Magda Gabor

Magdolna "Magda" Gabor (June 11, 1915 – June 6, 1997) was a Hungarian-American actress and socialite, and the elder sister of Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor.

Magda Gabor
Born	Magdolna Gábor June 11, 1915 Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Died	June 6, 1997 (aged 81) Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Resting place	Desert Memorial Park
Occupation	Actress, socialite
Years active	1937–1991
Spouse(s)	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)​ George Sanders ​ ​ (m. 1970; annulled 1971)​ Tibor Heltai ​ ​ (m. 1972; div. 1975)​
Parent(s)	Vilmos Gábor Jolie Gabor
Relatives	Zsa Zsa Gabor (sister) Eva Gabor (sister) Francesca Hilton (niece) Anette Lantos (cousin)

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] She stood 5'6" tall with red hair and gray eyes.[6]

During World War II, Gabor was reported to have been the fiancée of the Portuguese ambassador to Hungary, Carlos Sampaio Garrido;[7] another source claims she was his mistress and another claims she was his aide.[8][9][10] After she fled to Portugal in 1944, following the Nazi occupation of Hungary, and, with Sampaio's assistance, she was reportedly the mistress of a Spanish nobleman, José Luis de Vilallonga.[11] 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.[12]
• 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.[13]
• 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".[14][15][16] They wed in Franklin, New Jersey. He died of cancer in 1967.[17]
• 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.[18]
• 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.[18]

Death

Magda Gabor died on June 6, 1997, five days before her 82nd birthday and two months after the death of her mother.[19] The cause was kidney failure. She was interred next to her mother in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.[20][21]

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

• Gabor sisters

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.

References

1. "The Hungarian-Jewish Family Tree of Zsa Zsa Gabor – Nick Gombash's Genealogy Blog".
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. "It's a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World".
5. 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. Gabor's physical attributes are stated on a February 11, 1946 airline passenger manifest, also accessed at Ancestry.com on December 30, 2011.
7. conVistaAlMar.com.ar. "Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampayo Garrido".
8. Relationship with Dr. Carlos Almeida Afonseca de Sampaio Garrido cited in "The Most Wives Club" article in Palm Springs Life (1996)
9. Relationship with Dr. Carlo de Sampaio Garrido referenced during an interview with Magda's sister, Zsa Zsa, as cited in Vanity Fair
10. Zsa Zsa Gábor: my story, written for me by Gerold Frank (World Publishing Co., 1960), p. 161.
11. Paul Preston, Doves of War: Four Women of Spain (UPNE, 2002), p. 106.
12. "The Billboard", August 23, 1947, p. 53.
13. "Mrs. Magda Gabor Married", The New York Times, July 15, 1949
14. "Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here; Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967.
15. "Magda Gabor Weds in Jersey", The New York Times, April 2, 1956.
16. Jolie Gabor, with Cindy Adams, Jolie Gabor (Mason/Charter, 1975)
17. "Arthur Gallucci, Contractor Here – Chief of Building Concern, Active in Charities, Dies", The New York Times, January 24, 1967
18. "Notes on People", The New York Times, February 19, 1975.
19. "Glamour and Goulash". Vanity Fair. July 2001.
20. 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.
21. Explorer's Guide

External links

• Magda Gabor at IMDb