Overview (4)

Mini Bio (2)

Hedy Lamarr, the woman many critics and fans alike regard as the most beautiful ever to appear in films, was born Hedwig Eva Kiesler in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Gertrud (Lichtwitz), from Budapest, and Emil Kiesler, a banker from Lember (now known as Lviv). Her parents were both from Jewish families. Hedwig had a calm childhood, but it was cinema that fascinated her. By the time she was a teenager, she decided to drop out of school and seek fame as an actress, and was a student of theater director Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Her first role was a bit part in the German film Geld auf der Straße (1930) (aka "Money on the Street") in 1930. She was attractive and talented enough to be in three more German productions in 1931, but it would be her fifth film that catapulted her to worldwide fame. In 1932 she appeared in a German film called Ekstase (1933) (US title: "Ecstasy") and had made the gutsy move to be nude. It's the story of a young girl who is married to a gentleman much older than she, but she winds up falling in love with a young soldier. The film's nude scenes created a sensation all over the world. The scenes, very tame by today's standards, caused the film to be banned by the US government at the time.



Hedy soon married Fritz Mandl, a munitions manufacturer and a prominent Austrofascist. He attempted to buy up all the prints of "Ecstasy" he could lay his hands on (Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, had a copy but refused to sell it to Mandl), but to no avail (there are prints floating around the world today). The notoriety of the film brought Hollywood to her door. She was brought to the attention of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who signed her to a contract (a notorious prude when it came to his studio's films, Mayer signed her against his better judgment, but the money he knew her notoriety would bring in to the studio overrode any moral concerns he may have had). However, he insisted she change her name and make good, wholesome films.



Hedy starred in a series of exotic adventure epics. She made her American film debut as Gaby in Algiers (1938). This was followed a year later by Lady of the Tropics (1939). In 1942, she played the plum role of Tondelayo in the classic White Cargo (1942). After World War II, her career began to decline, and MGM decided it would be in the interest of all concerned if her contract were not renewed. Unfortunately for Hedy, she turned down the leads in both Gaslight (1940) and Casablanca (1942), both of which would have cemented her standing in the minds of the American public. In 1949, she starred as Delilah opposite Victor Mature's Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's epic Samson and Delilah (1949). This proved to be Paramount Pictures' then most profitable movie to date, bringing in $12 million in rental from theaters. The film's success led to more parts, but it was not enough to ease her financial crunch. She made only six more films between 1949 and 1957, the last being The Female Animal (1958).



Hedy retired to Florida. She died there, in the city of Casselberry, on January 19, 2000.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Volker Boehm and BlueGreen

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna, Austria, to a banker and his wife. Hedwig, who obviously became Hedy, had a rather calm childhood, but it was cinema that fascinated her. By the time she was a teenager she decided to drop out of school and seek fame as an actress. Her first role was a bit part in the German film Geld auf der Straße (1930) (aka "Money on the Street") in 1930. She was attractive and talented enough to be in three more German productions in 1931, but it would be her fifth film that catapulted her to worldwide fame. In 1932 she appeared in a German film called Ekstase (1933) (US title: "Ecstasy") and had made the gutsy move to be nude. It's the story of a young girl who is married to a gentleman much older than she, but she winds up falling in love with a young soldier. The film's nude scenes created a sensation all over the world. The scenes, very tame by today's standards, caused the film to be banned by the US government at the time. Hedy soon married Fritz Mandl, a munitions manufacturer and a prominent Austrofascist (not the same as Nazi). He attempted to buy up all the prints of "Ecstasy" he could lay his hands on (Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, had a copy but refused to sell it to Mandl), but to no avail (there are prints floating around the world today). The notoriety of the film brought Hollywood to her door. She was brought to the attention of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who signed her to a contract (a notorious prude when it came to his studio's films, Mayer signed her against his better judgment, but the money he knew her notoriety would bring in to the studio overrode any "moral" concerns he may have had). However, he insisted she change her name and make good, wholesome films. Hedy made her American film debut as Gaby in Algiers (1938). This was followed a year later by Lady of the Tropics (1939). In 1942 she landed the plum role of Tondelayo in the classic White Cargo (1942). After World War II her career began to decline and MGM decided it would be in the interest of all concerned if her contract were not renewed. Unfortunately for Hedy, she turned down the leads in both Gaslight (1940) and Casablanca (1942), both of which would have cemented her standing in the minds of the American public. In 1949 she appeared as Delilah opposite Victor Mature's Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's epic Samson and Delilah (1949). This proved to be Paramount Pictures' most profitable movie to date, bringing in $12 million in rental from theaters. The film's success led to more parts, but it was not enough to ease her financial crunch. She was to make only six more films between 1949 and 1957, the last being The Female Animal (1958). Hedy then retired to Florida, where she died on January 19, 2000.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: BlueGreen (partly)

