Eva Gabor
| Eva Gabor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
February 11, 1919 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died |
July 4, 1995 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Respiratory failure, pneumonia |
| Resting place | Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery |
| Other names | Gábor Éva |
| Occupation | Actress, businesswoman, socialite |
| Years active | 1941–1994 |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Parent(s) |
Jolie Gábor (mother) Vilmos Gábor (father) |
| Relatives |
Zsa Zsa Gabor (sister) Magda Gabor (sister) Constance Francesca Hilton (niece) |
Eva Gabor (February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-born American socialite, actress, and singer. She was widely known for her role on the 1965-71 television sitcom Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas. She voiced "Duchess" in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney’s The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. Gabor was successful as an actress in film, on Broadway and on television. She was also a successful businessperson, marketing wigs, clothing and beauty products. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.
Early life and career
Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary, to a Hungarian Jewish mother and a Hungarian father, the youngest of three daughters of Vilmos Gábor (died 1962), a soldier, and his wife Jolie (born Janka Tilleman; 1896–1997),[1] a jeweler.[2] She was the first of the sisters to emigrate to the US, shortly after her first marriage, to a Swedish osteopath, Dr. Eric Drimmer, whom she married in 1939 when she was 20 years old.
Her first movie role was in the US in Forced Landing at Paramount Pictures. During the 1950s she appeared in several “A”-movies, including The Last Time I Saw Paris, starring Elizabeth Taylor; and Artists and Models, which featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. These roles were again bit parts. In 1953 she was given her own television talk show, The Eva Gabor Show, which ran for one season (1953–54). Through the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s she appeared on television and in movies. She appeared in one episode of the mystery series Justice and was on the game show What's My Line? as the "mystery challenger". Her film appearances during this era included a remake of My Man Godfrey, Gigi and It Started with a Kiss.[3]
Green Acres
In 1965 Gabor got the role for which she is best remembered: Lisa Douglas, whose attorney husband Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) decides to leave the "rat race" of city life. They buy and run a farm in a rural community, forcing Lisa to leave her beloved New York City, in the Paul Henning sitcom Green Acres, which aired on CBS. Green Acres was set in Hooterville, the same backdrop for Petticoat Junction (1963–70), and would occasionally cross over with its sister sitcom. Despite proving to be a ratings hit, staying in the top 20 for its first four seasons, Green Acres, along with another sister show, The Beverly Hillbillies, was cancelled in 1971 in the CBS network's infamous "rural purge"--an attempt to attract a younger viewer demographic, as most viewers of the series were at least 40 years old.
Later years
Gabor later did voice-over work for Disney movies, providing the European-accented voices of Duchess in The Aristocats, Miss Bianca in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under and the Queen of Time in the Sanrio film Nutcracker Fantasy. She was a panelist on the Gene Rayburn-hosted Match Game. From 1983–84, she was on the Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour starring Gene Rayburn and Jon Bauman.
She reunited with Eddie Albert on Broadway as Olga in You Can't Take It with You.[4] In 1990, she attempted a TV series comeback in the CBS sitcom pilot Close Encounters; the pilot aired as a special that summer, but did not make it to series status. She toured post-communist Hungary after a 40-year absence on an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.[3]
Politically, she was a staunch Republican.[5]
Businesses
In 1972 she launched her eponymous fashion collection, with Luis Estevez, a Cuban-born, Coty-award-winning fashion designer.[6][7][8]
Marriages
Eva Gabor was married five times. She had no children:
- Eric Valdemar Drimmer, a Swedish-born masseur turned osteopath and psychologist. They wed in London in June 1937, and divorced in Los Angeles, California, on February 25, 1942 (the divorce was finalized on March 6); Gabor claimed cruelty, saying, "I wanted to have babies and lead a simple family life but my husband objected to my having children".[9]
- Charles Isaacs, an American investment broker.[10] They married on September 27, 1943, and were divorced on April 2, 1949.
