Frequently called “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World”, Hedy Lamarr was the rare combination of beauty and intelligence. Although her beauty won her fame in Hollywood and a position on any list of most beautiful women, her most important contribution to the world was the formulation of a patented technology that is the principle behind modern military communications and mobile phones.

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1914, Hedy dropped out of school to pursue a career as a movie actress. Her first film, made when she was 17 years old, was a German project entitled Geld auf der Strasse. In 1932, she gained widespread popularity through a brief nude scene in the movie Extase. After marrying Austrian munitions manufacturer Fritz Mandl, she briefly retired, but they were soon divorced as a result of his increasing involvement with the Nazis. During a tour in London, she encountered MGM head Louis B. Mayer. Mayer was fascinated with the beautiful young star, offering her a contract with MGM.

Upon her arrival in Hollywood, Mayer seemed to have trouble finding work for his new star. However, Hedy met with independent producer Walter Wanger, who cast her in Algiers, opposite Charles Boyer. The film was a great success, making Hedy a star in the United States. Realizing her potential, Mayer decided to cast her in I Take this Woman. Unfortunately, the film was a financial disaster. Undaunted, Hedy fought for a strong supporting role in Boom Town, with Clark Gable. The movie once again established her as a successful star.

During her time at MGM, Hedy co-starred opposite some of Hollywood’s most famous leading men, including James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, and Clark Gable. Hedy’s film roles mostly consisted of playing an exotic temptress, in movies such as White Cargo and H.M. Pulman, Esq.

For several years, Hedy continued to develop ideas she had first acquired from her first husband. In particular, she was interested in the problem of radio-controlled missiles. She realized that if the radio signals jumped from frequency to frequency quickly and both the sender and receiver changed in the same order, then the signal could never be blocked by someone trying to listen in.

Since the transistor had not yet been invented, the difficulty facing Hedy and her collaborator, composer George Antheil, was how to accomplish this “frequency hopping”. Antheil suggested using something similar to piano rolls, from player pianos, to keep both sides in synch. The rolls worked, and he and Lamarr patented the "Secret Communication System" in 1942. At that time, however, the idea of using the paper rolls was too awkward to be practical.

With the development of the transistor, however, Hedy’s invention was used by the U.S. Navy in secure military communication. Her idea was later used in cellular phone technology, as well. Nevertheless, by the time the invention became practical for use in communication, Hedy and George’s patent had expired, and they never received royalties for their idea.

After starring in several successful films, Hedy’s film career seemed to stall for a period. She became famous for roles she misguidedly turned down (including Laura, Casablanca and Gaslight). After starring in Her Highness and the Bellboy, she left MGM for five years.

After leaving MGM, Hedy produced and starred in two movies, The Strange Woman, and Dishonored Lady. The Strange Woman was a critical success, but Dishonored Lady was poorly received, prompting one reviewer to remark that the movie was “high on technical values, and low on just about everything else”.

It was at Paramount, however, that Hedy found her most successful role, in Cecil B. DeMille’s Biblical epic, Samson and Delilah. Hedy appeared in color for the first time in her career, and she enchanted the screen with her stunning beauty. Hedy didn’t enjoy working with DeMille, however, and refused to co-star in his next epic, The Greatest Show on Earth. She returned to MGM, where she made Lady without a Passport. She later starred in two other movies for Paramount, My Favorite Spy, with Bob Hope, and Copper Canyon, with Ray Milland. In 1957, she starred in her last film, The Female Animal.

Despite her absence on screen, Hedy continued to make headlines. Several scandals, including numerous divorces and two shoplifting arrests, tainted her image. In 1966, she penned her memoirs, Ecstacy and Me. After the book was released, she sued the publishers for adding details she had not authorized. She later sued Mel Brooks when he named a character in his movie Blazing Saddles “Hedley Lamarr”, and a software company that used a portrait of her to sell its products without her authorization. Despite her early retirement from the screen and the limited number of popular films she appeared in, Hedy Lamarr remains one of Hollywood’s most influential stars. Her timeless glamour continues to captivate audiences, and her exotic beauty remains an important part of Hollywood history. Although her scientific work is not as well known, it is her most important contribution to the world, and is a lasting legacy for an incomparable personality.

