Hedy Lamarr

Biography

Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born actress and technology inventor. She was a film star during Hollywood's Golden Age.

After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her first husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood. She became a film star with her performance in Algiers (1938). Her MGM films include Lady of the Tropics (1939), Boom Town (1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and White Cargo (1942). Her greatest success was as Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Bible-inspired Samson and Delilah (1949). She also acted on television before the release of her final film, The Female Animal (1958). She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

At the beginning of World War II, she and avant-garde composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. This system later became the basis for what is now known as Bluetooth.

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Known For

Hollywood: No Sex, Please! 2018 ★ 5.5
Hedy Lamarr: The Invention of a Star 2018 ★ 4.0
That's Entertainment! III 1994 ★ 7.0
Showbiz Goes to War 1982 ★ 10.0
That's Entertainment, Part II 1976 ★ 7.0
The Female Animal 1958 ★ 6.0
The Story of Mankind 1957 ★ 4.4
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre 1956 ★ 6.2
Loves of Three Queens 1954 ★ 9.0
My Favorite Spy 1951 ★ 6.0
Copper Canyon 1950 ★ 5.7
A Lady Without Passport 1950 ★ 5.3
Samson and Delilah 1949 ★ 6.6
Dishonored Lady 1947 ★ 5.8
The Strange Woman 1946 ★ 6.2
Her Highness and the Bellboy 1945 ★ 6.5
Tortilla Flat 1942 ★ 5.8
Crossroads 1942 ★ 5.9
Ziegfeld Girl 1941 ★ 6.7
Boom Town 1940 ★ 6.9
Comrade X 1940 ★ 6.1
Algiers 1938 ★ 6.4
Ecstasy 1933 ★ 6.3
Money on the Street 1930 ★ 5.3