Eva Gabor was the quintessential mid-century Hollywood starlet who seemed to have it all: fame, fortune, beauty, and success. Her defining public persona pioneered the modern celebrity. But behind her glamorous socialite image, she lived a life both controlled and overshadowed by others.
1. Her Family Fled Conflict
Eva was born in Budapest in 1919 to Hungarian Jewish parents. From the beginning, drama loved her. In the 1930s, her entire family was forced to flee the country as tensions heated up in Europe. Although they eventually settled safely in America, some of Eva's older relatives, including her grandparents, perished in the war.
Unfortunately for Eva, that was just the beginning of some serious family issues.
2. Her Mother Pressured Her
Eva’s mother, Jolie Gabor, aspired to be an actress. She married Eva’s father, Vilmos, a wealthy major in the Hungarian army, and Eva grew up alongside her older sisters Magda and Zsa Zsa. But as Jolie's hopes of fame withered with age, she began to live vicariously through her daughters and ensure they realized her dreams.
This would take an enormous and disturbing psychological toll on the girls.
3. Her Mother Was Brutally Scathing
It wasn't enough for Jolie that her daughters were beautiful and fashionable; they had to be the most beautiful and the most fashionable. Later, Eva and her sisters would express frustration at how they could never quite reach their mother’s impossible goals for them.
Case in point: In Jolie's autobiography, she says that Eva's sister Magda was so "very fat" as a girl, she was ashamed to be seen with her. But the matriarch's cruel efforts nonetheless yielded results...for a time.
ullstein bild Dtl., Getty Images
4. She Was A Teenage Bride
When Eva was just 18 years old, she caught the eye of Swedish osteopath Dr Eric Dimmer and soon became his bride. Her marriage coincided with an enormous change. With Dr Drimmer, Eva became the first of her family to emigrate to America, forging a path she hoped would lead to glamour, riches, and fame.
And it did—but all that glittered wasn't gold.
5. They Were Doomed
Eva’s marriage to Drimmer was doomed nearly from the start. For one, she later claimed, "I wanted to have babies and lead a simple family life but my husband objected to me having children," a fundamental incompatibility that they couldn't seem to surmount. As if that weren't enough, Eva's family started to get involved.
6. Her Sister Barged In
Shortly after Eva moved to the United States with Drimmer, her middle sister Zsa Zsa followed and moved in with Eva and her husband. It was a total disaster. Zsa Zsa despised her brother-in-law and, in an apparent bid for dominance, even went so far as to take over the main bedroom in the house. This all led to a bizarre choice.
7. Her Sister Pulled The Trigger
In the end, Eva’s marriage to Drimmer lasted less than five years, and upon filing for divorce, she claimed that he had been exceedingly cruel. But in later years, Eva believed that “Zsa Zsa divorced him, not me”. As she put it, "She was very strong, and I was not...she didn’t like my husband and somehow I got divorced".
Still, for all that, Eva put Drimmer in the rearview terrifyingly fast.
Paramount, Forced Landing (1941)
8. She Had A Type
After divorcing her first husband, Eva married for money a little over a year later. Her second husband, Charles Isaacs, was an investment broker. But although Isaacs kept Eva in the luxury she was quickly getting used to, it was just as ill-fated as her first, and they divorced after almost six years of marriage. It would not be her last broken union.
Paramount, Forced Landing (1941)
9. She Got A Contract
Upon emigrating to the US, Eva began pursuing an acting career. She was, after all, Jolie's daughter. Although she only spoke broken English when she arrived, she managed to snag a deal with Paramount. Unfortunately, this would be only the first phase of an uneasy start.
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10. She Was Given A Horrible First Role
Paramount paid for Eva to take acting lessons with the intention of making her a leading lady. Her first opportunity came in 1941 when she starred in the shoddily produced Forced Landing. The film was so bad that Eva would later bitterly refer to it as “a B picture only to those too lazy to go down the alphabet".
Her next acting endeavor was something else entirely.
Paramount, Forced Landing (1941)
11. She Starred In A Film With A Racy Plot
Eva managed to secure a small role in the 1957 comedy Don’t Go Near the Water starring Glenn Ford. Set on a Navy ship during World War II, Eva played the shapely and flirtatious Deborah Aldrich. Raunchy even for its time, the movie includes a scene where Eva’s character provides the ship with a mascot: a pair of her black-lace panties.
But true fame was coming for her.
MGM, Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
12. She Snagged A Starring Role
Eva landed her best-known role in 1965, playing Lisa Douglas in the rural sitcom Green Acres, starring alongside on-screen husband Eddie Albert. Her character was a city slicker convinced to leave the rat race and move to a farm in the countryside. The show was a big success, and the world began to know Eva...and her strange habits.