Birth Name: Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler
Nicknames: 'The Most Beautiful Women in Films'
Birth Date: November 9, 1913
Star Sign: Scorpio
Birth Place: Vienna, Austria
Death Date: January 19, 2000
Death Place: Orlando, Florida
Cause of Death: Natural Closes
Burial: Ashes were scattered over the Viennese Woods, Vienna, Austria
Height: 5' 7"  (ca. 170 cm)
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Green
Schools: Got private lessons since she was four, later was sent to finishing school in Switzerland.
Parents: Emil and Gertrud Kiesler



Siblings: none
Marriages and Children:

* Fritz Mandl (1933-1937, divorced)



* Gene Markey (1939-1940, divorced), adopted son, James



* John Loder (1943-1947, divorced), son Anthony, daughter Denise Hedy

   

* Ted Stauffer (1951-1952, divorced)



* W. Howard Lee (1953-1960, divorced)



* Lewis Boies (1963-1965, divorced)




Essential Movies:

Samson and Delilah (1949)
The Conspirators (1944)
Tortilla Flat (1942)
White Cargo (1942)
H.M. Pulman, Esq. (1941)
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
Boom Town (1940)
Comrade X (1940)
Algiers (1938)
Extase (1933)



Her Star at the Walk of Fame can be found at:

6247 Hollywood Blvd

Hedy’s first color film, Samson and Delilah, was also her biggest box office success.


The first Inventor's Day in Germany was held in her honor on 9 November 2005, on what would have been her 90th birthday.


In Ekstase, Hedy became the first woman to appear nude in a major film.


The mansion used in the popular musical film Sound of Music belonged to Hedy at the time of filming.


Hedy became a naturalized American citizen in 1953.


Hedy was arrested for shoplifting in 1966 and 1991. She was acquitted the first time she was arrested, and given one year probation after her 1991 arrest.


Famous costume designer Edith Head named Hedy as one of the three stars she most disliked working with. The other stars were Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard.


During the Golden Apple Awards of 1949, Hedy was “awarded” the Sour Apple Award, as most uncooperative actor of the year.


Hedy was offered the chance to play opposite Algiers co-star Charles Boyer again in Gaslight. However, she turned down the role, allowing Ingrid Bergman to take the part. The film earned Bergman an Oscar.


Upon meeting Hedy for the first time at a party, Algiers co-star Charles Boyer reportedly remarked, “I have not seen your face, but from the back, your hair and your figure assure me you are a beautiful woman.” When she told him she had only appeared in a “few minor films in Vienna”, he instantly recognized that she was Hedy Lamarr.


During the 1940s, plastic surgeons dubbed Hedy the star most women wanted to look like, since her profile was the most sought after by female patients.


Hedy’s hairstyle was responsible for introducing the center part, which influenced numerous other stars, including Joan Bennett.


Although Hedy’s first husband, munitions manufacturer Fritz Mandl jealously tried to obtain and destroy all existing copies of her film Ekstase, numerous fans and admirers, including Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, refused to part with their copies of the movie.


Despite her fame as a film star, Hedy’s greatest accomplishment was far from the silver screen. With ideas she had gathered from her first husband, a Nazi sympathizer, she developed a radar guiding system for torpedoes that helped the Allies win World War II. Working with her on the project was composer George Antheil. The invention, known as frequency hopping, is still in use, and is the principle behind wireless devices such as cell phones and wireless internet and numerous other technologies.

The world isn't getting any easier. With all these new inventions I believe that people are hurried more and pushed more... The hurried way is not the right way; you need time for everything - time to work, time to play, time to rest."

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"Any girl can look glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

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"If you use your imagination, you can look at any actress and see her nude. I hope to make you use your imagination."

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"My problem is, I'm a hell of a nice dame. The most horrible whores are famous. I did what I did for love. The others did it for money."

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"I must quit marrying men who feel inferior to me. Somewhere there must be a man who could be my husband and not feel inferior. I need a superior inferior man."

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"It would be wrong of me to say so, but in this country [USA] money is more important than love. Most people here betray you and that's why there is so much chaos. I want to get away from here. I am homesick for Vienna ... because my home is Vienna and Austria, not America...never!"

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"Most children turn out badly because they have the wrong parental image. This doesn't mean their parents are criminal. It means they are boring and cruel."

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"The ceremony took six minutes. The marriage lasted about the same amount of time though we didn't get a divorce for almost a year."

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"Some men like a dull life-they like the routine of eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, petting the dog, watching TV, kissing the kids, and going to bed. Stay clear of it-it's often catching."

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"The ladder of success in Hollywood is usually a press agent, actor, director, producer, leading man; and you are a star if you sleep with each of them in that order. Crude, but true."

