Eva Gabor (February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995) was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was best known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert’s character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, and as a voice actor in three Walt Disney Pictures animated feature films The Aristocats, The Rescuers, and its sequel The Rescuers Down Under. Gabor had success as an actress in film, Broadway and television. Her elder sisters, Zsa Zsa Gabor and the late Magda Gabor, were also actresses and socialites.
Gabor was born to Vilmos Gábor and Jolie Tilleman Gábor in 1919. This birth date, like many dates surrounding the family, is not definitive. Her father was a soldier and a jeweler and her mother was an heiress to a Hungarian jewelry fortune. In the late 1930s, Jolie divorced Vilmos, who died in 1962.
Because of an economic downturn in the family, Gabor did not enjoy the finishing-school experience available to her older sisters. Instead, she was tutored by governesses and attended the Forstner Institute in Budapest. In her autobiography, Orchids and Salami (1954), Gabor described the sisters’ upbringing as one of “cultural ignorance.” She remarked that they could speak in four languages, but had nothing of consequence to say. Even at age seventeen, Gabor knew the importance of the “right” marriage. At a party thrown by her sister she met Eric Drimmer, a handsome Swedish doctor who worked in Hollywood. Before the party was over, he had proposed and she had accepted.
Arriving in Hollywood in 1939 as a new bride, Gabor was quickly smitten by the desire to act. Her first attempts were not satisfactory, primarily because of her youthful appearance and difficulty with the language. Nevertheless, Paramount gave her bit parts in two not very successful movies, Forced Landing (1941) and Pacific Blackout (1942).
Discouraged but not daunted, Gabor continued her quest of acting roles, playing secondary parts in A Royal Scandal (1945), The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946), and Song of Surrender (1949), as well as in plays. Her appearance in a CBS television play, L’Amour the Merrier (1949), brought her to the attention of Richard Rodgers, who saw her as a perfect Mignonette in his and Oscar Hammerstein’s new production of The Happy Time (1950). This play ran for eighteen months and was an undisputed success for Gabor.
Concurrent with her appearance in The Happy Time, Gabor was hosting the Eva Gabor Show (1950–1951) on television. As a result of these performances, she appeared often on television and costarred with Boris Karloff in the television production of Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece Uncle Vanya.
During this time, she also became known for her elegance, charm, and signature blonde beauty, which helped her gain a presence in high society. While she wasn't yet a household name, she was steadily building a career in entertainment and social circles. Here’s a collection of 25 stunning portraits of a very young Eva Gabor in the 1940s:
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