Austrian-born American actress
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External Websites
- BBC - Hedy Lamarr: Racy actor and technology pioneer
- Jewish Women's Archive - Biography of Hedy Lamarr
- American Physical Society - Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil submit patent for radio frequency hopping
- Warfare History Network - Hedy Lamarr: Allied Inventor and Actress
- National Women's History Museum - Biograpghy of Hedy Lamarr
- Official Site of Hedy Lamarr
- PBS - Amercian Masters - Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
- Famous Scientists - Biography of Hedy Lamarr
- Turner Classic Movies - Hedy Lamarr
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Hedy Lamarr - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
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While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
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Thank you for your feedback
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
- BBC - Hedy Lamarr: Racy actor and technology pioneer
- Jewish Women's Archive - Biography of Hedy Lamarr
- American Physical Society - Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil submit patent for radio frequency hopping
- Warfare History Network - Hedy Lamarr: Allied Inventor and Actress
- National Women's History Museum - Biograpghy of Hedy Lamarr
- Official Site of Hedy Lamarr
- PBS - Amercian Masters - Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
- Famous Scientists - Biography of Hedy Lamarr
- Turner Classic Movies - Hedy Lamarr
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
- Hedy Lamarr - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Also known as: Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: •Article History
Quick Facts
- Original name:
- Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler
- Born:
- November 9, 1913/14, Vienna, Austria
- Died:
- January 19, 2000, near Orlando, Florida, U.S.
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Hedy Lamarr (born November 9, 1913/14, Vienna, Austria—died January 19, 2000, near Orlando, Florida, U.S.) was an Austrian-born American film star who was often typecast as a provocative femme fatale. Years after her screen career ended, she achieved recognition as a noted inventor of a radio communications device.
The daughter of a prosperous Viennese banker, Lamarr was privately tutored from age 4; by the time she was 10, she was a proficient pianist and dancer and could speak four languages. At age 16 she enrolled in Max Reinhardt’s Berlin-based dramatic school, and within a year she made her motion picture debut in Geld auf der Strasse (1930; Money on the Street). She achieved both stardom and notoriety in the Czech film Extase (1932; Ecstasy), in which she briefly but tastefully appeared in the nude. Her burgeoning career was halted by her 1933 marriage to Austrian munitions manufacturer Fritz Mandl, who not only prohibited her from further stage and screen appearances but also tried unsuccessfully to destroy all existing prints of Extase. After leaving the possessive Mandl, she went to Hollywood in 1937, where she appeared in her first English-language film, the classic romantic drama Algiers (1938). Lamarr became a U.S. citizen in 1953.
Under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1938 to 1945, she displayed her acting skills in such films as H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) and Tortilla Flat (1942). For the most part, however, she was confined to mostly decorative roles, such as that of Tondelayo in White Cargo (1942). Hoping to secure more substantial parts, she set up her own production company in 1946, but within three years she returned to her exotic stock-in-trade in Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949), her most commercially successful film.
Britannica QuizPop Culture QuizLamarr once insisted, “Any girl can be glamorous; all you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” That she herself was anything but stupid was unequivocally proved during World War II when, in collaboration with the avant-garde composer George Antheil, she invented an electronic device that minimized the jamming of radio signals. Though it was never used in wartime, this device is a component of present-day satellite and cellular phone technology.
Retiring from movies in 1958 (except for a cameo appearance in Instant Karma, 1990), Lamarr subsequently resurfaced in 1966 and 1991 when she was arrested on, and later cleared of, shoplifting charges; when she sued the collaborators on her 1966 autobiography Ecstasy and Me for misrepresentation; and when she took director Mel Brooks to court for including a character named Hedley Lamarr in his western spoof Blazing Saddles (1974). She was married six times (her husbands included screenwriter Gene Markey and actor John Loder) but was living alone at the time of her death.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.