Zsa Zsa Gabor - # 149

Zsa Zsa Gabor, An Icon Of Camp, Glitz And Glam, Dies At 99

She was number 149 on the list.

Zsa Zsa Gabor — the woman who probably inspired the term "famous for being famous" — died on Sunday, according to multiple media outlets. She was 99 years old, just two months shy of her 100th birthday.

Her publicist, Edward Lozzi, who issued the following statement:

"Zsa Zsa Gabor has died. I am pleased that she is finally out of her misery. For the past five years, Zsa Zsa has suffered chronic dementia, locked away in her mansion laying in a hospital bed being fed through tubes in her naval, not able to speak, see, write or hear. Nor knowing who she was or how famous she was. Being her publicist during the famous Beverly Hills cop [slapping] incident and providing those services for her daughter Francesca Hilton were highlights of my PR career.

"Zsa Zsa did not suffer fools well. That fact, along with her European post-war survival techniques inspired by her mother, Zsa Zsa Gabor was one tough cookie. Her beautiful lips and mouth would be her worst enemy when and if she turned on the verbal machine gun. Most of her problems resulted from that beautiful mouth.

"Despite the people who came into her life these past years, and the controversy they have caused with their behavior, many that are still around who worked with her, knew her, from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980's know that Zsa Zsa Gabor is an American icon and the key link in the Gabor/Hilton Dynasty which will still exist for generations to come.

"Zsa Zsa and her daughter Francesca Hilton are together again. Always remembered."

Buxom and blond, vampy and campy, the Hungarian-born screen siren mainly contributed to cultural touchstones such as The Love Boat, The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and Hollywood Squares — where she answered (or, more accurately, couldn't answer) questions about Cheez Whiz.

But it would be a grave mistake to trivialize Gabor's achievements.

"She is one of the most important figures of the late 20th century in terms of thinking about celebrity, thinking about women," says Kirsten Pullen, a professor at Texas A&M University.

Pullen is not joking. As far back as the 1950s, when women were expected to be decorous, Gabor sought and got constant press for her juicy hookups, her fabulous bling and her public antics. She could dominate a newsreel about a movie premiere — for a movie she wasn't even in — just by showing up in a diaphanous gown. She was arguably the prototype for today's Kim Kardashians and Paris Hiltons.

(In fact, Gabor and Hilton had family ties: Gabor was once married to Conrad Hilton, who is Paris Hilton's great-grandfather.)

"You can't make this stuff up," Pullen says wryly. "Whether or not we think it's great to be famous for being famous, she is the one who really set the template for that."

Gabor followed her sister Eva from Hungary to Hollywood in the 1940s. Zsa Zsa scored some small movie parts from big movie directors — Orson Welles and John Huston among them — and was also featured in some movies probably best forgotten, such as Queen of Outer Space.

But if she wasn't known for her skilled acting, dancing or singing, Gabor was an irrepressible performer — and she excelled at playing herself, once endless rounds of Hollywood gossip and publicity made her own persona larger than any character.

She had charm, which made her jokes about marrying for money rather than romance more palatable right when women were starting to demand more financial control. Her oft-stated fondness for sex dented traditional expectations of passive femininity, Pullen says: "She paved the way for the sexual revolution."

And when Gabor slapped a policeman who pulled her over in 1989, she parlayed the incident into a full-blown comeback, without any apparent help from mangers or publicists. The incident put her back on the talk show circuit, where she chattered merrily about the challenges of maintaining a beauty regimen in the slammer.

Even as an older woman, Gabor tended her image as the glamorous starlet who married something like 10 times. She threw out lines like, "I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house."

But she also, ironically enough, had this to say about Paris Hilton: "I think she's rather silly. She does too many things for publicity."

Zsa Zsa also played one of the many villains on the original Batman TV serial, Minerva.

