Zsa Zsa Gabor was the most famous of three sisters who were as well known for their lavish lifestyles and their many marriages as for their show business careers.
Although she appeared in more than 40 films, most notably “Moulin Rouge” in 1952 and “Touch of Evil” in 1958, Gabor was best known as a celebrity, famous for being famous. She was related through marriage to the current tabloid favorite Paris Hilton, who had her own well-publicized run-in with the law for driving violations.
Gabor, a native of Hungary who put “dahlink” in the vernacular of mid-20th century America, was a celebrity of the old school who believed in glamour. She once said of today’s actresses, “When you see them in real life, they look like nothing.” Not so Zsa Zsa, who flaunted her jewels and furs and vast wardrobe.
She pursued the spotlight as avidly as she did husbands, marrying nine times. The most notable of Gabor’s marriages came in 1942, shortly after she arrived in the United States when she wed hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, who was three times her age.
She made more than 40 films, including the campy “Queen of Outer Space” and other even more forgettable movies. She was a frequent guest on Jack Paar’s popular late-night talk shows in the 1950s and ’60s and appeared on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” and on sitcoms such as “Mister Ed” and “My Three Sons,” more often than not as herself.
She also wrote several autobiographies, including the slender 1970 book “How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man.”
To catch a man, she said, a woman should “have a magnificent bosom and a half-size brain.” She also advised: “Never loan an ex-husband any money. He will only use it on other women.”
The last surviving Gabor sister, she had been in declining health after being seriously injured in 2002 when the Rolls-Royce convertible in which she was riding, with her hairdresser at the wheel, jumped a curb on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood and struck a light pole. The accident left Gabor partially paralyzed.
Gabor died Dec. 18, 2016, of heart failure at her Bel-Air mansion, according to her publicist Edward Lozzi. She was 99.
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