your fanny or your face. I chose my face."
• "I have never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back."
• When asked how many husbands she'd had, Zsa Zsa replied: "You mean, other than my own?"
• "To a smart girl men are no problem - they're the answer."
• "Macho does not prove mucho."
• "Husbands are like fires. They go out if unattended."
• "I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house."
• "Getting divorced just because you don't love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do."
• "Conrad Hilton was very generous to me in the divorce settlement. He gave me 5,000 Gideon Bibles."
• "A girl must marry for love, and keep on marrying until she finds it."

Film List

• Moulin Rouge (1952)
• The Million Dollar Nickel (1952) (short subject)
• Lovely to Look At (1952)
• We're Not Married! (1952)
• The Story of Three Loves (1953)
• Lili (1953)
• The Most Wanted Man (1953)
• Love in a Hot Climate (1954)
• Ball of the Nations (1954)
• 3 Ring Circus (1954)
• Death of a Scoundrel (1956)
• The Girl in the Kremlin (1957)
• The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1958)
• Country Music Holiday (1958)
• Touch of Evil (1958)
• Queen of Outer Space (1958)
• For the First Time (1959)
• The Blue Contessa (1960)
• Pepe (1960) (cameo)
• Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary)
• The Road to Hong Kong (1963) (scenes deleted)
• Boys' Night Out (1962)
• Picture Mommy Dead (1966)
• Arrivederci, Baby! (1966)
• Jack of Diamonds (1967) (cameo)
• Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971) (narrator)
• Up the Front (1972)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
• Every Girl Should Have One (1978)
• Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie (1984)
• Smart Alec (1986)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) (cameo)
• Johann Strauss: The King Without a Crown (1987)
• The People vs. Zsa Zsa Gabor (1991) (documentary)
• The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) (cameo)
• The Naked Truth (1992)
• East & West: Paradises Lost (1993)
• Happily Ever After (1993) (voice)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) (cameo)
• A Very Brady Sequel (1996) (cameo)