Spouse (6)

Trade Mark (4)

Natural brunette hair



Pale skin and green eyes



Voluptuous figure



Seductive deep voice



Trivia (59)

Inspired by an early Philco wireless radio remote and player piano rolls, she worked with composer George Antheil (who created a symphony played by eight synchronized player pianos) she invented a frequency-hopping system for remotely controlling torpedoes during World War II. The invention was examined superficially and filed away. In 1959 it was developed for controlling drones that would later be used in Viet Nam. Frequency hopping radio became a Navy standard by 1960. Due to the expiration of the patent and Lamarr's unawareness of time limits for filing claims, she was never compensated. Her invention is used today for WiFi, Bluetooth, and even top secret military defense satellites. While the current estimate of the value of the invention is approximately $30 billion, during her final years she was getting by on SAG and social security checks totaling only $300 a month.





Had three children: Anthony Loder (born March 1, 1947), Denise Hedy Loder (born May 29, 1945), James Loder (born March 6, 1939; Hedy's husband John Loder adopted him October 16, 1939 as James Markey Lamarr).



Sued Mel Brooks for mocking her name in his film Blazing Saddles (1974) by naming a character "Hedley Lamarr". They settled out of court.

In April 1998 she sued software company Corel Corp. for using her photo on the cover of its product CorelDRAW.





After a screen test, it was Louis B. Mayer who changed her last name to Lamarr in honor of silent film star Barbara La Marr

Arrested for shoplifting in January 1966. Found not guilty.



Arrested for shoplifting in 1991. She was found guilty at trial and sentenced to one year of probation.





During her marriage to screenwriter Gene Markey , the two adopted a son, James. She soon after gave birth to two children, Denise Hedy and Antony, while married to actor John Loder





She received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1997 for her pioneering work in spread-spectrum technology.

Was co-inventor (with composer George Antheil ) of the earliest known form of the telecommunications method known as "frequency hopping", which 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 method received U.S. patent number 2,292,387 on August 11, 1942, under the name "Secret Communications System". Frequency hopping is now widely used in cellular phones and other modern technology. However, neither she nor Antheil profited from this fact, because their patents were allowed to expire decades before the modern wireless boom.She received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1997 for her pioneering work in spread-spectrum technology.



For her appearance in Ekstase (1933), she has been credited as being the first nude woman as well as portraying the first sex-scene in film history (scenes were cut and additional ones added in order to be able to release it in some countries). However, she was actually at least 18 years too late to be the first nude woman in film, as both Inspiration (1915) and Lois Weber 's Hypocrites (1915) had beaten her to it.

Her profile was the most requested in the 1940s by women to their plastic surgeons.



Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 337-338. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.





The mansion used in The Sound of Music (1965) belonged to her at the time.

The first Inventor's Day in Germany was held in her honor on November 9, 2005, on what would have been her 92nd birthday.



Became a naturalized US citizen on April 10, 1953.





Dr. Kleiner's pet head-crab "Lamarr" in the computer game Half-Life 2 (2004) is named after her.



Was considered for the role of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), but Ingrid Bergman was cast instead. When Julius Epstein , one of the film's several screenwriters, was trying to "pitch" (explain the plot) to producer David O. Selznick , he started a long, drawn-out summary but finally wrapped up with "Oh, what the hell! It's going to be a lot of shit like Algiers (1938)!", which was one of her starring films.



