Magdolna "Magda" Gabor (June 11, 1915 – June 6, 1997) was a Hungarian-American socialite and actress, 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 (aged 81) Palm Springs, California, U.S. |
| 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 (cousin-in law) |
Early life
editThe 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 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]
Marriages
editGabor 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:
- Jan Bychowsky (m. November 19, 1937 – May 22, 1944; his death), a reputed Polish count and RAF pilot. Gabor gave her name as "Magda de Bychowsky" and her marital status as divorced on a February 11, 1946, airline passenger manifest, accessed on ancestry.com, December 30, 2011; according to this form, she had left her city of residence (Lisbon, Portugal), where she lived at 17 Buenos Aires, and arrived in New York City to visit her family.
- William M. Rankin (m. December 3, 1946 – August 11, 1947; divorced) an American playwright and screenwriter (The Harvey Girls, among other films); they divorced in Los Angeles in 1947. He was born on March 31, 1900, and died in March 1966.[11]
- Sidney Robert Warren (m. July 14, 1949 – 1950; divorced) an attorney. They married in Riverhead, Long Island, New York, in 1949, and divorced the following year.[12]
- Arthur "Tony" Gallucci (m. April 1, 1956 – January 22, 1967; his death), president of Samuel Gallucci & Son, "one of the oldest building contracting concerns in the United States".[13][14][15] They wed in Franklin, New Jersey. He died of cancer in 1967.[16]
- George Sanders (m. December 5, 1970 – January 6, 1971; annulled) a British actor, who had previously been married to her sister Zsa Zsa. They married in Riverside, California.[17]
- Tibor R. Heltai (m. August 5, 1972 – 1975; divorced) an economic consultant who became a real-estate broker. They married in Southampton, New York, in 1972, separated in June 1973 and divorced two years later in 1975.[17]
Death
editGabor 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]
Filmography
edit| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Modern Girls | Film |
| 1953 | Four Star Revue | Television |
| 1953–1954 | The Eva Gabor Show | |
| 1955 | The Colgate Comedy Hour |
See also
editReferences
editNotes
- ^ "The Hungarian-Jewish Family Tree of Zsa Zsa Gabor – Nick Gombash's Genealogy Blog". April 20, 2012.
- ^ "Reflecting on the life of Zsa Zsa Gabor". August 17, 2010. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
- ^ "Jews in the News: Bonni Tischler, Steven Spielberg and Vilmos Gabor – Tampa Jewish Federation".
- ^ Bennetts, Leslie (September 6, 2007). "It's a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World". Vanity Fair.
- ^ a b The online database is based in Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc. (2008); information accessed at http://www.ancestry.com on December 30, 2011.
- ^ conVistaAlMar.com.ar. "Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampayo Garrido".
- ^ Relationship with Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampaio Garrido cited in "The Most Wives Club" article in Palm Springs Life (1996)
- ^ Relationship with Dr. Carlo de Sampaio Garrido referenced during an interview with Magda's sister, Zsa Zsa, as cited in Vanity Fair
- ^ Zsa Zsa Gábor: my story, written for me by Gerold Frank (World Publishing Co., 1960), p. 161.
- ^ Paul Preston, Doves of War: Four Women of Spain (UPNE, 2002), p. 106.
- ^ "The Billboard", August 23, 1947, p. 53.
- ^ "Mrs. Magda Gabor Married", The New York Times, July 15, 1949
- ^ "Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here; Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967.
- ^ "Magda Gabor Weds in Jersey", The New York Times, April 2, 1956.
- ^ Jolie Gabor, with Cindy Adams, Jolie Gabor (Mason/Charter, 1975)
- ^ "Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here – Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967
- ^ a b "Notes on People", The New York Times, February 19, 1975.
- ^ "Glamour and Goulash". Vanity Fair. July 2001.
- ^ Brooks, Patricia; Brooks, Jonathan (2006). "Chapter 8: East L.A. and the Desert". Laid to Rest in California: a guide to the cemeteries and grave sites of the rich and famous. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0762741014. OCLC 70284362.
- ^ Explorer's Guide
Bibliography
- Turtu, Anthony; Reuter, Donald F. (2001). Gaborabilia: An Illustrated Celebration of the Fabulous, Legendary Gabor Sisters. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80759-5.
External links
edit- Magda Gabor at IMDb