CBS Television, Wikimedia Commons
13. She Was A Cow Laxative
Eva was a diva through and through, and this included her daily ritual of dousing herself in perfume that could be smelled from far away whenever she walked by. The only problem? A cow known onscreen at Green Acres as Eleanor was apparently allergic to the perfume.
How did she discover this? Every time Eva arrived for a day of filming, the cow “did number two”.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
14. She Inspired Her Own Character
While most characters’ backstories on Green Acres were written for the show, the writers decided to base Lisa Douglas’ history on Eva’s own, likely to justify her Hungarian accent. The show revealed that, like Eva, Lisa was born to a Hungarian army veteran, was one of three daughters, and grew up in a middle-class family in Budapest.
That wasn't all Eva brought to the table.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
15. She Pioneered Onscreen Marital Intimacy
Eva’s character and her on-screen husband were one of the first live action human couples to be shown sharing a marital bed. Before the 1960s, networks were conservative about even showing that married couples had only one bed, let alone showing them in it together. Leave it to Eva to bring the va-va-voom.
Still, for all this trailblazing, something was missing.
CBS Television, Wikimedia Commons
16. Her Show Won A Unique Award
While Eva’s performance was praised by critics and viewers alike, she never won an award for her role on Green Acres. In fact, the only award for any acting on the show came in 1967 and was won by none other than Arnold the Piggy, who received the “Patsy” Award for best performance by an animal. This led to one nasty rumor.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
17. She Was Accused Of Grim Vengeance
After Green Acres ended, people said that Eva and her castmates had a feast on the final day of filming where the main course was Arnold the Piggy. The truth was even more bizarre. Cast member Tom Lester later admitted he had invented the rumor as he was sick of people constantly asking what had happened to the pig.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
18. She Loved Her Job
Many reviewers at the time panned Green Acres as fluff, but Eva cherished her time on the show. For one thing, it gave her an identity and fame independent of her family name, something she herself had earned with her talent. She would later refer to her time on Green Acres as “the best six years of my life. I adored every minute of it”.
But the show would eventually fall victim to a bizarre executive decision.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
19. Her Show Was Purged
Green Acres was cancelled in the 1970s, and the reason was ridiculous. This was part of a “rural purge” of American television. Most of these shows still enjoyed widespread popularity, but network executives wanted to attract a more youthful demographic who skewed urban and canceled “everything with a tree in it".
Unfortunately, by then that was the least of Eva's worries.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
20. Her Sister Outshone Her
Eva was the Gabor sister who initially gained fame, but her older sister Zsa Zsa leapfrogged her career in an instant. Not for acting, but rather for saying scandalous things on Los Angeles talk shows. Suddenly, Eva found she was the "other" Gabor sister—and it led to a painful incident.
Studio publicity still, Wikimedia Commons
21. She Had A Sibling Rivalry
Eva had mostly made a name for herself on the East coast, working through a painstaking decade to beef up her resume. When she finally went to Hollywood, Zsa Zsa had already eclipsed her. As Eva recalled, “nobody knew who I was and everyone was asking, ‘Where’s Zsa Zsa? Oh, that hurt". Well, more was on the way.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Picryl
22. She Was An Ugly Duckling
Eva and Zsa Zsa had always been compared, ever since they were children, with Zsa Zsa designated as the "beauty" of the family, Magda as the "smart" one, and Eva as "the ugly duckling" albeit one with "personality". The comparisons nettled Eva for years, and it only got worse as Zsa Zsa grew more famous.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
23. She Insulted Her Sister
Although Eva often dismissed the idea that she was threatened by Zsa Zsa, her comments often told another story. The pair liked to cattily remark upon each other in the press, and Eva once quipped, “I was the first actress in the family. And I am still the only actress in the family".
But when it came to defying Zsa Zsa, Eva had her limits.
24. She Never Shook Off Her Influence
Eva had a sharp tongue, sure, but she was still called the "nice" sister in the Hollywood set. Zsa Zsa seemed to know this, and took full advantage. Media mogul Merv Griffin once recalled that at a dinner with the two sisters, Zsa Zsa complained that Eva's dish looked better than hers.
Without skipping a beat, Eva handed her older sister the meal.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
25. She Had A Quickie Wedding
After the demise of Eva's second marriage to Charles Isaacs, she waited a whole seven years to tie the knot again—practically an eternity for her. Very much in the vein of her first marriage, her third husband, John Elbert Williams, was a plastic surgeon.
Somehow, this marriage was even more ill-fated than her previous ones, and lasted only six months. Not that Eva noticed.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
26. Her Fourth Marriage Seemed Like Her Worst Idea
Eva married for a fourth time two years later, this time to a textile manufacturer named Richard Brown. It looked like perhaps her worst idea yet: The couple had only known each other nine months, and after Brown proposed to her, they married only two hours later. In fact, the wedding took place with such short notice that Eva's sisters couldn't attend.
