ZSA ZSA GABOR (1917-2016)
Nobody would claim that Zsa Zsa Gabor changed the world with her acting skills, but as the first celebrity who was “famous for being famous”, this tabloid superstar embraced Hollywood life, brazen quips, and multiple marriages to an extreme that set the decadent standards for today’s reality-show wannabes. With multigenerational Budapest roots, the future Zsa Zsa was born Sári Gábor and began her show-business career in Vienna before being crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. During WWII, the Jewish Gábor family was forced to flee for Portugal in 1944; the budding starlet relocated to California soon afterwards, where she was immediately in demand for her European grace and seductive Hungarian accent, scoring her prominent roles in major movies like Moulin Rouge and Touch of Evil. Gabor starred in plenty of not-so-major movies as well, but by the 1960s she was primarily famous for her jet-setting lifestyle, diamond-studded wardrobe, and penchant for wealthy husbands; she was married nine times to men as diverse as American hotelier Conrad Hilton, British actor George Sanders, and Barbie-doll designer Jack Ryan. Still a household name to this day, Gabor turned fame into a way of life followed by contemporary TV personalities like Kim Kardashian, Anna Nicole Smith, and, ironically, Paris Hilton – the great-granddaughter of Zsa Zsa’s ex.