Porfirio Rubirosa Profile

Porfirio Rubirosa

22 January 09	is born in San Francisco de Macoris, Dominican Republic; his father is a general
20	is raised in France when his father is named counselor to the embassy in Paris
?	attends school in Paris, France
?	trains in boxing and polo and plays bongos and the guitar
?	frequently skis at the Crestabahn in St. Moritz, Switzerland
c. 26	returns from France to the Dominican Republic and joins the army at age 17
30	General Trujillo seizes power in the Dominican Republic. Rubirosa quits his studies and becomes lieutenant of the guard.
	is banned from Cuidad Trujillo, the later Santa Domingo, when he catches the eye of 17-year-old Flor de Oro Trujillo, daughter of the dictator. With a hunger strike, she forces her father to agree to marriage.
c. 32	marries Flor de Oro. The day is a nationwide holiday.
35	is appointed counselor to a legation at the Dominican embassy in Berlin, Germany
	his escapades in Nazi-time Berlin drive Flor jealous
c. 37	divorces Flor de Oro; the two will remain on friendly terms and see each other periodically throughout the coming years. She will marry five more times.
?	drives his racing car in Le Mans, France, and is a frequent guest at Longchamps racing track
?	has an affair with La Mome Moineau in Paris. She’s the young wife of a wealthy industrialist from Puerto Rico and supports him monetarily.
38	allegedly helps two jewelers to smuggle Moineau’s valuables out of Franco’s Spain. $160,000 in jewels mysteriously vanishes. He will claim their car was fired on by the Guardia Civil, killing one of the jewelers on the spot.
ca. 39	is appointed Chargé d’affaires in Paris, France. Rubirosa personally starts selling visas to Jews who have to flee the country.
?	is arrested by the Gestapo
?	starts an affair with the married French actress Danielle Darrieux. They are seen dining at the L’Aiglon restaurant in Paris, and Rubirosa catches the eye of the Gestapo again.
?	is arrested by the Gestapo and interred in Southern Germany for a year, allegedly in exchange for the German hostages General Trujillo is holding in the Dominican Republic, which entered the war on the side of the Allies.
42	marries Danielle Darrieux. She’s 24; he’s 33.
?	during a party given by Prince Aly Khan on the Riviera, Rubirosa flirts with an over-50-year-old millionairess from Argentina. A fistfight with her jealous husband ensues.
Summer 44	while driving his wife from Paris to Neuilly, a sniper fires on his car during the celebration of the liberation of Paris. He’s seriously wounded; three bullets become lodged near his kidney.
c. 46	is appointed to the Dominican embassy in Rome
47	meets Doris Duke, who is in Rome, Italy, to interview Danielle Darrieux for Harper’s Bazaar. As heiress to Duke Tobacco Inc., she’s considered the richest woman in the States.
47	divorces Darrieux
September 47	marries Doris Duke in Paris. She presents him with a check for $500,000, a flying fortress-turned-private jet, a series of polo horses, and an assortment of sport cars. They settle at a palatial home in the Rue de Bellechasse on the left bank of the Seine in Paris. There he gets his own boxing ring; she gets her personal jazz studio.
Fall 47	is appointed Dominican ambassador to Argentina and starts an affair with first lady Evita Peron
27 October 48	divorces Duke in Paris. She claims mental cruelty. Allegedly she found out about his meeting his ex, Flor de Oro, in Capri and in Rome, Italy.
50	is severely wounded during a polo game in Egypt. Doris Duke rushes to his aid.
52	has to be rescued when in distress while searching for the sunken Spanish ship Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion in the Caribbean
52	actress Zsa Zsa Gabor announces that she’d like to have a romance with Rubirosa to take revenge for the affair her husband George Sanders allegedly had with Doris Duke
December 52	meets actress Gene Tierney at a party during the Christmas holidays while she’s filming Way of a Goucho in Argentina
Winter 52	Rubirosa accompanies his friend Ramfis Trujillo, son of the Dominican dictator, to New York, where they stay at the same hotel as Zsa Zsa, The Plaza. Rubirosa has her room filled with red roses. Shortly afterwards, Rubirosa rents a room next to hers and eventually talks her into opening the connecting door.
?	meets Zsa Zsa in the elevator of New York’s Plaza Hotel
	on the first night he spends with Zsa Zsa, her husband George sends a midnight cable: “I miss you terribly. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
53	is the reason for the divorce of Richard Reynolds, heir to the Reynolds Tobacco fortune, and his wife, Marianne O’Brien
	is the reason for the divorce of British golfer and socialite Robert Sweeney and his wife, Texan oil heiress Joanne Connelly. Angry about those headlines, Trujillo dismisses Rubirosa as ambassador to France because of personal misconduct.
Summer 53	meets Barbara Hutton, heiress to the Woolworth fortune and, next to Doris Duke, the richest girl in the States, at a party in Deauville, France. She watched him playing polo earlier in the day. He’s 44; she’s 40.
August 53	dates Zsa Zsa Gabor
?	during an argument over his plans to marry Barbara Hutton, Rubirosa sends a right-hand punch into Zsa Zsa’s eye. At her press conference the following day, she explains: "Rubi loves me. Rubirosa in Spanish means red rose; for me it means black eye. A man only hits a woman if he loves her deeply."
