A Beautiful Actress and Brilliant Inventor - Hedy Lamarr

She was a Hollywood star and one of the most beautiful women of her time, but that's only part of her legacy. She was also a brilliant inventor who developed a groundbreaking technology that laid the foundation for modern wireless communication. She was a woman who made a difference.

Their contributions made the world a better place. This is women who made a difference. Today we shine a spotlight on a truly remarkable woman, the incomparable Hedy Lamarr. A movie star who came to fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Although her legacy includes starring in more than a dozen movies, Her greatest contribution to society was as an inventor.

But before we tell you about her invention, let's start at the beginning. Hetty's story begins in Vienna, Austria, where she was born just a few months after the outbreak of World War I. She grew up in a very well to do family. Her father was a successful banker and her mother an accomplished pianist.

Like her mother, young Hetty showed an early talent for the piano and later a keen interest in acting. When she was only 12 she won a beauty contest and later when she was enrolled in acting school she decided to skip class one day and go down to a local production company where she talked herself into being hired as a script girl.

Now this began a series of events that led to her starring in her first film when she was just 16 years old. She quickly became a star in Europe, appearing in a number of popular films. In 1933 she starred in the Czech film ecstasy, which garnered intense controversy for its depiction of her character experiencing an orgasm on screen.

At the time, such a depiction was considered scandalous and shocking. Her performance in the film was praised by critics, but the film was banned in several countries because of the subject matter. In America, it was released the following year after the most controversial scenes were taken out. After the scandal, Hetty took a break from film work and began appearing in more stage plays.

In the summer of 1933, she married a wealthy Austrian arms dealer. But their marriage only lasted a few years. She grew very unhappy and sought to escape. In 1937, she moved to London, where she met Louis B. Mayer, the head of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Mayer offered her a contract and she was off to Hollywood, where she became one of the most popular actresses of all time.

Mayer promoted Hedy as the world's most beautiful woman. Her exotic and glamorous looks made her a standout in Hollywood. With her acting talent, she was able to portray a wide range of emotions and characters on screen. Her versatility led to her being one of the most sought after actresses in Hollywood.

Her first film after arriving in America was Algiers in 1938. The following year, she starred in Lady of the Tropics. And then beginning in 1940, she appeared in at least three films a year for several years in a row. The highlight of her acting career came in 1949, when she starred as Delilah in the biblical epic Samson and Delilah.

The film told the story of Samson, a powerful Hebrew warrior, and Delilah, the woman who betrayed him to the Philistines after learning the secret of his strength. Hedy's performance as Delilah was praised by critics and audiences alike. She was able to portray the character's complex emotions and motivations and her chemistry with the actor who played Samson was electric.

Now, even though she was one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood at the time, she wasn't just another pretty face. She had an intellectual curiosity. During World War II, Hedy read an article about radio controlled torpedoes. And one of the threats of such a weapon was that an enemy might be able to jam a torpedo's guidance system and change its course.

She brought the article up to a friend, the composer and pianist, George Anthel. And together, they surmised that a frequency hopping signal might prevent the torpedo's guidance system from being tracked. After their conversation, George went to work trying to synchronize a player piano's mechanism with radio signals.

And he was successful at doing so. Having met a radio electrical engineer, George suggested to Hedy that he could help them fully develop the idea. She hired him to do so and also hired lawyers to apply for a patent. The following year, the United States patent office granted a patent of their idea.

Unfortunately, their frequency hopping technology wasn't adopted by the U. S. Navy during the years of World War II. Hetty continued to act in films throughout the 40s, 50s, and 60s, but her later career was overshadowed by personal problems, and she finally retired from acting in the late 1960s.

While her invention with George Anvil was never implemented due to advances in weapon systems, decades later, the principles of frequency hopping were adopted into Bluetooth and GPS systems, two technologies that revolutionized the world. Just a few years before her death in the year 2000, Hedy Lamarr and George Anthil received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award for their contribution to science. In 2014, they were both inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Now, after her retirement from acting, Hedy Lamarr became somewhat of a recluse. In her final years, almost no one saw her in person. Even friends and family, as she preferred to speak to everyone by phone, sometimes up to eight hours a day.

Heart disease took Hedy from this world at the age of 85. But her scientific and artistic legacy will always be with us. Some have described Hedy Lamarr as one of the greatest movie actresses of all time and a trailblazer in the world of entertainment.

She truly was a rare combination. A beautiful actress and a brilliant inventor whose work paved the way for modern wireless communication technologies. Hedy Lamarr was a woman who made a difference.