Zsa Zsa Gabor: Biography, Marriages and Cause of Death

The throaty purr of “Dahlink.” The nine weddings. The leopard-print coats and the diamond-studded walker. Zsa Zsa Gabor built a career out of being larger than life, and when she died at 99 in December 2016, the headlines scrambled to capture her—heart attack, the obituaries said, before the death certificate told a more complicated story. This biography separates the verified facts from the fog of myth, tracing the Hungarian beauty queen’s transformation into a Hollywood icon, her tangled family link to Paris Hilton, and the precise medical record of her final years.

Last checked: 2026-07-21

Full name: Zsa Zsa Gabor (born Sári Gábor) · Born: February 6, 1917, Budapest, Hungary · Died: December 18, 2016, Los Angeles, California · Occupation: Actress and socialite · Catchphrase: Dahlink · Spouse: Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt (m. 1986–2016)

Personal snapshot

What Was Zsa Zsa Gabor Famous For Saying?

Her signature catchphrase was the velvet-draped “Dahlink”—a stylized, camp-inflected version of “darling” that journalists and talk-show hosts loved to quote. The Mirror described it as “throatily purred,” and it became a shorthand for her entire persona: Old Hollywood glamour wrapped in self-parody. She also peppered interviews with one-liners about marriage (“I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house”) and diamonds (“I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back”). NPR’s obituary went further, calling Gabor “the woman who probably inspired the term ‘famous for being famous.'” The same piece noted her fame was built not on major film roles but on a deliberate, media-savvy performance of wealth and scandal.

The catchphrase was part of a larger brand. Gabor appeared on TV series including “Gilligan’s Island,” “Batman,” and “The Love Boat,” often playing a fictionalized version of herself. She was one of three Gabor sisters—Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva—who together embodied a Hungarian-American glamour dynasty in mid-century pop culture.

Her iconic catchphrase

The exact origin of “Dahlink” is hard to pin to a single broadcast. It appears in print profiles and talk-show transcripts from the 1950s onward, always written phonetically to capture her exaggerated Hungarian-tinged accent. By the 1980s, it was so established that comedians and impressionists could summon Gabor in two syllables. She leaned into it, repeating the word in awards-show cameos and interviews so consistently that it became a registered piece of her intellectual property—a spoken-word trademark without formal papers.

How Is Paris Hilton Related to Zsa Zsa Gabor?

Paris Hilton is not a blood relative of Zsa Zsa Gabor, though the confusion persists across entertainment media. The connection runs through Gabor’s second husband, Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. Gabor married Conrad in 1942, had one daughter, Francesca, and divorced him in 1947. Conrad later had other children and grandchildren; Paris Hilton is his great-granddaughter. That makes Gabor Paris’s former step-great-grandmother by marriage—a marital link, not a genetic one. Yahoo / Variety summarized the relationship as “ex-step-great-grandmother,” while People at the time of Gabor’s death called Paris her “great-niece figure” in a colloquial sense.

Family tree connection

Genealogy blogs have pushed back harder than major outlets. Coastlinebrief explicitly notes that “Paris Hilton’s connection to Gabor is marital rather than genetic and that the ‘blood relative’ framing circulating online is inaccurate.” After Gabor’s death, Paris Hilton posted a photo of Gabor with Conrad Hilton on social media, captioning it: “My great-grandfather and her made such a beautiful couple. May she rest in peace.” Entertainment Weekly covered the tribute, noting that Hilton’s wording underscored the generational link without claiming direct ancestry.

What Did Zsa Zsa Gabor Pass Away From?

Gabor died on December 18, 2016, at her home in Los Angeles. The immediate cause, according to her death certificate, was cardiopulmonary arrest. Contributing factors included coronary artery disease and cerebrovascular disease, with a preceding cerebrovascular accident (stroke) and coma. ExtraTV published the certificate summary, which cut through the earlier, simpler reports of “heart attack” or “heart failure” that had appeared in outlets like the Los Angeles Times and PBS NewsHour. Her husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, told The Guardian: “We tried everything, but her heart just stopped, and that was it.”

Life support for 5 years

Gabor’s final years were medically difficult. After a hip replacement surgery in 2010, she suffered complications that led to a leg amputation and left her largely bedridden. According to People, she spent roughly the last five years of her life on life support, unable to speak or move independently. The prolonged decline also fueled a public feud between von Anhalt and Gabor’s daughter, Francesca Hilton, over control of her care and finances—a bitter family drama that played out in tabloid headlines alongside the medical updates.

Final years and family feuds

Francesca Hilton, Gabor’s only child, died in 2015, a year before her mother. The Los Angeles coroner listed her cause of death as a stroke and hypertensive cardiovascular disease. By then, Gabor’s life-support status had already been debated in court, with von Anhalt maintaining that he was following his wife’s wishes. The contrast between Gabor’s glittering public image and her stationary, silent final years is perhaps the most striking arc of her biography.

Timeline

• February 6, 1917: Born Sári Gábor in Budapest, then part of Austria-Hungary. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• 1942: Marries Conrad Hilton, hotel magnate, as her second husband. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• 1947: Divorces Hilton; daughter Francesca is born. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
• 1986: Marries Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, her ninth and final husband. (Biography.com)
• 2010: Hip replacement surgery leads to leg amputation and onset of long-term life support. (People)
• December 18, 2016: Dies at age 99 in Los Angeles; official cause: cardiopulmonary arrest with coronary artery and cerebrovascular disease. (ExtraTV via TMZ)

Alternatives in set: Other notable socialites and actresses

For readers interested in the broader context of Gabor’s celebrity, two figures offer useful comparison points:

• Eva Gabor: Zsa Zsa’s younger sister, also an actress and socialite. Eva is best known for her voice role as Duchess in Disney’s “The Aristocats” and her role on the sitcom “Green Acres.” Their careers ran parallel, but Eva died in 1995 at age 76, and her public persona was warmer and less scandal-laced. (Wikipedia)
• Magda Gabor: The eldest sister, also an actress and socialite, but less visible in American pop culture. She died in 1997. The three sisters together formed a kind of mid-century celebrity franchise. (Wikipedia)

“Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian actress made glamorous American celebrity, died Sunday of a heart attack. She was 99.”

– PBS NewsHour staff report, News outlet obituary

“Zsa Zsa Gabor — the woman who probably inspired the term ‘famous for being famous’ — died on Sunday.”

– NPR obituary, News outlet commentary

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For a detailed account of her life and passing, readers can explore Zsa Zsa Gabors biography and death for a comprehensive overview.

Frequently asked questions

Sources cited

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Zsa Zsa Gabor biography
• ExtraTV: Zsa Zsa Gabor’s official cause of death revealed
• NPR: Zsa Zsa Gabor, an icon of camp, glitz and glam, dies at 99
• Biography.com: Zsa Zsa Gabor
• Los Angeles Times: Zsa Zsa Gabor obituary
• Entertainment Weekly: Paris Hilton tribute to Zsa Zsa Gabor
• BBC News: Zsa Zsa Gabor dies at 99
• People: Zsa Zsa Gabor family feuds
• The Mirror: Inside Zsa Zsa Gabor’s scandalous life
• The Guardian: Zsa Zsa Gabor obituary