Born Sari Gabor in Budapest, Hungary, Gabor was one of three daughters born to Jolie and Vilmos Gabor. Conflicting dates in each of the existing biographies for Zsa Zsa and sisters Eva and Magda Gabor made it difficult to determine which of the sisters was the oldest, but most sources agreed that Zsa Zsa’s birthday was Feb. 6, 1917. Jolie Gabor was a socially ambitious woman – much to the disapproval of her stern ex-soldier husband – and propelled her daughters into the limelight with a single-minded determination. Eva was the first to immigrate to the United States in pursuit of an acting career, and Zsa Zsa – so named due to her inability to pronounce her own name as a young child – followed suit in the late 1940s after garnering some scandal for landing the title of Miss Hungary of 1936 while underage. At 20, she embarked on her first of nine marriages; the groom was Burhan Asaf Belge, an important figure in the development of 20th-century Turkey. The union ended in 1941. In her 1991 biography, One Lifetime Is Not Enough, Gabor stated that she was 15 at the time of the marriage, and they divorced without consummating it. Only year later, she was wed to hotelier Conrad Hilton, who was also married to Elizabeth Taylor. Their tumultuous marriage resulted in a daughter, Francesca, in 1947, who was born one year after their divorce in 1946, and was the only offspring born to any of the Gabor sisters. In her biography, Gabor declared that Francesca was born after Hilton raped her.
Gabor’s acting career began modestly with a supporting role in the 1952 musical “Lovely to Look At” with Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton. A statuesque blonde overflowing with Continental exoticism, she was a natural go-to for cinematic eye candy, but rarely landed a substantial role, save for that of Jane Avril, the French can-can dancer and muse for painter Toulouse-Lautrec in John Huston’s “Moulin Rouge” (1952). After that, she subsided on a steady diet of supporting and bit parts in Hollywood features, most notably as the strip-club owner in Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” (1958). That her biggest role during this period came in the camp sci-fi movie “Queen of Outer Space” (1958) as a scientist on a planet populated by women, served as a good indication of how she was perceived by the industry and audiences, despite winning a 1957 Golden Globe for “Most Glamorous Actress.”
But Gabor remained in the spotlight, thanks to a string of high-profile marriages and affairs. Her third husband was character actor George Sanders (1949-1954). During their tempestuous union, she was also frequently spotted with diplomat and notorious playboy Porfirio Rubirosa (who himself was married to actress Barbara Hutton). Following their divorce, Sanders later married Gabor’s sister, Magda, for approximately six weeks. Husband number four was Herbert Hunter, whose tenure lasted from 1962 to 1964 (in her autobiography, Gabor claimed that the divorce was based on ground of “mental kindness”); Joseph Cosden, Jr., a.k.a. Husband number five, only lasted from 1966 to 1967. During this period, Gabor also netted attention for frequent spats with sister Eva, who had developed into a respectable comedienne thanks to “Green Acres” (CBS, 1965-1971) and for a brief fling with Frank Sinatra, whom she also later accused of raping her.
Gabor’s film career continued to flourish during the 1960s, though the parts were getting campier with each passing year; there was a turn in “Picture Mommy Dead” (1966), a schlocky psycho-horror by Bert I. Gordon, and two guest shots on the “Batman” series (ABC, 1966-1968) as Minerva, a villainess who stole people’s minds with the help of her mineral spa. And there were countless appearances on talk shows, where she displayed a quick and self-effacing wit, as well as a knack for catty comments – made all the more delicious with her thick Hungarian accent.
Giving Liz Taylor a run for her money, Gabor was married twice in the 1970s – her sixth husband was engineer Jack Ryan (1975-76), who was credited with developing the Barbie Doll for Mattel, while her seventh betrothed, Michael O’Hara (1977-1982), was her lawyer in her divorce from Ryan. There were occasional movie and television roles during this period, though by now, she was essentially playing thin variations on her own persona, such as in “Female Star” in “Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood” (1976). She also penned an advice book, How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, and How to Get Rid of a Man, in 1970, and gave a rare stage performance in a production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1975.
Gabor kept herself occupied with the business of being Zsa Zsa Gabor for much of the 1980s, which included guest shots on “The Facts of Life” (NBC, 1979-1988) and “As the World Turns” (CBS, 1956- ), and there was even an eighth husband, lawyer Felipe de Alba, who allegedly stayed married to Gabor for all of one day in 1982. But her career received its biggest boost in 1989 when she was pulled over by Officer Paul Kramer for a traffic violation. Gabor slapped Kramer after he alleged spoke rudely to her, and he promptly arrested her, Her lack of a license and a reported open bottle of vodka in the vehicle did not help matters. She was sentenced to three days in jail in El Segundo and $13,000 in court costs. Gabor’s comments after her incarceration amused pundits (she claimed that she was denied a jury of her peers due to the fact that there were no producers or press agents in the box), and she was tapped to parody the incident in a string of broad comedy features, including “The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear” (1991) and “A Very Brady Sequel” (1993).
In 1986, Gabor married her ninth husband, a German socialite and aristocrat of some questionable origin named Frederic Prinz von Anhalt. Their union was the longest of Gabor’s marriages, and also her strangest. In 2007, Prinz von Anhalt declared that he had carried on a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith and was the biological father of her daughter, Dannielyn. Pressure from media sources (most notably Fox New’s Bill O’Reilly) cast doubts on the assertion, as did a statement from Gabor that Prinz von Anhalt was a “chronic fabricator.” That same year, he claimed that he was held up at gunpoint by three women, who stripped him of his clothes and valuables and left him handcuffed and naked in his car. Again, authorities found it difficult to prove the allegation.
Gabor continued making the talk show rounds until the mid-1990s, where she demonstrated that her skill with a quip remained undiminished. Her public appearances and performances ceased after a traumatic car accident in late 2002, which allegedly left Gabor in a coma; she recovered in 2003 but required further physical therapy (she also sued the hospital for $2 million and won). 2005 was marked by a lawsuit by Gabor against her daughter Francesca for larceny and fraud. Later that year, she suffered a massive stroke, which required several surgeries to correct problems that arose in its wake, leaving “Prince” von Anhalt to speak publicly on her behalf.