Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr Facts
| Sign | Scorpio |
| Born |
Nov 9, 1913 Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria] |
| Died |
Jan 19, 2000 Orlando, FL |
| Age | Died at 86 |
| Total Facts | 22 |
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 1991. One year probation.
Arrested for shoplifting in January 1966. Found not guilty.
Became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 10 April 1953.
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 337-338. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Children: Antony Loder (b. 01 March 1947), Denise Loder (b. 29 May 1945), James (b. 06 March 1939 - father John Loder; adopted 16 October 1939 as James Markey Lamarr).
Dr. Kleiner's pet head-crab "Lamarr" in the computer game Half-Life 2 (2004) (VG) is named after her.
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.
For her appearance in Ecstasy (1933), Hedy is 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.
Hedy's credited invention was for a radio guiding system for torpedoes which was used in WWII. She supposedly gained the knowledge from her first husband, Fritz Mandl, a Viennese munitions dealer who sided with the Nazis. Hedy drugged her maid to escape her husband and homeland.
Her profile was the most requested in the 1940s by women to their plastic surgeons.
Measurements: 33-22-34 (1933 in Ecstasy (1933) ), 33B-23-35 (1940s starlet), 34B-26-37 (later career), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
One of the few stars with whom costume designer Edith Head admitted she didn't like working. The others were Claudette Colbert and Paulette Goddard.
Sued Mel Brooks for mocking her name in his film Blazing Saddles (1974) (they settled out of court)
Sued software company Corel Corporation for using her photo on the cover of software product CorelDRAW. [April 1998]
The first Inventor's Day in Germany was held in her honor on 9 November 2005, what would have been her 92nd birthday.
The mansion used in The Sound of Music (1965) belonged to her at the time.
Took her, then new, stage name (Lamarr) in memory of Barbara La Marr, the silent screen star.
Was cast in the picture Picture Mommy Dead (1966), but fired on February 3, 1966, when she didn't show up for the first day of shooting.
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 Aug. 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.
Was considered for the role of Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), but Ingrid Bergman was cast instead. When Julius Epstein, one of the several screenwriters for Casablanca, was trying to "pitch" (explain the plot) to David Selznick (the producer from whom they wanted to borrow Ingrid Bergman) Epstein 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!" Algiers had starred Hedy Lamarr.
Was the inspiration for Anne Hathaway's performance of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).