Actress Eva Gabor, widely known for her role as a socialite trapped on a farm in the TV comedy series "Green Acres," died Tuesday of pneumonia. She was 74.
Gabor, the youngest of the glamorous, platinum-blond Gabor sisters, was surrounded by family and friends when she died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about 10:05 a.m., said hospital spokesman Ron Wise.Gabor was admitted to the hospital June 21 after she fell and broke a hip while vacationing in Mexico. When Gabor arrived at the hospital, she already was suffering from an upper respiratory infection and pneumonia.
"We didn't anticipate anything like this happening," said Raymond Katz, Gabor's manager for 38 years.
"She was a very healthy woman. We didn't anticipate the pneumonia would overcome her," Katz said in an interview Tuesday.
The star with the distinctive Hungarian accent will be remembered as "a loving person," Katz said.
"She never had a bad friend. She enjoyed a wonderful career and was beloved by the audience of `Green Acres,' " Katz said.
It was Gabor's role as Lisa Douglas on "Green Acres" between 1965 and 1971 that made her a house-hold name.
Gabor played a Park Avenue city slicker who reluctantly relocates with her husband, Oliver Wendell Douglas, played by Eddie Albert, to a backwater farm in the town of Hooterville.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Eva Gabor left her family and moved to the United States in 1939 with her first of five husbands, a Hollywood doctor. Her sisters, Zsa Zsa and Magda, and mother, Jolie, soon followed.
Gabor had aspired to be an actress since the age of 4, and once in the United States, it wasn't long before she achieved stardom, landing a contract with Paramount Pictures.
Gabor appeared in numerous Hollywood films in the 1940s, but her career took off in 1950 when she won a role on Broadway in "The Happy Time."
Gabor later opened a wig company, Gabor International, and devoted much time to raising money for charities.