It didn't bode well. Except there was a twist.
27. She Had One Happy Marriage
Despite its lightning quick beginnings, Eva's fourth marriage would be her longest, clocking in at just under 14 years. The marriage also marked the first time Eva, her mother, and her two sisters were all married at the same time. But good things always come to an end, especially when you're Eva Gabor.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
28. She Married Once More For Money
When Richard Brown and Eva divorced in 1973, Eva went on the rebound in a big way. Three months after being single again, she married aerospace executive Frank Jameson. Once more, she married into money—and once more, she gave it a good long try.
This marriage would last 10 years, after which Eva would never walk down the aisle again. But that didn't mean she gave up on love.
Donaldson Collection, Getty Images
29. She Had A Relationship With A Famous Producer
Following her final marriage, Eva entered a long-term relationship with TV producer Merv Griffin, who was responsible for hits like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. The relationship would last nearly until the end of her life. Griffin would constantly appear by her side in public...but there was one place they would never go.
NBC Television, Wikimedia Commons
30. She Almost Had A Very Famous Matron Of Honor
Eva and Griffin would discuss marriage plans constantly. At one point, the two even agreed on who the matron of honor would be: close friend of Griffin’s and former First Lady Nancy Reagan. But the wedding never materialized–for very Eva reasons.
31. She Was Too Fussy For Another Marriage
Griffin claims that he never married Eva because they had some key disagreements: the two could not agree on which house they would live in, and Eva could not decide which of her staff she would keep. Then again, some suggest there was a more scandalous reason they never tied the knot.
32. She Covered For A Gay Friend
Since Griffin’s passing, it's been alleged that Eva served as his “beard”—a term for the female companion of a closeted gay man to hide his true orientation—and what they shared was a platonic relationship. Whether true or not, Eva appears to have loved Merv deeply and he shared equal affection for her talents and witticisms.
33. She Had Wit
Eva would become a loving stepmother to her fifth husband Frank Jameson’s children. Indeed, during a dinner with Merv Griffin, Eva revealed that “my stepchildren love me more than my own”. Griffin was quick to point out—correctly—that she didn’t actually have any children of her own. Her response: "I don't?"
34. Her Sister Got In Big Trouble
In 1989, Eva's sister Zsa Zsa got into an infamous amount of trouble. One day, the 72-year-old Zsa Zsa was pulled over for a traffic violation—and ended up indignantly slapping the officer in the face. The press had a field day for this Slap Heard Round the World, especially as it came out that Zsa Zsa had open alcohol in the car and was driving without a license.
Eva's response wasn't what you might think.
35. She Went Into Hiding
Such was the media circus surrounding Zsa Zsa's trial that Eva went into “serious hiding”. She rarely left her Bel-Air mansion and refused to make public appearances. She refused, too, to discuss anything about the case with Zsa Zsa, even though they talked throughout the proceedings. Still, Eva wasn't exactly pure as the driven snow herself.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
36. She Had Her Own Run-In With The Law
At the age of 69, Eva was stopped by a police officer for her own traffic infraction. Eva’s passenger friend begged her to keep quiet to avoid anything more than a ticket, and Eva immediately ducked down to hide herself. No such luck: The officer knocked on her window…and greeted her by name.
By her own admission, though, Eva was just glad the officer hadn't mistaken her for Zsa Zsa. "All I could think was, ‘Thank God,’” she recalled. To be fair, this was a common issue.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
37. She Was Often Mistaken For Her Sister
Eva and Zsa Zsa looked very alike, and it became a running joke in the media that people couldn't tell them apart. At one point, Zsa Zsa publicly claimed that Tonight Show host Johnny Carson tried to secretly meet with her at a Beverly Hills hotel. Carson clapped back on his show, joking that “Zsa Zsa had herself confused with her sister Eva".
But there was one crucial difference between them.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
38. She Was The "Good Gabor"
When Zsa Zsa became reliable tabloid fodder after her slap incident, the press began depicting Eva as the "Good Gabor" or, more insultingly, "The Other Gabor". Although Eva sometimes appeared to appreciate the favorable comparison, she also said she thought being good was "boring". It also caused further tension between the siblings.
Nixon White House Photographs, Wikimedia Commons
39. Her Relationship With Her Sister Was Hot And Cold
At the height of their fame, rumors abounded that Eva and Zsa Zsa were so at odds, they couldn't even be in the same room together. Eva always staunchly denied this, and claimed she spoke to her sister every day. But one confidant said otherwise.
Merv Griffin once revealed that though the sisters spoke often when they were on good terms, they frequently fought and would ice each other out for a week or more at a time.
