Eva Gabor

Eva Gabor (/ˌeɪvə ɡəˈbɔːr, - ˈɡɑːbɔːr/ AY-və gə-BOR, -⁠ GAH-bor; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-American actress, businesswoman, singer, and socialite. 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 Disney films The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in 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 businesswoman, marketing wigs, clothing, and beauty products. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.

Eva Gabor
Gabor on the set of Green Acres, April 1969
Born	February 11, 1919 Budapest, Hungarian Republic
Died	July 4, 1995 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Gábor Éva
Occupation	Actress, businesswoman, singer, socialite
Years active	1941–1994
Spouse(s)	Eric Valdemar Drimmer ​ ​ (m. 1937; div. 1942)​ Charles Isaacs ​ ​ (m. 1943; div. 1949)​ John Elbert Williams ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1957)​ Richard Brown ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1973)​ Frank Gard Jameson, Sr. ​ ​ (m. 1973; div. 1983)​
Parent(s)	Jolie Gabor (mother)
Relatives	Magda Gabor (sister) Zsa Zsa Gabor (sister) Francesca Hilton (niece)

Early life and career

Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary, the youngest of three daughters of Vilmos Gábor, a soldier, and his wife, trained jeweler Jolie (born Janka Tilleman). Her parents were both from Hungarian Jewish families.[1][2][3] She was the first of the sisters to immigrate to the U.S., shortly after her first marriage to a Swedish osteopath, Dr. Eric Drimmer, whom she married in 1937 when she was 18 years old.[4] Her first movie role was in the U.S. in 1941's Forced Landing at Paramount Pictures. During the 1950s, she appeared in several feature films, including The Last Time I Saw Paris, starring Elizabeth Taylor; and Artists and Models, which featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. These roles were 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.

Green Acres

Gabor (right) on the set of Green Acres with Eddie Albert (left), August 1965

In 1965, Gabor got the role of Lisa Douglas, whose attorney husband Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) decides to leave the "rat race" of city life. He buys a farm in a rural community, forcing Lisa to leave her beloved big-city urban life, 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 "rural purge" — a policy to get rid of the network's rural-based television shows.

Later years

Gabor, pre-1995

Gabor later did voice-over work for Disney movies, providing the European-accented voices of Duchess in The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under, as well as the Queen of Time in the Sanrio film Nutcracker Fantasy. She was a panelist on the Gene Rayburn-hosted Match Game. From 1983 to 1984, she was on the Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour starring Gene Rayburn and Jon Bauman.[5]

In 1983, she reunited with Eddie Albert on Broadway as the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina in You Can't Take It with You. 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.

Business career

In 1972, she launched her eponymous fashion collection, with Luis Estevez, a Cuban-born American, Coty-award-winning, fashion designer.[6][7][8]

Marriages and relationships

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 on June 3, 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. They married on April 8, 1956, and were divorced on March 20, 1957.[11]
• Richard Brown, a textile manufacturer, who later became a writer and director.[12][13] They married at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 4, 1959, and divorced in Santa Monica, California, in June 1973.[12][14]
• Frank Gard Jameson Sr., an aerospace executive and former vice president of Rockwell International.[15] They married in the Vivian Webb Chapel of The Webb Schools, Claremont, California on September 21, 1973. The couple divorced in 1983.[16] Gabor became a stepmother to Jameson's four children.[15]

Gabor also had a long term on-and off affair with actor Glenn Ford which began during the filming of Don't Go Near the Water in 1957. They dated between their marriages and almost married in the early 1970s.[17]

After her final marriage, Gabor was involved in a relationship with TV producer Merv Griffin until her death. It was rumored that this was a platonic relationship to hide Griffin's suspected homosexuality.[18]

Death

Gabor died in Los Angeles on July 4, 1995, from respiratory failure and pneumonia, following a fall in a 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]

The youngest sister, Eva predeceased her elder sisters and her mother. Eldest sister Magda and mother Jolie Gabor both died two years later, in 1997. Elder sister Zsa Zsa died from cardiac arrest on December 18, 2016.

Interment

Gabor's grave

Gabor is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and is buried just yards from both her niece, Francesca Hilton, and her friend and former co-star Eddie Albert.

