Magda Gabor

The native form of this personal name is Gábor Magdolna. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Magda Gabor
Born
Magdolna Gábor

(1915-06-11)June 11, 1915
Budapest, Austria-Hungary
DiedJune 6, 1997(1997-06-06) (aged 81)
Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Resting placeDesert Memorial Park
Occupation(s)Actress, socialite
Years active1937–1991
Spouses
Jan Bychowski
​
​
(m. 1937; died 1944)​
William Rankin
​
​
(m. 1946; div. 1947)​
Sidney Robert Warren
​
​
(m. 1949; div. 1950)​
Tony Gallucci
​
​
(m. 1957; died 1967)​
​
​
(m. 1970; ann. 1971)​
Tibor Heltai
​
​
(m. 1972; div. 1975)​
Parent(s)Vilmos Gábor
Jolie Gabor
RelativesZsa Zsa Gabor (sister)
Eva Gabor (sister)
Francesca Hilton (niece)
Tom Lantos (cousin-in law)

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

The eldest daughter of a jeweler, Jolie (1896–1997),[1] and a soldier, Vilmos Gábor (1881–1962), she was born in 1915 in Budapest. Her parents were both from Jewish families.[2][3][4] She is listed in Hungary: Jewish Names from the Central Zionist Archives, under her first married name, as "Magda Bychowsky".[5]

During World War II, Gabor was reported to have been the fiancée of the Portuguese ambassador to Hungary, Carlos Sampaio Garrido;[6] another source claims she was his mistress and another claims she was his aide.[7][8][9] 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.[10] 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.[5]

Marriages

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.[11]
  • 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.[12]
  • 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".[13][14][15] They wed in Franklin, New Jersey. He died of cancer in 1967.[16]
  • 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.[17]
  • 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.[17]

Death

Gabor died on June 20 1997, five days before her 82nd birthday and two months after the death of her mother.[18] The cause was kidney failure. She was interred next to her mother in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.[19][20]

Filmography

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

References

Notes

  1. ^ "The Hungarian-Jewish Family Tree of Zsa Zsa Gabor – Nick Gombash's Genealogy Blog". April 20, 2012.
  2. ^ "Reflecting on the life of Zsa Zsa Gabor". August 17, 2010. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  3. ^ "Jews in the News: Bonni Tischler, Steven Spielberg and Vilmos Gabor – Tampa Jewish Federation".
  4. ^ Bennetts, Leslie (September 6, 2007). "It's a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World". Vanity Fair.
  5. ^ a b The online database is based in Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc. (2008); information accessed at http://www.ancestry.com on December 30, 2011.
  6. ^ conVistaAlMar.com.ar. "Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampayo Garrido".
  7. ^ Relationship with Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampaio Garrido cited in "The Most Wives Club" article in Palm Springs Life (1996)
  8. ^ Relationship with Dr. Carlo de Sampaio Garrido referenced during an interview with Magda's sister, Zsa Zsa, as cited in Vanity Fair
  9. ^ Zsa Zsa Gábor: my story, written for me by Gerold Frank (World Publishing Co., 1960), p. 161.
  10. ^ Paul Preston, Doves of War: Four Women of Spain (UPNE, 2002), p. 106.
  11. ^ "The Billboard", August 23, 1947, p. 53.
  12. ^ "Mrs. Magda Gabor Married", The New York Times, July 15, 1949
  13. ^ "Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here; Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967.
  14. ^ "Magda Gabor Weds in Jersey", The New York Times, April 2, 1956.
  15. ^ Jolie Gabor, with Cindy Adams, Jolie Gabor (Mason/Charter, 1975)
  16. ^ "Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here – Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967
  17. ^ a b "Notes on People", The New York Times, February 19, 1975.
  18. ^ "Glamour and Goulash". Vanity Fair. July 2001.
  19. ^ Brooks, Patricia; Brooks, Jonathan (2006). "Chapter 8: East L.A. and the Desert". Laid to Rest in California: a guide to the cemeteries and grave sites of the rich and famous. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0762741014. OCLC 70284362.
  20. ^ Explorer's Guide

Bibliography

  • Turtu, Anthony; Reuter, Donald F. (2001). Gaborabilia: An Illustrated Celebration of the Fabulous, Legendary Gabor Sisters. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80759-5.