Pia Zadora seriously injured in golf cart accident
Las Vegas entertainer Pia Zadora suffered serious head injuries and an ankle fractured in three places from a golf cart accident on Thursday.
Zadora, 61, is in ICU at University Medical Center. She is able to speak, a source told the Review-Journal.
Zadora suffered bleeding in and around the brain, the source said.
The source said she was a passenger in the golf cart driven by her 19-year-old son, Jordan. The accident happened on a street in The Ridges community about 5:45 p.m.
The New York native made her Broadway debut at age 6 in a role alongside stage icon Tallulah Bankhead. From ages 10 to 12, Zadora performed in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof” opposite Zero Mostel as Tevye’s youngest daughter, Bielke.
At the age of 23, she married 53-year-old Israeli businessman Meshulam Riklas on Sept. 18, 1977.
Riklas, who owned the Riviera Hotel, booked Zadora as Frank Sinatra’s opening act and organized an expenses-paid press junket to publicize his wife, who starred in “Butterfly,” a movie he financed.
The strategy helped Zadora win a Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association but resulted in heavy media criticism for both.
Riklas and Zadora divorced in 1993. They had two children, Kady and Kristofer.
She moved to Las Vegas about five years ago with her son Jordan, who suffers from autism.
She began singing at jazz clubs around the country in hopes of making a career comeback.
She appeared at Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and landed a weekend gig as a cabaret singer at Piero’s Italian Cuisine a year ago. Her musical director, Vincent Falcone, was Sinatra’s musical director.
A month ago, Zadora made a triumphant return to New York as a headliner at the Metropolitan Room with her new show, “Pia Reloaded.”
