New York Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is to be buried in a cemetery in Budapest after a funeral in Los Angeles, her widower said.

Gabor, who died last week of a heart attack in Los Angeles aged 99, had wanted to travel to the city of her birth before she died, her husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt said on Wednesday.

He said the couple had long been in contact with Gabor's distant relatives in Hungary, where Gabor's Jewish father is buried.

Gabor, with Anhalt's help, had already obtained a passport and had spoken with him about flying to Europe, which would have required special assistance because the actress had been wheelchair-bound since a car accident in 2002, and her right leg had been amputated in 2011.

But Gabor's only daughter from her second marriage to Conrad Hilton was opposed to the trip, fearing her mother wouldn't return to the United States.

"Now she is in an urn, but that won't keep us from going to Budapest," Anhalt said.

The film actress, famous for playing herself and leading a chequered private life, died painlessly in the couple's Bel Air home on December 18.

Anhalt said the funeral would take place on Friday in Beverly Hills.

She had outlived 90 per cent of her friends, he said, and not many could make it to her funeral because they were away for Christmas.

That included her closest living friend, Canadian actress Ruta Lee, and her doctor, who was in Colorado on a ski vacation.

"My wife chose the wrong day to die. She should have died a week earlier or in January when everyone is back," he said.