Zsa Zsa Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor, born Sári Gábor on February 6, 1917, in Budapest, Hungary, was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite who built a career spanning film, television, and stage. The middle daughter of Jolie and Vilmos Gábor, she grew up in a family that included her elder sister Magda, who became an American socialite, and her younger sister Eva, who pursued a career as an actress and businesswoman. Her parents were both Jewish; her mother operated a jewelry shop in Budapest while her father served as a Royal Hungarian Army officer. Gabor acquired her nickname because, as a young child, she was unable to pronounce her given name, Sári, which had itself been chosen in honor of Hungarian actress Sári Fedák.

Her public life began early. In January 1933, following her studies at a Swiss boarding school, Gabor entered the fifth Miss Hungary pageant and placed as second runner-up behind crown winner Júlia Gál and Lilly Radó. The following year, in 1934, she launched her stage career in Vienna, making her first theatrical appearance on August 31 of that year when she performed the soubrette role in Richard Tauber's operetta Der singende Traum at the Theater an der Wien. Gabor emigrated from Hungary to the United States in 1941, and during a layover at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, she made headlines by telling the Associated Press that she had danced with Adolf Hitler twice. She received American citizenship in 1949.

Her film career took shape in 1952, when she appeared in three pictures: Lovely to Look At, her first film role; We're Not Married!; and Moulin Rouge, directed by John Huston, which became her most recognized screen performance. Huston later described her as a "creditable" actress. The following year she appeared in Lili. Her subsequent film work ranged widely, from Touch of Evil and Queen of Outer Space in 1958 to Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976 and Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie in 1984. She contributed cameo appearances to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in 1987, The Beverly Hillbillies in 1993, and A Very Brady Sequel in 1996, and provided a voice for the animated feature Happily Ever After in 1989. In total, Gabor appeared in more than 70 films, with her acting career continuing into the 1990s. In 1944, she co-wrote a novel with Victoria Wolf titled Every Man For Himself, a fictional work derived in part from her own experiences, which was subsequently purchased by an American magazine. In 1949, she declined an offer to play the lead role in a film adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, citing the story's controversial subject matter.

On television, Gabor was a frequent guest across several decades, appearing alongside hosts including Milton Berle, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Howard Stern, David Frost, Arsenio Hall, Phil Donahue, and Joan Rivers. She appeared on Bob Hope specials, the Dean Martin Roasts, Hollywood Squares, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and It's Garry Shandling's Show. In 1968, she played the role of Minerva on an episode of Batman, serving as the show's final special guest villain before its cancellation. In 1973, she was the guest roastee on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Her 1987 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman included an account of a blind date with Henry Kissinger arranged by Richard Nixon.

Gabor's Broadway career brought her to the stage in 1968, when she appeared in Forty Carats. In 1960, author Gerold Frank assisted Gabor in writing her autobiography. Film historian Neal Gabler, writing in 1998, coined the term "The Zsa Zsa Factor" to describe her particular variety of celebrity.

Her personal life attracted sustained public attention. Gabor married nine times; seven marriages ended in divorce and one was annulled. Her husbands included Burhan Belge, whom she married in 1935 and divorced in 1941; hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, married in 1942 and divorced in 1947; actor George Sanders, married in 1949 and divorced in 1954; Herbert Hutner, married in 1962 and divorced in 1966; Joshua S. Cosden Jr., married in 1966 and divorced in 1967; Jack Ryan, married in 1975 and divorced in 1976; Michael O'Hara, married in 1976 and divorced in 1982; Felipe de Alba, whose 1983 marriage was annulled the following day; and Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, whom she married on August 14, 1986, and who remained her husband until her death. Gabor died on December 18, 2016. The Gabor sisters were first cousins of Annette Lantos, wife of California Congressman Tom Lantos.