Filmography

Film

Year       Film       Director                Note

1952      Lovely to Look At              LeRoy   

We're Not Married!         Goulding             

Moulin Rouge    Huston

1953      The Story of Three Loves[78]       Minnelli               

Lili          Walters               

L'ennemi public no. 1 (The Most Wanted Man)   Verneuil              

1954      Sangre y luces (Love in a Hot Climate)     Rouquier/Suey

3 Ring Circus       Pevney

1956      Death of a Scoundrel      Martin

1957      The Girl in the Kremlin   Birdwell               

1958      The Man Who Wouldn't Talk       Wilcox  

Country Music Holiday   Ganzer

Touch of Evil      Welles

Queen of Outer Space    Bernds

1959      For the First Time             Mate    

1960      Pepe      Sidney  

1962      The Road to Hong Kong Panama                Cameo

Boys' Night Out                 Gordon                

1966      Picture Mommy Dead    Gordon                

Drop Dead Darling           Hughes

1967      Jack of Diamonds             Taylor   

1972      Up the Front       Kiliett   

1976      Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood     Winner

1978      Every Girl Should Have One         Hyatt    

1984      Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie                 Gold      

1987      A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors     Russell Cameo

1991      The Naked Gun 2 1⁄2: The Smell of Fear Zucker   Cameo

1992      The Naked Truth              Mastorakis         

1993      Happily Ever After            Blossom               Voice only

The Beverly Hillbillies      Spheeris               Cameo

Television (abridged)

Year       Series    Role       Notes

1953      Jukebox Jury      Musical Judge   

1955      The Red Skelton Show    Movie Star         

Climax!         Mme Florizel, Princess Stephanie             

December Bride                       

1956      The Milton Berle Show           Herself March 13, 1955

The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford    Herself October 18, 1956

1956–1961          General Electric Theater                Flora     

1957      The Life of Riley                Gigi       

What's My Line?               Mystery guest   August 18, 1957

Playhouse 90     Erika Segnitz, Marita Lorenz        

The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom               Herself

1958      Shower of Stars Herself March 20, 1958

1959      Lux Video Theatre            Helen   

The Dinah Shore Chevy Show      Herself

1960      Ninotchka                           

Make Room for Daddy   Lisa Laslow         

1962      Mister Ed     Herself

1963      The Dick Powell Show     Girl        

1963–1964          Burke's Law        Anna, the Maid

1965      Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre                Pilot      

Gilligan's Island Erika Tiffany Smith          

1966      Alice in Wonderland (or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?)     The Queen of Hearts       voice

The Rounders    Ilona Hobson      Episode "The Scavenger Hunt"

F Troop                 Marika

1967      Bonanza               Madama Marova              May 7, 1967

1968      My Three Sons Herself

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In          Herself

The Name of the Game Mira Retzyk       

Batman[95]        Minerva               March 3, 1968

1969      Bracken's World               Herself Cameo

1971      Mooch Goes to Hollywood           Narrator               Voice

Night Gallery      Mrs. Moore       

1976      Let's Make a Deal             Home Viewer    

1979      Supertrain           Audrey Episode "A Very Formal Heist"

1980      The Love Boat    Annette              

1981      The Facts of Life                Countess Calvet               

As the World Turns          Lydia Marlowe   cast member

1982      Matt Houston                   

1983      California Girls                  

1988      Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special Princess Zsa Zsa               

1989      It's Garry Shandling's Show          Goddess of Commitment             

1989      The Munsters Today       Herself

1990      City        Babette Croquette         

1991      The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air           Sonya Lamor     

1994      Late Show with David Letterman               Herself Sketch

1994      This Is Your Life                 Herself Tribute

Plays

Gabor occasionally appeared in theatre. From 1961 to 1970, she portrayed Elvira in national tours of Blithe Spirit. In 1970, she made her Broadway debut in Forty Carats.

From 1971 to 1983, Gabor appeared in national tours of Forty Carats, Bell, Book and Candle, Blithe Spirit, Arsenic and Old Lace (with her sister, Eva), Finders Will Return, and Ninotchka. Finally, in 1993, she portrayed the Fairy Godmother in UCLA's staging of Cinderella.

Spouse(s)           

    Burhan Asaf Belge

    (m. 1935; div. 1941)

    Conrad Hilton Sr.

    (m. 1942; div. 1947)

    George Sanders

    (m. 1949; div. 1954)

    Herbert Hutner

    (m. 1962; div. 1966)

    Joshua S. Cosden, Jr.

    (m. 1966; div. 1967)

    Jack Ryan

    (m. 1975; div. 1976)

    Michael O'Hara

    (m. 1976; div. 1983)

    Felipe de Alba

    (m. 1983; annul. 1983)

    Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt

    (m. 1986)