Late 53	he and Barbara Hutton announce their engagement
December 53	Zsa Zsa celebrates the Christmas holidays with a lump the size of the Hope Diamond on her forehead; she says she fell, but insiders claim Rubirosa socked her after she turned him down. He claims: “I’m fed up with Zsa Zsa. I’m going to marry Barbara Hutton!“
30 December 53	marries Barbara Hutton at the Dominican consulate in New York. Ramfis Trujillo serves as best man.
	Hutton presents him with a luxury private plane, a former B-25 bomber; for the honeymoon they rent the villa of the Maharaja of Baroda in Palm Beach, Florida
	spends part of the honeymoon with old flame Zsa Zsa. To be with her in Phoenix, Arizona, he flies in with his private airplane that he bought for $200,000. Part of the money is from the $250,000 that Hutton deposited in his personal account.
	at the Jokake Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona, he registers under the name of William Perkins to trick reporters who are after him and Zsa Zsa, who is constantly on the verge of divorcing George Sanders
	Zsa Zsa "wishes them well," when told of the Hutton-Rubirosa marriage
?	while staying with Barbara Hutton in Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel, Rubirosa meets Zsa Zsa again
February 54	his marriage to Hutton dissolves after his going to hotels, beach houses, and mountain cabins with Zsa Zsa
End February 54	divorces Hutton and moves into the Plaza Hotel in New York
March 54	Zsa Zsa sends condolences when Rubirosa and Hutton split
?	his fling with Barbara Hutton lasted 73 days
January 55	attends the holiday party thrown by Marusia, the dress designer, with Zsa Zsa
April 55	intends to make a Western movie with Zsa Zsa, even if they have to go to Mexico to film it. The film will be called The Western Affair and will be partly produced by Republic Pictures. Rubirosa will be Don Castillo, elegant gambler and owner of a bar who falls in love with a French countess, portrayed by Zsa Zsa. The project is killed when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services refuses to issue a worker’s permit for Rubirosa.
55	his affair with Zsa Zsa dissolves
56	has affairs with Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Soraya, the ex of the Shah of Iran
May / July 56	meets French mannequin-turned-actress Odile Bérard of Lyon at a polo match in Deauville, France. He’s 47; she’s 19 / He’s 31 years her senior.
Summer 56	again meets Odile, who stays on the Riviera with industrialist Paul-Louis Weiller. Soon she moves in with Rubirosa, who stays with the Dubonnets in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
28 October 56	marries Odile near Paris. The marriage will last for nine years, until his death.
1 February 57	he and Odile board a Varig Airlines plane at Idlewild Airport, New York, en route to the Dominican Republic, where Rubirosa will introduce his latest wife to his parents
Early 58	is appointed Dominican ambassador to Cuba
59	when a bomb explodes at the embassy’s inner courtyard after Castro seizes power, Rubirosa and his wife leave the country
	Trujillo appoints him Dominican ambassador to Belgium. When he doesn’t show up at the embassy even once, he’s quickly dismissed.
61	Trujillo appoints him inspector of all embassies and legations
31 May 61	when Trujillo is assassinated, he returns from Paris, France to Ciudad Trujillo with Ramfis and his brother Radhamés in a chartered Air France plane. Ramfis assumes power and commands the search and torture of the suspects.
August 61	the Rubirosas visit President and Mrs. Kennedy in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. With Frank Sinatra they go on a three-hour cruise on the President’s yacht, the Honey Fitz. The political talks are overrun by the events back home in the Dominican Republic.
	has to leave the Dominican Republic when Ramfis flees the country. When Ramfis hears that Rubirosa called him a coward, he cuts all ties.
	the Rubirosas sell their house on the Left Bank in Paris to banker Edmond de Rothschild for $400,000 and move to Marnes-la-Coquette, a village outside of Paris
65	because his income is only $5,000 a month, he considers marrying for money, either divorcee Patricia Kennedy Lawford or Peggy Hitchcock, a Mellon heiress
5 July 65	celebrates the victory of his polo team in the Coup de France with Odile and his equipe at Jimmy’s, a Paris nightspot
6 July 65	after lots of champagne, Rubirosa is the last to leave, early in the morning. He dies on the spot/in an ambulance on the way to a hospital after his Ferrari convertible crashes into a tree on the Avenue de la Reine Marguerite near the Bois de Boulogne. His wife, Odile, survives him.
	approximately 250 mourners attend the funeral service at his house in Marnes-la-Coquette. German heir and playboy Gunther Sachs helps to arrange the burial.
	for a short time, Odile becomes the girlfriend of Gunther Sachs. Later she remarries and eventually settles in New England.

Sources: "The Legend of Rubirosa" by Gary Cohen in Vanity Fair, The Last Playboy by Shawn Levy, Der letzte Playboy by Andreas Zielcke, www.pro.corbis.com, Such Devoted Sisters by Peter H. Brown, Trujillo - The Death of the Goat by Bernard Diederich, Tempo, The Hollywood Reporter
Recommended Books:
Links: Porfirio Rubirosa