Before the Kardashians there were the Gabor sisters. The middle, longest surviving, and probably most famous of the sisters, Zsa Zsa, has died. From Variety:
Zsa Zsa Gabor, whose 60-year career of playing herself helped paved the way for today’s celebrity-obsessed culture, has died. She was 99.
Publicist Ed Lozzi confirmed to Variety that Gabor died Sunday in her Bel Air mansion. She had been on life support for the last five years, and according to TMZ, which first reported the news, she died of a heart attack.
While Gabor had multiple acting credits, her greatest performance was playing herself: She was famous for her accented English (calling everyone “darling,†which came out “dah-linkâ€), eccentric name, offscreen antics (including a 1989 incident in which she slapped a Beverly Hills cop) and one-liners about her jewels, nine marriages and ex-husbands. Despite her glamorous image, her life, especially in later years, was marred by battles between her much-younger husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt and her daughter.
Her best screen role was probably in 1952’s Moulin Rouge and her most memorable, some would say unfortunately so, in 1958’s Queen of Outer Space.
She wasn’t really an actress. She wasn’t really a great beauty, either. She was glamorous and glamor is artifice. Her talents were self-promotion and artifice and her spiritual offspring today are many.
Sounds like she would have been a great cabinet pick at a younger age. I like the characterization “famous for being famous” in the link, because I don’t know that I’ve ever seen her in any movie, at least not one in with a nod-and-a-wink that this Zsa Zsa.
I think I mostly remember her from Hollywood Squares, which isn’t mentioned in the link. Apparently 64 episodes places her in a second tier category w/ Richard Little and Charo, but I found this nugget on IMDb: :Once held up an episode of The New Hollywood Squares (1986) for about 45 minutes after breaking a fingernail.” God speed.