Actress Eva Gabor Dies -- Hungarian Emigre Starred On TV's `Green Acres'

LOS ANGELES - Eva Gabor, the actress best known for playing a farm-bound socialite on television's "Green Acres," has died at age 74.

The younger sister of Zsa Zsa Gabor died yesterday from respiratory distress and other infections, said Ron Wise, a spokesman for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Several family members were at her bedside.

She entered the hospital on June 21 after breaking her hip in a fall. She also was found to be suffering from pneumonia, Wise said.

Eva (pronounced AY-vah), older sisters Zsa Zsa and Magda, and their mother, Jolie, emigrated to the United States from Hungary in the 1930s and '40s. By the 1950s, the family had achieved worldwide celebrity.

They were all entertainers. And they all possessed the unmistakably breezy Gabor style. Once, for example, when introduced to then-President Johnson, Eva Gabor greeted him in her trademark Hungarian accent: "Hello, Mr. President, daahling."

"Green Acres," which ran on CBS from 1965 to 1971, cast Miss Gabor as a Park Avenue penthouse dweller transplanted to rural Hooterville because lawyer husband Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) preferred fresh air to Times Square. Lisa Douglas wore gowns in the kitchen as she fried up hotcakes and entertained her neighbor's pet pig, Arnold.

"We worked very hard, but we were also very lucky," Eva Gabor said in a 1961 interview.

The Gabor sisters were born to an upper-middle-class Budapest family that at first did not approve of their interest in show business.

Nonetheless, Miss Gabor moved to Hollywood in 1939 and soon landed a contract with Paramount Pictures. Her career didn't take off until she played an unemployed acrobat in the 1950 Broadway show "The Happy Time."

Success in the theater production earned her guest roles on TV variety shows and led to her own interview program, "The Eva Gabor Show."

During this period, the much-married sisters gained notoriety for their love lives. Eva Gabor, married five times, was credited with coming up with the saying: "Marriage is too interesting an experiment to be tried only once or twice."

She was most recently married to Frank Jameson, an aerodynamics industrialist from whom she was divorced in 1983. She was single at the time of her death.

Zsa Zsa and Eva were often mistaken for one another, although the older sister's legal troubles, including a highly publicized run-in with a police officer, gave her the more colorful reputation.

"It's awfully boring to be called the `good Gabor,' " Eva Gabor said in a 1990 interview.

In later years, Eva Gabor - whose name conjured up images of Hollywood glamour and high-priced living - ran a multimillion-dollar wig company.

In a 1988 interview, Miss Gabor explained that she got into the wig business because her work in the theater made her appreciate the merits of a good, lightweight hairpiece.

Though she was best known for "Green Acres," Miss Gabor also had a career on the big screen, with parts in "The Last Time I Saw Paris," "Artists and Models," "My Man Godfrey," "Don't Go Near the Water" and "Gigi."

She is survived by her mother, sisters and two stepdaughters.

Funeral services will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.

Information from Los Angeles Times is included in this report.