Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor (born Sári Gábor; February 6, 1917 – December 18, 2016) was a Hungarian and American socialite and actress. The middle of three daughters born in Budapest to Jolie and Vilmos Gábor, she grew up in a Jewish family alongside her sisters Magda and Eva. Named after Hungarian actress Sári Fedák, Gabor earned the nickname Zsa Zsa as a child. Outside of her performing career, she was widely known for her glamour, extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, and extensive history of marriages.

Gabor attended a Swiss boarding school before competing in the 1933 Miss Hungary pageant, where she placed as second runner-up. She began her acting career on stage in Vienna in 1934, singing a soubrette role in the operetta Der singende Traum at the Theater an der Wien. In 1941, Gabor left Hungary and emigrated to the United States, obtaining American citizenship in 1949. Her parents later fled Budapest in 1944 during the Nazi invasion with the assistance of Gabor's then-husband, Conrad Hilton.

After moving to America, Gabor established herself as a sought-after actress. Her film debut occurred in 1952 with a supporting role in Lovely to Look At, followed that same year by We're Not Married! and her most famous film, Moulin Rouge, directed by John Huston. Her movie career spanned decades and included roles in Lili, Touch of Evil, Queen of Outer Space, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, and Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie, as well as cameo appearances in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Beverly Hillbillies, and A Very Brady Sequel. In total, Gabor appeared in more than 70 films through the 1990s.

In addition to her film roles, Gabor made frequent appearances on television, becoming a regular guest on shows hosted by figures such as Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Howard Stern. She co-wrote the 1944 novel Every Man For Herself with Victoria Wolf and declined the lead role in a film adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover due to its controversial theme. Film historian Neal Gabler referred to her distinct celebrity presence as "The Zsa Zsa Factor."

Gabor was married nine times to husbands including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, actor George Sanders, and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt. She had one child, a daughter named Constance Francesca Hilton born in 1947. A practicing Catholic despite her Jewish heritage, Gabor purchased a Hollywood Regency-style home in Bel Air in 1973. Later in life, Gabor and her final husband adopted at least ten adult men.

Gabor encountered legal and health challenges in her later years. In 1989, she was convicted of slapping a Beverly Hills police officer during a traffic stop, ultimately serving three days in jail in 1990. Following a 2002 car crash on Sunset Boulevard, she was left partially paralyzed and relied on a wheelchair. She subsequently suffered strokes, a hip fracture, a leg amputation in 2011, and a severe lung infection in 2016.

On December 18, 2016, Gabor died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles at the age of 99 while in a coma. Following a Catholic funeral in Beverly Hills, her ashes were initially interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery before being reinterred in 2021 at Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest, Hungary.