Publicist John Blanchette said a private ambulance was called to Gabor's house due to a spreading blood clot in her leg. Gabor, who is 93, had been advised by her doctors to undergo the surgery before Christmas but decided to wait as she feared it could be her last.
According to Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic Von Anhalt, doctors on Sunday urged the operation to be carried out immediately as the blood clot was already life-threatening.
Gabor has been in frail health since a 2002 car accident that left her stuck in a wheelchair. But she was also hospitalized in 2005 as a result of a massive stroke, and in September 2007 she was hospitalized to undergo surgery to treat a leg infection.
In July, Gabor broke several bones and underwent hip replacement surgery after she fell out of her bed while watching television at her Bel Air home. Complications relating to the surgery forced her to return to the hospital in August, but she was released several days later.
Then, later in August, Gabor was hospitalized again after Anhalt found her unresponsive at her home. She was later released after she somewhat recovered, only to return to the hospital in November as she was experiencing severe pain in a badly swollen leg.
The Hungarian-born actress is probably best known for her many marriages. She married a total of nine times, including one marriage that was later annulled. Among her husbands was Oscar-winning actor George Sanders.
But she is also known for her roles in John Huston's 1952 Toulouse-Lautrec biopic, "Moulin Rouge;" "The Story of Three Loves" (1953); "The Girl in the Kremlin" (1957); and Orson Welles' 1958 classic, "Touch of Evil."
