Contents
Hedy Lamarr
Co-inventing a frequency-hopping communications system while working as a Hollywood film star.
George Antheil · Samson and Delilah
- Born
- 9 November 1914
- Birthplace
- Vienna, Austria-Hungary
- Died
- 19 January 2000
More people
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-born American actor and inventor. During the Second World War she and composer George Antheil devised a way to make radio-controlled torpedoes harder to jam.
Early life
Vienna origins
Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, she grew up in Vienna and became interested in acting as a teenager.
European cinema
She worked in German-language films before leaving an unhappy marriage and moving towards Hollywood.
Career
- 1933
European attention
Ecstasy made her internationally known before her American career.
- 1938
Hollywood debut
Algiers introduced her to American film audiences.
- 1942
Communications patent
She and George Antheil received a patent for their frequency-hopping system.
- 1949
Major film success
She starred opposite Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah.
Selected work
Algiers
The romantic thriller helped establish her Hollywood screen persona.
Secret communication system
A patent proposed coordinated changes of radio frequency to resist interference.
Samson and Delilah
Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epic became one of her best-known films.
Beyond work
Recognition came late
Her inventing work gained wider recognition decades after the patent, including an Electronic Frontier Foundation award in 1997.
American citizenship
She became a US citizen in 1953 and spent her later years in Florida.
Sources & photo credit
Biography ↗Life and work ↗Photo: Unknown author Unknown author. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
