Magdolna "Magda" Gabor (June 11, 1915 – June 6, 1997) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite, and the elder sister of Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor.
Magda Gabor | |
---|---|
Born | Magdolna Gábor June 11, 1915 Budapest, Austria-Hungary |
Died | June 6, 1997 Palm Springs, California, U.S. | (aged 81)
Resting place | Desert Memorial Park |
Occupation(s) | Actress, socialite |
Years active | 1937–1991 |
Spouses | Jan Bychowski
(m. 1937; died 1944)William Rankin
(m. 1946; div. 1947)Sidney Robert Warren
(m. 1949; div. 1950)Tony Gallucci
(m. 1957; died 1967)Tibor Heltai
(m. 1972; div. 1975) |
Parent(s) | Vilmos Gábor Jolie Gabor |
Relatives | Zsa Zsa Gabor (sister) Eva Gabor (sister) Francesca Hilton (niece) Tom Lantos (brother-in law) |
The eldest daughter of a jeweler, Jolie (1896–1997),[1] and a soldier, Vilmos Gábor (1881–1962), she was born in 1915 in Budapest. Her parents were both from Jewish families.[2][3][4] She is listed in Hungary: Jewish Names from the Central Zionist Archives, under her first married name, as "Magda Bychowsky".[5]
During World War II, Gabor was reported to have been the fiancée of the Portuguese ambassador to Hungary, Carlos Sampaio Garrido;[6] another source claims she was his mistress and another claims she was his aide.[7][8][9] After she fled to Portugal in 1944, following the Nazi occupation of Hungary, and, with Sampaio's assistance, she was reportedly the mistress of a Spanish nobleman, José Luis de Vilallonga.[10] Gabor arrived in the United States in February 1946, from Natal, Brazil. Within a year of her arrival she married an American citizen, William Rankin, and remained in the country.[5]
Gabor was married six times. She was widowed twice, divorced three times, and one marriage was annulled. All the unions were childless. Her husbands, in chronological order, were:
Gabor died on June 20 1997, five days before her 82nd birthday and two months after the death of her mother.[18] The cause was kidney failure. She was interred next to her mother in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.[19][20]
Year | Title | Notes |
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1937 | Modern Girls | Film |
1953 | Four Star Revue | Television |
1953–1954 | The Eva Gabor Show | |
1955 | The Colgate Comedy Hour |