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Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor dies aged 99

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor has died at the age of 99. The Hollywood legend suffered a heart attack, sa...
Newstalk
Newstalk

07.06 19 Dec 2016


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Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabo...

Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor dies aged 99

Newstalk
Newstalk

07.06 19 Dec 2016


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Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor has died at the age of 99.

The Hollywood legend suffered a heart attack, said her husband.

Frederic von Anhalt told the AFP news agency she passed away at home surrounded by friends and family.

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"Everybody was there," he said. "She didn't die alone."

Born in Hungary, Gabor's acting career began on the stage in Vienna before she moved to America.

She starred in dozens of films and TV shows, but was perhaps better known for her love life, having married nine times.

Among the men she was married to was Conrad Hilton, the founder of the Hilton Hotels chain, George Sanders, the English actor who was the voice of Shere Khan in the original Jungle Book and the co-creator of the Barbie doll, Jack Ryan.

Her last marriage, to Frederic Prinz von Anhalt in 1986, was her longest, despite the 26 year age gap, and survived until her death.

Her ability to collect husbands was aided by a bubbly and larger than life personality.

On the silver screen, she appeared in a number of notable films including Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958), John Huston's Moulin Rouge (1952), Vincente Minnelli's The Story of Three Loves (1953) and Charles Walters' Lili (1953).

Her film career was revived in the 1980s with a documentary about her trial for assaulting a police officer called 'The People vs Zsa Zsa Gabor', and the 'Naked Gun 2.5: the Smell of Fear'.

In a September 14th 1989 file photo, defence attorney William Graysen (right) positions the hand of Zsa Zsa Gabor on the face of Beverly Hills Police Officer Paul Kramer during a reenactment of the June 14th incident that resulted in Miss Gabor's arrest. Kramer, a motorcycle cop, testified in Beverly Hills that Miss Gabor was the motorist who cursed him for stopping her Rolls-Royce, slapped him and screamed "Do you know who I am?" | Image: LAT AP/Press Association Images

Many of her television appearances over the years featured the actress as herself, and she was well known to audiences in the 1980s and 1990s for her appearances on chat shows.

Including this 1983 appearance with (a young) David Letterman:

Her ability to shine in interviews and her penchant for calling everyone "dah-ling" in her thick Hungarian accent made her a popular guest.

Her well known quotes include the lines "I'm a marvellous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house" - and "I call everyone 'darling' because I can't remember their names".

She suffered ill health on a number of occasions in later life, receiving the last rites after a medical emergency in 2010.

Burlesque star Dita von Teese tweeted: "Another Hollywood legend has left us, the glamorous Zsa Zsa Gabor, one of the wittiest beauties."

Piers Morgan said on Twitter: "RIP Zsa Zsa Gabor. 99 years old, 9 husbands, Miss Hungary & Hollywood star. What a life!".


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