Was cast in the movie Picture Mommy Dead (1966), but fired on February 3, 1966, when she did not show up for the first day of shooting.

Was the inspiration for the DC Comics antiheroine and Batman's love interest, Catwoman.



She was married six times.



Although she earned a great deal of money during her career, she lost her fortune with her production company. She died impoverished in Florida in 2000.



Her father was a bank director and her mother was a pianist.



After an education that included ballet and dancing lessons and learning to speak such languages as English, Italian and Hungarian, she rounded off her apprenticeship by attending a Swiss boarding school.





Her nude and sex scenes in Ekstase (1933) caused a scandal in Europe at the time. Even Benito Mussolini had a copy of the movie in his private possession. Today these nude scenes looks harmless.



When Ekstase (1933) was showed in the cinemas the name Hedy Kiesler was the talk of the town. However, instead of a great film career, she followed with a marriage to Austrian munitions manufacturer Fritz Mandl. She retired from the film business at her husband's request and devoted herself to the marriage. Mandl tried to buy up all existing copies of "Extase" but was unsuccessful. The marriage turned out to be a disaster, however--her husband beat her regularly and was an ardent Nazi supporter--and she escaped from the marriage and her home country and fled to England, where she met producer Louis B. Mayer , who changed her name to Hedy Lamarr in honor of silent-screen star Barbara La Marr



She admitted that she made one of her biggest career mistakes when she turned down the leading role in Casablanca (1942).



She studied at Max Reinhardt 's theater school at the Deutsches Theater.

She was the daughter of Gertrud (Lichtwitz) and Emil Kiesler. Her father was born in Lviv (now in Ukraine) and her mother was born in Budapest, Hungary. Both were from Jewish families.



She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6247 Hollywood Blvd. on February 8, 1960.





Met Max Reinhardt at a party in 1929 when she was 15.



When she first arrived in Hollywood MGM set her up in a roommate situation with Hungarian actress Ilona Massey



May be the only screen actor to be in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She was inducted in 2014 along with former Hollywood composer George Antheil . At the start of World War II, the two invented a frequency hopping technique that could be used by the Allies to prevent jamming of torpedo guidance systems. It later became an important aspect for wireless communications. The inventors received no compensation for their discovery. The original 1942 patent expired and the technique became part of the public domain.

Several reference sources (including Ephraim Katz's "The Film Encyclopedia") list Hedy Lamarr's birth year as 1913.



Introduced to husband John Loder by Bette Davis.





Sued Mel Brooks over the use of the name Hedley Lamarr in his movie Blazing Saddles (1974) and settled out of court. Brooks said he was flattered by this attention. The reference to suing Hedy Lamarr was from Harvey Korman 's first day on the set and, ironically, made a comedic reference to what was at that point a non-existent lawsuit.



Starred in only one Academy Award-winning film: Samson and Delilah (1949).

Escaped to London in 1937.



Her favourite lesson at school was chemistry.



In films at 16.



Her main interest was inventing.



A documentary on her said that she was used as a model for Walt Disney's Snow White,.



At 64 she became a recluse.



She escaped of her first marriage by using sleeping powder and a maid's outfit.



She made innovations in plastic surgery to hold on to the looks of her youth.



The market value of Hedy Lamarr's invention is $30bn. She never earned a penny from the technology.



Only one known audio recording of Lamarr speaking as herself.





She was the model for Snow White's look in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).



She chased Louis B. Mayer by land and sea to get a job as an actor in Hollywood.

Her daughter's godmother was Bette Davis.





Bore a strong resemblance to Vivien Leigh , who was born exactly 1 year and 4 days before her.

Personal Quotes (29)

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.



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.



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



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



[1960s] 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!



[referring to the EFF award for invention frequency hopping] It's about time.



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



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



I win because I learned years ago that scared money always loses. I never care, so I win.



I was the highest-priced and most important star in Hollywood, but I was "difficult".





[on working for Cecil B. DeMille in Samson and Delilah (1949)] I was won over to appearing in the picture from the moment I entered his office and saw the extent of the research that he had done on the whole subject. You have no idea how thorough and comprehensive that research is. He has the first suggestion of a script and treatment down to the final shooting script. He has documents and evidence to support everything he does.