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"I'm a sworn enemy of convention. I despise the conventional in anything, even the arts."

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"I can excuse everything but boredom. Boring people don't have to stay that way."

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"I appreciate subtlety. I have never enjoyed a kiss in front of the camera. There's nothing to it except not getting your lipstick smeared."

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"All my six husbands married me for different reasons."

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"I don't fear death because I don't fear anything I don't understand. When I start to think about it, I order a massage and it goes away."

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"I enjoy countless hundreds pursuing me. I love those who love me the most. I am sort of flattered by men showing attention to me."

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"To be a star is to own the world and all the people in it. After a taste of stardom, everything else is poverty."

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"Because you don't live near a bakery doesn't mean you have to go without cheesecake."

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"All creative people want to do the unexpected."

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"Compromise and tolerance are magic words. It took me 40 years to become philosophical."

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"Confidence is something you're born with. I know I had loads of it even at the age of 15."

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"I advise everybody not to save: spend your money. Most people save all their lives and leave it to somebody else. Money is to be enjoyed."

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"I am a very good shot. I have hunted for every kind of animal. But I would never kill an animal during mating season."

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"I am not ashamed to say that no man I ever met was my father's equal, and I never loved any other man as much."

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I think I would have given my soul to look like Hedy Lamarr."

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"Just try working in the same picture with that beautiful Lamarr face, and just see if you're not ready to commit suicide!"

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"I don't think I've ever used the term ravishing; but in describing the knockout beauty of Hedy Lamarr, star of more than 25 films, it is the only word that seems to fit. All of us who knew her will tell you she had a great sense of humor. And she was smart too!"

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"At the Academy Awards, she was always good material. In 1943 I got laughs with, "During the dinner, I gave one of the greatest performances ever seen in Hollywood. I sat next to Hedy Lamarr and had to act as though I was interested in the food."

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"After six marriages (not all at the same time, mind you) and filmmaking, Hedy Lamarr retired to a simple life in Florida. We got her to venture back to California in September 1966 to appear on my special at NBC. She was reserved, smart and beautiful. And to her friends and fans--that's how she'll always be."

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"Hedy Lamarr's talent is not skin-deep."

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"I married Hedy in May 1942... To my surprise I soon discovered that Hedy had very simple tastes and in fact was a typical hausfrau at heart. She was quite domesticated and preferred to stay at home in the evening rather than go to parties. On the cook's day off she always prepared the meals herself, but when we did go out she proved an excellent conversationalist and could speak intelligently on politics or any other topic. She did not drink and was never ostentatious or out to catch the limelight for herself. I shall always maintain that Hedy's best quality was that she was completely unimpressed by her own outstanding beauty. Indeed, she seemed oblivious to it."

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"The most beautiful girl in all Europe."

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"When I first met Hedy Lamarr, about twenty years ago, she was so beautiful that everybody would stop talking when she came into a room. Wherever she went she was the cynosure of all eyes. I don't think anyone concerned himself very much about whether or not there was anything behind her beauty, he was too busy gaping at her. Of her conversation I can remember nothing: when she spoke one did not listen, one just watched her mouth moving and marveled at the exquisite shapes made by her lips. She was, in consequence, rather frequently misunderstood. ... Beautiful women -- on whom so many words and hours and fortunes are spent, who are painted and pursued, adored and abused, married and abandoned. Each one using this trump card in a different way. Like a joker in canasta, it is a powerful advantage properly played and a heavy load to have left in your hand. Hedy Lamarr found it a load."

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"Hedy was at the height of her beauty, with thick, wavy, jet-black hair. With that stunning widow's peak, her face was magnificent. We all looked up and there she was at the top of the stairs. She wore a cape of some kind up to her chin, and it swept down to the floor. I can't even remember the color of the cape, because all I saw was that incredible face, that magnificent hair, and a huge diamond. The most fabulous solitaire diamond on her forehead, just at the tip of her widow's peak. She was enough to make strong men faint."

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"It is just too bad that Metro never learned how to use her, because 'The Most Beautiful Woman in the World' was a lot more than an unforgettable face, she was a delightful dame."

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"It chances that I think Hedy to be one of the most underestimated actresses, one who has not been lucky enough to get the most desirable roles. I have seen her do a few brilliant things. I always thought she had great talent, and as far as classical beauty is concerned you could not then, nor perhaps even now, find anyone to top Lamarr."

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