Who is Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr was born in 1913 in Austria. In the late 20's she was discovered and traveled to Berlin. She was then trained in the theatre and went to Vienna to work and star in films. In 1933 Hedy became the first to play nude scenes in the film "Ecstasy". The film was banned in the United States and many other countries around the world. She married Fritz Mandl.

Fritz was definitely a mismatch for Lamarr. He forbid her to pursue her acting career and attempted to buy up all the copies of the "Ecstasy" film he could find. She eventually escaped from him in 1937. She executed a scheme to get away from him as he was reportedly locking her up and mistreating her. On the way to the U.S. she was signed to a $500 a week contract by MGM's Louis B Meyer.

She also made her last name Lamarr. There are conflicting reports of why she adapted the last name. Some sources say that she did it as homage to an actress who had died from a drug overdose whose last name was lamarr. Still some have said that it was because she was on the cruise to the U.S. when she signed her MGM contract and "la marr" means "the sea". Regardless of why she did it she would become immensely popular as an actress and sex symbol for the next three decades.

She was married six times and had three children, Anthony, Denise and James. But among her many credits was not an acting role or film production at all. She was a staunch opponent of the nazi regime during WWII. Therefore she wanted to contribute to the war effort. Because of her time with husband Fritz Mandl she knew of discussions and attempts to make torpedoes that were radio controlled. These could never be produced because the electronic signal was too easy to tamper with by enemies. She worked with George Antheil, an American composer, to make a device that would spread the radio signal out over a spectrum of frequencies that made it less susceptible to radio jamming.

In December 1940 this device was submitted to the National Inventors Council. They eventually filed for a patent for the device, and one was granted a short time later. Some twenty years later the military was using the technology on ships for communications and reconnaissance drones. Later still, this technology went in to use as the base of the technology behind cell phones, WiFi and many other current applications.

Hedy Lamarr was involved in several lawsuits over the years. She threatened to sue the producers of "Blazing Saddles" (1974) for using her name in a running joke in the film; they eventually settled out of court. In 1998 she resolved another case out of court. This time against the Corel Corporation for its use of her likeness on the packaging of its Corel Draw 8 software. Corel was allowed 5 years of exclusive rights to the image under the settlement agreement.She was arrested for shoplifting in April of 1966 but the charges were eventually dropped. She was actually arrested again in 1991 for shoplifting and again the charges were dropped.

In the film "Ecstasy" Hedy Lamarr appeared nude. There were also close-up shots of her acting like she was having an orgasm. The looks she gave during this scene were supposedly prodded out of her by the Director, who poked her with a pin.

Her roles were usually of young beautiful girls, sometimes seductresses like her role in "boom town" when she becomes Clark Gable's character's mistress. She usually spurned the lime light but was very well known around Hollywood and starred in several movies. Her most famous role is perhaps that of Delilah in "Samson and Delilah" (1949), her first color film.

Hedy Lamarr moved to Florida in her late years and was surrounded by neighbors and friends who loved her. She was found dead at home in Altamonte Springs, Florida in 2000. With most stars I have written about there was some fantastic event or horrible tragedy surrounding their death. This is not so with Hedy Lamarr. She died with her dignity intact after living a long, fulfilling life.

There could be a sort of Hedy Lamarr biographic movie in the works some time soon. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded a grant to a writer in Los Angeles to work on a screenplay. The foundation has been in the practice recently of granting money to groups or persons interested in producing media with science or technology themes. The Sloan Foundation also sometimes grants funds toward science books and plays. Apparently "Face Value" is the current name of the project.