'Auf Wiedersehen, Darling': A tribute to the inimitable Zsa Zsa Gabor
A movie star for the ages, Zsa Zsa Gabor was a B-list actress who lived like an heiress in exile. The former "Miss Hungary" took on Hollywood after fleeing the Nazis and made a name for herself in roles big and small.
A countess in exile
Zsa Zsa Gabor won the title of "Miss Hungary" in 1936 and met her first husband, Burhan Belge, a Turkish diplomat, shortly thereafter. She and her family, including sister Eva (pictured here), sister Magda and mother Jolie, had to flee the Nazis ahead of World War II. She met up with Belge in London in June 1939, where she stayed until immigrating to the US in 1941.
Dancing to fame in the 50s
Zsa Zsa, the nickname for Sari Gabor, got her film debut in the 1950s. In one of her best-known roles, she played singer and dancer Jane Avril in the filming of painter Toulouse Latrec's biography, "Moulin Rouge." It was, according to critics, her best film - of the more than 60 she took part in.
'Queen of Outer Space'
With a strong Eastern European accent, Gabor was often cast in roles more focused on her appearance than on her talents as an actress. In 1958, she portrayed a sexy alien on a planet inhabited by scantily clad women in the campy "Queen of Outer Space."
An outsized personality known for her personal life
The B-list movie star had an A-list social life. Even as she made films, Gabor was perhaps better known the company she kept, including a close friendship wth Elizabeth Taylor as well as numerous affairs and at least eight marriages (nine if you count the one day she wed aboard a ship in a ceremony that was later deemed non-binding).
The men in her life
Known for her extravagant lifestyle, Zsa Zsa Gabor counted numerous wealthy men among her affairs. Among them was hotel heir Conrad Hilton, the great-grandfather of Paris and father to Gabor's only child, Francesca Hilton.
'One lifetime is not enough'
A superstar in her own mind, Gabor contributed to the culture in numerous ways that matched the trends of her time. She wrote the book "Zsa Zsa’s Complete Guide to Men" in 1969, followed in 1970 by "How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man." In the 1980s she produced an aerobics video and in 1991 released her autobiography, "One Llifetime Is Not Enough."
A long-term relationship
In 1986, Gabor married the man she would spend the rest of her life with - Frederic von Anhalt, a man who took on the adoptive title of German Prince. The pair moved into a former mansion of Elvis Presley's in Bel Air, where Gabor was confined in recent years after medical issues left her bed-ridden. "Everybody was there. She didn't die alone," an emotional von Anhalt told AFP by phone.