Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary, the youngest of three daughters of Vilmos Gábor, a soldier, and his wife, trained jewelerJolie (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]
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. The Paul Henning sitcom Green Acres 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.
Eva appeared as Aunt Renee in the fourth season of “Hart to Hart”, and 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.
Personal life
Eva Gabor was married five times. She had no biological 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 me having children".[12]
Charles Isaacs, an American investment broker.[13] 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.[14]
Frank Gard Jameson Sr., an aerospace executive and former vice president of Rockwell International.[19] They married in the Vivian Webb Chapel of The Webb Schools, Claremont, California on September 21, 1973. Gabor became stepmother to Jameson's four children. The couple, however, divorced in 1983.[20][19]
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.[21]
After her final marriage, Gabor was involved in a relationship with TV producer Merv Griffin until her death.[22][23][24]Reuters reported that this was a platonic relationship to hide Griffin's suspected homosexuality.[25]
Death
Gabor died in Los Angeles on Independence Day 1995, from respiratory failure and pneumonia, following a fall in a bathtub in Mexico,[26] where she had been on vacation.[27] Her funeral was held on July 11, 1995, at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.[28]
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.[29][30]
^Johnson, Irving (February 29, 1948). "Those Gabor Girls". San Antonio Light. p. 62. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
^"Notes on People", The New York Times, September 22, 1973
^Ford, Peter. Glenn Ford: A Life (Wisconsin Film Studies). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011. p.177, p.189 and p.256 ISBN978-0-29928-154-0
