Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress and scientist. Though known primarily for her acting (she was a major Contract Star of MGM's "Golden Age"), she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.
Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, to Jewish parents Gertrud (née Lichtwitz), a pianist and Budapes...
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Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress and scientist. Though known primarily for her acting (she was a major Contract Star of MGM's "Golden Age"), she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.
Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, to Jewish parents Gertrud (née Lichtwitz), a pianist and Budapest native who came from the "Jewish haute bourgeoisie", and Lemberg-born Emil Kiesler, a successful bank director. She studied ballet and piano at age 10. When she worked with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, he called her the "most beautiful woman in Europe". Soon the teenage girl played major roles in German movies, alongside stars like Heinz Rühmann and Hans Moser.
In early 1933 she starred in Gustav Machatý's notorious film Ecstasy, a Czechoslovak film made in Prague, in which she played the love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband....
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