Magda Gabor
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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.
Early life
[edit]The eldest daughter of a jeweler, Jolie (1896–1997),<ref name="nickmgombash">Template:Cite web</ref> and a soldier, Vilmos Gábor (1881–1962), she was born in 1915 in Budapest. Her parents were both from Jewish families.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She is listed in Hungary: Jewish Names from the Central Zionist Archives, under her first married name, as "Magda Bychowsky".<ref name="ancestry">The online database is based in Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc. (2008); information accessed at http://www.ancestry.com on December 30, 2011.</ref>
During World War II, Gabor was reported to have been the fiancée of the Portuguese ambassador to Hungary, Carlos Sampaio Garrido;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> another source claims she was his mistress and another claims she was his aide.<ref>Relationship with Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampaio Garrido cited in "The Most Wives Club" article in Palm Springs Life (1996)</ref><ref>Relationship with Dr. Carlo de Sampaio Garrido referenced during an interview with Magda's sister, Zsa Zsa, as cited in Vanity Fair</ref><ref>Zsa Zsa Gábor: my story, written for me by Gerold Frank (World Publishing Co., 1960), p. 161.</ref> 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.<ref>Paul Preston, Doves of War: Four Women of Spain (UPNE, 2002), p. 106.</ref> 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.<ref name="ancestry"/>
Marriages
[edit]Gabor 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.<ref>"The Billboard", August 23, 1947, p. 53.</ref>
- 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.<ref>"Mrs. Magda Gabor Married", The New York Times, July 15, 1949</ref>
- 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".<ref>"Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here; Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967.</ref><ref>"Magda Gabor Weds in Jersey", The New York Times, April 2, 1956.</ref><ref>Jolie Gabor, with Cindy Adams, Jolie Gabor (Mason/Charter, 1975)</ref> They wed in Franklin, New Jersey. He died of cancer in 1967.<ref>"Arthur Gallucci, Contractor HereTemplate:SndChief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967</ref>
- 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.<ref name=notes>"Notes on People", The New York Times, February 19, 1975.</ref>
- 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.<ref name=notes/>
Death
[edit]Gabor died on June 20, 1997, five days before her 82nd birthday and two months after the death of her mother.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The cause was kidney failure. She was interred next to her mother in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Explorer's Guide</ref>
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
[edit]References
[edit]Notes Template:Reflist
Bibliography
External links
[edit]- 1915 births
- 1997 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- 20th-century Hungarian actresses
- Actresses from Budapest
- Actresses from Palm Springs, California
- Age controversies
- American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
- American television actresses
- American socialites
- Burials at Desert Memorial Park
- Deaths from kidney failure in California
- Gabor family
- Hungarian emigrants to the United States
- 20th-century Hungarian Jews
- Hungarian socialites
- Hungarian television actresses
- Jewish American actresses
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- 20th-century American Jews