"Any girl can be glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid." - Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr, a reigning temptress of Hollywood films in the 1930's and 40's, is especially remembered in Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 classic as a magnetizing Delilah in "Samson and Delilah. " Lamarr, often cast in the role of exotic, sultry women was, beyond beautiful and talented. She was also an inventor, whose intelligence, creativity and wit revealed her as a passionate woman who believed in the essence of inner strength.
Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Marie Kiesler in Vienna on November 9, 1913 to a financially sound banker and a concert pianist. In the late 1920's Hedy studied acting in Berlin with Max Reinhardt who firmly believed her beauty to…show more content… The film, partially silent, won no awards but attracted an overwhelmingly male audience.
As ''Ecstasy'' was gaining ground in Europe, Lamarr (Miss Keisler) married the the first of her six husbands, Fritz Mandl, in 1933. Mandl, its said, was disconcerted his wife appeared nude in several scenes of "Ecstasy" and he went to great lengths and fortune to unsuccessfully secrete the prints from the public eye.
Eventually Lamarr, who it's reported soon found Mandl exceedingly dull, parted from her husband and traveled to London. While there, she landed an acting job and garnered the attention of Louis B. Mayer, who forthrightly offered her a contract to work for MGM. Some sources report it was Mr. Mayer who changed Hedy's name to Lamarr after a silent film star named Barbara La Marr, whom he greatly revered. Other sources quote Hedy changed her own name to "Lamarr," meaning "the sea" (La Mar.) Whatever the true case, Hedy Lamarr embarked on a journey to the land of opportunity, and the beginning of a new…show more content… Thereafter, she appeared ''Comrade X'' (1940) with Clark Gable,
''Boom Town'' (1940), ''Ziegfeld Girl'' (1941), ''Tortilla Flat'' (1942) and as a in ''White Cargo'' in (1942).
After her appearance in ''Samson and Delilah'' she appeared in such films as ''Copper Canyon'' (1950), ''A Lady Without Passport'' (1950), ''My Favorite Spy'' (1951) and ''The Story of Mankind'' (1957) before her career began to the lose the bright sheen of glamour .
More on Lamarr's private life and her vision as an Inventor
In 1939, Lamarr married Gene Markey, a writer and producer in Hollywood, and they eloped to Mexico and later adopted a son. The following year, she divorced Markey.
Sometime after her marriage had ended, Lamarr attended a Hollywood dinner party Janet Gaynor's home and met composer George Antheil.
Lamarr and Antheil began the first of many discussions on the war against Germany and the development of a device geared toward protecting U.S. radio-guided torpedoes from enemy interference. Upon this premise, on Aug. 11, 1942, the two received a United States patent on what they called the "Secret Communication