Theatre roles

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	The Grand Duchess Olga Katrina (succeeded Colleen Dewhurst)	Plymouth Royale

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1941	Forced Landing	Johanna Van Deuren
	New York Town	Minor Role	Uncredited
	Pacific Blackout	Marie Duval
1942	Star Spangled Rhythm	Eva Gabor	Uncredited
1945	A Royal Scandal	Countess Demidow
1946	The Wife of Monte Cristo	Mme. Lucille Maillard
1949	Song of Surrender	Countess Marina
1952	Love Island	Sarna
1953	Paris Model	Gogo Montaine
1954	The Mad Magician	Claire Ormond
	Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl	Judith Duvall
	The Last Time I Saw Paris	Lorraine Quarl
1955	Artists and Models	Sonia / Mrs. Curtis
1957	The Truth About Women	Louise Tiere
	My Man Godfrey	Francesca Gray
	Don't Go Near the Water	Deborah Aldrich
1958	Gigi	Liane d'Exelmans
1959	It Started with a Kiss	Marquesa Marion de la Rey
1963	A New Kind of Love	Felicienne Courbeau
1964	Youngblood Hawke	Fannie Prince
1970	The Aristocats	Duchess	Voice
1977	The Rescuers	Miss Bianca
1979	Nutcracker Fantasy	Queen of Time
1987	The Princess Academy	Countess Von Pupsin
1990	The Rescuers Down Under	Miss Bianca	Voice (final film role)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1951	Tales of Tomorrow	Laura	Episode: "The Invader", an American anthology SciFi series performed & broadcast live
1953	The Eva Gabor Show	Herself	Host
1954–1955	Justice		2 episodes: "The Blackmailer", and "The Intruder"
1957	What's My Line?	Mystery Guest	Season No. 9, Episode No. 12, overall episode No. 389
1959	Five Fingers	Maria Vodnay	Episode: "Station Break"
1960–1961	Harrigan and Son	Lillian Lovely	Two appearances
1965–1971	Green Acres	Lisa Douglas	Lead Role
1968	Here's Lucy	Eva Von Gronyitz	1st season, episode No. 7
1969	Wake Me When the War Is Over	Baroness Marlene
1973–1982	Match Game	Recurring panelist
1975	Tattletales		With husband Frank Jameson
	Ellery Queen	Magda Szomony	Episode: "The Adventure of the Blunt Instrument"
1977	The Love Boat	Beverly Blanchard	Episode No. 10: "Dear Beverly/The Strike/Special Delivery"
1981	Fantasy Island	Anastasia Dexter	Episode: "My Late Lover/Sanctuary"
1982	Hart to Hart	Renee	Episode: "With This Hart I Thee Wed"
1983	The Edge of Night	Cast member
1990	Return to Green Acres	Lisa Douglas
	Close Encounters	Eva Hill
1993	The Legend of the Beverly Hillbillies	Herself

Appearances

• Eva Gabor appears in This Is Your Life

See also

• Gabor sisters
• Eva Gabor Portrait by Americo Makk

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

1. "Reflecting on the life of Zsa Zsa Gabor". New York Social Diary. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
2. "Jews in the News: Bonni Tischler, Steven Spielberg and Vilmos Gabor | Tampa Jewish Federation". Jewishtampa.com. July 11, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
3. Bennetts, Leslie. "It's a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
4. Johnson, Irving (February 29, 1948). "Those Gabor Girls". San Antonio Light. p. 62. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
5. Pixie, Pranking (July 4, 2012). "Pixie Pranks and Disney Fun: Every Disney Hero Has a Voice ~ Eva Gabor Duchess & Bianca". Pixie Pranks and Disney Fun. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
6. Marian Christy, "Mama Gabor: Ageless Mother of 3", Newport Daily News, February 17, 1975.
7. Launch date cited in McDowell's Directory of Twentieth Century Fashion by Colin McDowell (F. Muller, 1984)
8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on January 19, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. "Eva Gabor Obtains Divorce", The New York Times, February 25, 1945
10. "Eva Gabor in Hospital", The New York Times, December 2, 1946
11. "Eva Gabor Wed to Surgeon", The New York Times, April 9, 1956
12. Eva Gabor Wed in Las Vegas", The New York Times, October 5, 1959
13. Brown's later career was described in "Notes on People", The New York Times, June 26, 1973
14. "Notes on People", The New York Times, June 26, 1973
15. "Aeronautics Executive Jameson Dies". Articles.latimes.com. May 18, 1993. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
16. "Notes on People", The New York Times, September 22, 1973
17. Ford, Peter. Glenn Ford: A Life (Wisconsin Film Studies). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. p.177, p.189 and p.256 ISBN 978-0-29928-154-0
18. Richmond, Ray. "Merv Griffin died a closeted homosexual". U.K. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
19. "Eva Gabor, 74, the Actress; Youngest of Celebrated Sisters". The New York Times. Associated Press. July 5, 1995.
20. Gary Wayne (May 20, 1998). "Church of the Good Shepherd". Seeing-stars.com. Retrieved July 16, 2016.

External links

• Eva Gabor at IMDb
• Eva Gabor at the TCM Movie Database
• Eva Gabor at the Internet Broadway Database
• "Eva Gabor and New York stockbroker, Richard Brown wed", tcm.turner.com