40. She Seemingly Sued A Grocery Store
Around the time of Zsa Zsa’s trial, Eva showed up in the news for a surprising reason. TV news stations began to report that the actress was suing Ralphs, the grocery chain, after slipping and falling in one of their stores. Eva began receiving countless phone calls from her friends asking if she was alright.
The only problem? She had no idea what they were talking about.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
41. She Had A Case Of Mistaken Identity
As it turned out, the Eva Gabor who was suing Ralphs was someone entirely different. Due to Zsa Zsa’s recent legal troubles, most people heard the words lawsuit and Gabor together and assumed another Hollywood scandal was afoot. Showing off her good humor, Eva was reportedly amused by the incident.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
42. She Had A Charming Speech Quirk
Despite spending most of their lives in America, Eva and her sisters never quite lost their Hungarian accents. They became known for their trademark term for everyone they addressed: “dahling”; though, in their charming Eastern European inflection, it always came out as “dahlink”. Not only was Eva’s accent part of her brand, but it was also a source of pride.
Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography, Getty Images
43. She Refused To Change Her Voice
Eva completely embraced her Hungarian identity and, in fact, saw it as an asset. Merv Griffin would often lightheartedly suggest she hire a locution teacher to help her sound more American. Eva would flat out refuse every time, telling him, "Oh, dahling, it’s my whole life, it’s my business".
Linda Bisset, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
44. She Defined The Modern Celebrity
Eva and her sisters have been called the first American celebrities. We take the concept of celebrity for granted today, but in Eva’s time, it was a relatively new thing. The Gabors were among the first to have their personal lives observed and remarked upon by gossip columnists. More than their acting or business pursuits, they were the first celebrities to be “famous for being famous”.
45. Her Look Was Priority Number One
Eva made an absolute point never to be seen without full hair and makeup. This dedication extended to all aspects of Eva’s life; she wouldn’t even answer her door for a delivery unless she was completely made up. More than that, Merv Griffin claimed that Eva was “disgusted” with the rise in popularity of the “natural look” in the 1990s.
46. Her Birth Date Is Unknown
Eva and her sisters were never open about how old they were, often obscuring or straight up lying about their birthdates. They did have something of a legitimate reason for this, as Hungarian record-keeping was lax when they were born.
Still, Eva, and particularly Zsa Zsa, would constantly pretend they were several years younger than they were. This Gabor tradition of obscuring their age would continue even beyond the grave: Eva’s tombstone has no birth date on it.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
47. She Saved A Life
Eva loved animals, and she put her mouth where her money was. In 1969, her dog gave birth to two puppies, a male and a female. However, it quickly became clear that the young male pup was not breathing. Eva sprung into action: she grabbed a hose, stuck it down the dog’s throat, and resuscitated him. Nursing him back to health, she decided to name the pup Oliver.
CBS, Green Acres (1965 - 1971)
48. She Got Married A Lot
Between them, the Gabor sisters collected a staggering 20 husbands. Magda married six times and Zsa Zsa, as was her tendency, took the lion’s share with nine husbands. Eva had fewest husbands with only a measly five, though it was her who famously said marriage was “too interesting an experiment to be tried only once or twice”.
Except it wasn't only marriage she experimented with.
Donaldson Collection, Getty Images
49. She Had Some Legendary Affairs
Eva was rumored to have had many affairs in her life. Some of these occurred in the periods between her marriages, whereas others may have taken place during those marriage. The actress reportedly seduced the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power, and Glenn Ford.
50. She Helped Save A Famous Game
In 1966, on an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Eva convinced Carson to take part in a game live on air. To the delight of the audience, that game was Twister. It’s said the segment was single-handedly responsible for saving Twister, which was set to be pulled from the market due to low sales.
NBC Television, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962 - 1992)
51. She Had A Tragic End
Although Eva was the youngest of her sisters, she was the first to die. After falling in a bathtub in Mexico while on vacation, she returned to Los Angeles, only to begin suffering from pneumonia. The end came brutally quickly. On Independence Day in 1995, she passed at the age of 76.
Meribona, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
52. She Forgot All About Her Husband
Eva Gabor's glitzy public life and private turmoil is perhaps best illustrated in just one anecdote. One day somewhat later in her life, a man greeted Eva in the elevator. “Do I know you?” she asked him. She certainly did: The man was Dr John Elbert Williams. He replied: "I was your third husband".
53. She Didn't Count One Of Her Marriages
Eva was married five times on paper, but she felt the number was closer to four-and-a-half. One of her marriages was, as she would often say, “on the rebound”. She never specified which husband she was referring to, but we think it’s safe to say it was the one she didn’t recognize in the elevator.