- John Elbert Williams, MD, a plastic surgeon.[11] They married on April 8, 1956 and were divorced on March 20, 1957.[12]
- Richard Brown, a textile manufacturer, who later became a writer and director.[13][14] They married at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 4, 1959, and divorced in Santa Monica, California, in June 1973.[13][15]
- Frank Gard Jameson Sr., an aerospace executive and former vice president of Rockwell International.[16] They married in the Vivien Webb Chapel of The Webb School, Claremont, California on September 21, 1973. The couple divorced in 1983.[17] Gabor became a stepmother to Jameson's four children.[18]
Death
Gabor died in Los Angeles on July 4, 1995, from respiratory failure and pneumonia, following a fall in the bathtub in Mexico, where she had been on vacation.[19] Her funeral was held on July 11, 1995 at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.[20][21][22]
The youngest sister, Eva predeceased her elder sisters and her mother. Sister Magda and mother Jolie Gabor both died two years later, in 1997. As of 2016, Zsa Zsa is still alive.
Interment
Gabor is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and is buried just yards from her niece, Francesca Hilton, and friend and former co-star Eddie Albert.
Stage work
| Plays | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Date | Closing Date | Title | Role | Theatre | |
| January 24, 1950 | July 14, 1951 | The Happy Time | Mignonette | Plymouth | |
| March 26, 1956 | March 31, 1956 | Little Glass Clock | Gabrielle | John Golden | |
| January 31, 1958 | February 8, 1958 | Present Laughter | Joanna Lyppiatt | Belasco | |
| March 18, 1963 | November 9, 1963 | Tovarich | Tatiana (succeeded Vivien Leigh October 21) |
Winter Garden | |
| April 4, 1983 | January 1, 1984 | You Can't Take It with You | Olga (succeeded Colleen Dewhurst) |
Plymouth Royale | |
Select filmography
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Television work
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Appearances
- Eva Gabor appears in This Is Your Life
See also
Sources
- Orchids & Salami, by Eva Gabor, Doubleday, 1954
- Gaborabilia, by Anthony Turtu and Donald F. Reuter, Three Rivers Press, 2001; ISBN 0-609-80759-5
References
- ↑ Date of birth was 30 September 1896, although most sources cite 29 September, but the 30 September date and her name at birth as "Janka" not "Jansci" are supported by her birth certificate (see image)
- ↑ Jewish descent cited in Vanity Fair
- 1 2 Eva Gabor at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Eva Gabor at the Internet Broadway Database
- ↑ Sosa Belanger, Camyl. Eva Gabor an Amazing Woman: 'Unscrupulous'. iUniverse. ISBN 1469777509.
- ↑ Marian Christy, "Mama Gabor: Ageless Mother of 3", Newport Daily News, February 17, 1975.
- ↑ Launch date cited in McDowell's Directory of Twentieth Century Fashion by Colin McDowell (F. Muller, 1984)
- ↑ Profile at americanhistory.si.edu
- ↑ "Eva Gabor Obtains Divorce", The New York Times, February 25, 1945
- ↑ "Eva Gabor in Hospital", The New York Times, December 2, 1946
- ↑ Plastic Surgeon memoirs website
- ↑ "Eva Gabor Wed to Surgeon", The New York Times, April 9, 1956
- 1 2 Eva Gabor Wed in Las Vegas", The New York Times, October 5, 1959
- ↑ Brown's later career was described in "Notes on People", The New York Times, June 26, 1973
- ↑ "Notes on People", The New York Times, June 26, 1973
- ↑ Notice of death of Frank Gard Jameson, Sr., May 18, 1993; accessed December 21, 2013.
- ↑ "Notes on People", The New York Times, September 22, 1973
- ↑ Los Angeles Times website covering Gabor's marriage to Frank Jameson, latimes.com; accessed June 16, 2015.
- ↑ New York Times Archives, "Eva Gabor, 74, (sic) the Actress; Youngest of Celebrated Sisters", 5 July 1995
- ↑ "Church of the Good Shepherd".
- ↑ "The Death of Eva Gabor". www.findadeath.com.
- ↑ Celebrities grieve outside EVA GABOR funeral (Video). PaparazziParadise. February 16, 2013.
- ↑ "What's My Line?: EPISODE #389". TV.com.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eva Gabor. |
- Eva Gabor at the Internet Movie Database
- Eva Gabor at the Internet Broadway Database
- "Eva Gabor and New York stockbroker, Richard Brown wed", tcm.turner.com
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