It was wonderful working for a great director like Cecil B. DeMille

Delilah is one of my favorite roles.





[on Tortilla Flat (1942)] John Garfield was wonderful to work with. He later told Life magazine, "I tried to steal scenes from Hedy, Hedy tried to steal them from Frank [ Frank Morgan ], Frank tried to steal them from me, and the dogs (Morgan's) stole the show."



Is that chubby-faced Austrian kid in Boom Town (1940) actually me? Did I really wait on the set (being the newest and having the smallest role) to do my close ups, just to wind up looking like that? Clark Gable , so warm and friendly to the insecure actress ... Claudette Colbert , such a lady to me, although much higher in the MGM pecking order.



[on Spencer Tracy ] He was a great actor, but there were times when he made me cry. He was not precisely my favorite person.



[on Gaslight (1944)] I turned down that one too! Ouch!



A success that I bypassed, Laura (1944). With Gene Tierney Otto Preminger , whom I had known way back in Vienna, gave me the script for "Laura," I didn't think it was very good then, and I still don't when I see it on TV now. I believe it's the title song which gives the film its only genuine distinction. If only they had enclosed the sheet music along with the scenario!



[on Samson and Delilah (1949)] The set is as gigantically faint-making as anything Mr. DeMille ever conceived, and every single extra within a 50 mile radius seems to be assembled as I slowly lead Samson to the top, where he is scheduled to pull the two enormous pillars of the temple down around his ears and everyone else's. And do you know what I am thinking as I watch this panoply on my television screen? Quite simply, it is "I can't take another step in those damn forties high heels!"

And, again, in "Samson," in the scene where I look dewy-eyed while golden coins are poured over my feet as a reward for betraying Samson. Well, Mr. DeMille, whom I got along with beautifully, dragged me out of a sick bed for that one, and the dewy eyes are a direct result of a roaring 104-degree fever.





[on Clark Gable ] Although I never quite understood his sex appeal, I thought he was one of the nicest people I'd met, and a great practical joker.



[on Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945)] There I am, eight months pregnant, being photographed behind potted palms and in full ball gowns, which fortunately fit the story.



Is that actually my voice, singing in The Heavenly Body (1944) and My Favorite Spy (1951)? You bet it is! You'd be surprised how well you can sing when you're rich!



[on Robert Taylor , her co-star in Lady of the Tropics (1939)] One evening I came home and saw my spouse [ Gene Markey ] staring at a magazine and turning it every which way, and chuckling. I asked him what the joke was, and he replied that he was trying to decide which of us, Bob or I, was more beautiful. ... I also remember teaching Bob Taylor how to kiss more convincingly for the movie cameras, because his usual kiss seemed to me more like a school boy smooch when photographed in close-up.



[on Ziegfeld Girl (1941)] When I see those infinite stairs in that lavish production number that out-Metro's even Metro [MGM], I break up. The director, Robert Z. Leonard , had instructed me to walk down them regally, with Lana [ Lana Turner ] on one side and my dear friend Judy [ Judy Garland ] on the other. I was to float with head erect, arms disdainfully away from my body in the accepted Ziegfeld manner, and never, but never, look down to see where I was going. The fact that I couldn't see in the blinding lights, even straight ahead, was small consolation.



[on White Cargo (1942)] "I am Tondelayo" - and I had to get up with the chickens to have the dark make-up put on all over my body. I was proud of my authentic African dance, which I rehearsed for weeks, and which gave me splinters in my feet. It was done with a bed showing in the background, and it was so sexy almost all of the scene was cut. How I'd like to own that footage today!



[on I Take This Woman (1940)] We were seated around a table one day, rehearsing our lines. It was my first Metro film, and little Hedy was learning English, when Spencer turned to me and said, briskly, "Get me a taxi." I obligingly arose and started to walk toward the sound-stage door, not realizing that it was the next line in the script.



[on the extraordinary success of her film Samson and Delilah (1949)] Mr. DeMille is the first director who has ever understood me.

Salary (4)