Magda Gabor

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

Family

Spouses

1. Jan Bychowski (m. 1937–44; his death)
2. William Rankin (m. 1946; div. 1947)
3. Sidney Robert Warren (m. 1947; div. 1950)
4. Tony Gallucci (m. 1957–67; his death)
5. George Sanders (m. 1970; ann. 1971)
6. Tibor Heltai (m. 1972; div. 1973)

Parents

Jolie and Vilmos Gábor

Relatives

Zsa Zsa Gabor (sister)
Eva Gabor (sister)
Constance Francesca Hilton (niece

Background

The eldest daughter of a jeweler, Jolie (1896–1997), and a soldier, Vilmos Gábor (1881-1962), she was born in 1915 in Budapest. Her parents were both from Jewish families She is listed in Hungary: Jewish Names from the Central Zionist Archives, under her first married name, as Magda Bychowsky. She stood 5'6" tall with red hair and gray eyes.

During World War II, Gabor was reported to have been the fiancée of the Portuguese ambassador to Hungary, Carlos Sampaio Garrido; another source claims she was his mistress and another claims she was his aide. 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. 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.

Marriages

Gabor 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. 1937–1944; 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. 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.
• 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.
• Tony Gallucci (m. April 1, 1957–1967; his death), president of Samuel Gallucci & Son, "one of the oldest building contracting concerns in the United States". They wed in Franklin, New Jersey. He died of cancer in 1967.
• George Sanders (m. December 4, 1970–February 1971; annulled) a British actor, who had previously been married to Zsa Zsa Gabor. They married in Riverside, California
• Tibor R. Heltai (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.

Death

More than three decades after suffering an incapacitating stroke, Magda Gabor died on June 6, 1997, five days before her 82nd birthday, from renal failure, two months after the death of her mother, and was interred in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.

Filmography

• Modern Girls (1937, film)
• Four Star Revue (1953, television)
• The Colgate Comedy Hour (1955, television)
• The Eva Gabor Show (1953–54, television)