|
 Edward Lozzi, who was a longtime publicist for Gabor, said
the Hungarian-born actress passed away at her Los Angeles home
after years of decline and illness. She would have turned 100 in
February.
Gabor, by most accounts, had a personality that generally
outshone her acting skills. Her bubbly demeanor and looks helped
land her a string of wealthy husbands. She had a penchant for
calling everyone "dah-ling" in her thick Hungarian accent. Along
with her two sisters, Eva and Magda, she became a fixture on
Hollywood's social circuit in her prime.
She was once branded "the most expensive courtesan since Madame
de Pompadour," but Gabor insisted that only her marriage to
husband No. 2, hotel mogul Conrad Hilton, was financially
motivated.
In fact, marriage could have been the Gabor family business and
Zsa Zsa, the company's CEO. Her nine marriages topped the five
by Eva, who starred in the 1960s sitcom "Green Acres," and the
six of Magda, whose Hollywood career was mostly based on being
the third Gabor sister.
While her acting skills were rarely lauded, Zsa Zsa Gabor carved
out a career in her early days in Hollywood. Her finest film
roles came with "Moulin Rouge," where she earned good reviews,
in 1952 and "Lili" in 1953.
She appeared in more than 30 movies and by the 1970s she began
to reject smaller roles, saying: "I may be a character but I do
not want to be a character actress."
Gabor eventually ended up in low-budget films with such titles
as "Queen of Outer Space" and "Picture Mommy Dead."
Greater success came with nightclub and TV appearances where she
disclosed she called everyone "dah-ling" because she could not
remember names well, and she relied on self-parodying jokes
based on her marriages, haughty demeanor and taste for opulence.
"I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep
his house," she was quoted as saying.
In the final episode of the 1960s television series "Batman,"
Gabor played the guest villainess, Minerva, who used hair dryers
to steal information from men's brains.
Gabor, one of the last stars of Hollywood's golden age, was not
seen in public in her final years as she struggled with her
health, including broken bones and cuts from a car accident. She
also suffered a stroke and a broken hip, enduring complications
from hip replacement surgery. She had much of her right leg
amputated in 2011 because of an infection.
Gabor's most recent stint at the hospital came just days after
her 99th birthday last February for breathing difficulties.
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GABORS GO HOLLYWOOD
Born Sari Gabor into a wealthy family, she was named Miss Hungary in
the 1930s. When World War Two approached, Zsa Zsa and her sisters
headed for the United States, leaving behind her first husband,
Burhan Belge, a Turkish diplomat.
Soon after arriving in Hollywood, where Eva was working as an
actress, Gabor married Hilton, with whom she had a daughter,
Francesca, who died in January 2015.
In 1949, after divorcing Hilton, Gabor married British actor George
Sanders, whom she later was to call her one true love. Sanders would
end up married to Magda. Eva Gabor died in 1995 and Magda in 1997.
In addition to Belge, Hilton and Sanders, Zsa Zsa Gabor was married
to New York businessman Herbert Hutner, oilman Joshua Cosden, Barbie
doll designer Jack Ryan, her divorce lawyer Michael O'Hara, Count
Felipe de Alba of Mexico and Frederic Prinz von Anhalt.
The marriage to de Alba was annulled because her divorce from O'Hara
was not final at the time of the wedding. The 1986 marriage to von
Anhalt, which lasted until her death, was by far her longest.
Throughout her Hollywood heyday, Gabor listed her birthday only as
Feb. 6, steadfastly refusing to reveal the year. A former spokesman,
John Blanchette, said she was born in 1917.
In 1989, Gabor's temper landed her in jail for three days after she
slapped a policeman who had stopped her Rolls-Royce because of an
expired license tag. She emerged from jail complaining about the
food.
"Zsa Zsa did not suffer fools well," said Lozzi, who represented her
during that period. "Her beautiful lips and mouth would also be her
worst enemy when and if she turned on the verbal machine gun."
She sued Francesca in 2005, saying her daughter had taken out a loan
against Gabor's Bel Air, California, home and used the transaction
to steal $2 million.
(Reporting by Bill Trott in Washington; Additional reporting by
Frank McGurty in New York and Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento,
Calif.; Editing by Diane Craft and Peter Cooney)
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