Hedy Lamarr
She was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria and died in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
While married to her first husband, Fritz Mandal, an arms manufacturer, she socialized with Adolf Hitler and Mussolini. She also became educated technically in his trade, Mandal was obsessed with her and never let her out of his sight. She hated him and hated his Nazi friends and finally escaped to London by drugging him.
She met Louis B. Mayer of MGM in London. He hired her and changed her name to Hedy Lamarr'. She had already appeared in several European films, including Ecstacy in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in passion, and long shots of her running naked through the woods, gave the film notoriety.
In Hollywood, she appeared in many films, usually cast as glamorous and seductive, including White Cargo (1942), and Tortilla Flat (1942), based on the novel by John Steinbeck. Her biggest success came in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Deliliah (1949) with Victor Mature as the Bible strongman.
Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received patent number 2,292,387 for their "Secret Communications System". This early version of frequency hopping used a piano-roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or to jam. The patent was little-known until recently because Lamarr applied for it under her married name of Hedy Keisler Markey. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil made any money from the patent.
Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council but was told she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell war bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at one event.
Hedy Lamarr Facts
Birth Name | Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler |
Occupation | Actor |
Birthday | September 11, 1913 |
Sign | Virgo |
Birthplace | Vienna, Austria |
Date of death | January 19, 2000 (age 86) |
Height | 5' 7" (1m70) How tall is Hedy Lamarr compared to you? |
Selected Filmography
Dishonored Lady | ||
Strange Woman, The | ||
Samson And Delilah | ||
Let's Live a Little | ||
Fabulous Forties | ||
Dark Film Mysteries | ||
The Conspirators | ||
Ziegfeld Girl | ||
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