Eva Gabor

Eva Gabor
Born	(1919-02-11)February 11, 1919 Budapest, Hungarian Republic
Died	July 4, 1995(1995-07-04) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Other names	Gábor Éva
Occupation	Actress, businesswoman, 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)	Vilmos Gábor Jolie Gabor
Relatives	Magda Gabor (sister) Zsa Zsa Gabor (sister) Constance Francesca Hilton (niece)

Eva Gabor (/ˈeɪvə ɡəˈbɔːr/; February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-born American actress, comedian, 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 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney’s 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 businessperson, marketing wigs, clothing and beauty products. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.

Early life and career[edit]

Gabor was born in Budapest, Hungary, the youngest of three daughters of Vilmos Gábor (died 1962), a soldier, and his wife Jolie (born Janka Tilleman; 1896–1997),^[1] a jeweler. Her parents were both from Jewish families.^[2][3][4] She was the first of the sisters to immigrate to the US, shortly after her first marriage, to a Swedish osteopath, Dr. Eric Drimmer, whom she married in 1939 when she was 20 years old.^[5]

Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor in Green Acres, 1969

Her first movie role was in the US in Forced Landing at Paramount Pictures. During the 1950s she appeared in several “A”-movies, including The Last Time I Saw Paris, starring Elizabeth Taylor; and Artists and Models, which featured Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. These roles were again 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[edit]

In 1965, Gabor got the role for which she is best remembered: 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[edit]

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 1983–84, she was on the Match Game Hollywood Squares Hour starring Gene Rayburn and Jon Bauman.^[6]

In 1983 she reunited with Eddie Albert on Broadway as the Grand Duchess Olga in Katrina 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.

Businesses[edit]

In 1972 she launched her eponymous fashion collection, with Luis Estevez, a Cuban-born, Coty-award-winning fashion designer.^[7][8][9]

Marriages and Relationships[edit]

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 in June 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".^[10]
• Charles Isaacs, an American investment broker.^[11] 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.^[12]
• Richard Brown, a textile manufacturer, who later became a writer and director.^[13][14] They married at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 4, 1959, and divorced in Santa Monica, California, in June 1973.^[13][15]
• Frank Gard Jameson Sr., an aerospace executive and former vice president of Rockwell International.^[16] They married in the Vivian Webb Chapel of The Webb School, Claremont, California on September 21, 1973. The couple divorced in 1983.^[17] Gabor became a stepmother to Jameson's four children.^[16]

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

Death[edit]

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 in 2016.

Interment[edit]

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.^{[citation needed]}

Stage work[edit]

Select filmography[edit]

Television work[edit]

Appearances[edit]

• Eva Gabor appears in This Is Your Life

See also[edit]

• Gabor sisters
• Eva Gabor Portrait by Americo Makk

Sources[edit]

• 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[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eva Gabor.

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