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[[File:Hedy_Lamarr_Publicity_Photo_for_The_Heavenly_Body_1944.jpg|thumb|Hedy Lamarr, 1944.]]

'''Hedy Lamarr''' (born [[Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler]]; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actress. She was a film star during Hollywood's Golden Age.

After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial film ''Ecstasy'' (1933), she fled from her first husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood. She became a film star with her performance in Algiers (1938). Her MGM films include Lady of the Tropics (1939), Boom Town (1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and White Cargo (1942). Her greatest success was as Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Bible-inspired Samson and Delilah (1949). She also acted on television before the release of her final film, The Female Animal (1958). She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

At the beginning of World War II, she and avant-garde composer [[George Antheil]] developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers.  While innovative the technology was not adopted by the US Navy.

This technology was not developed solely by Lamarr as is often implied or suggested by [[feminist]] sources.  Nor did she invent Wi-Fi as some wholly uninformed sources claim.

Lamarr also tinkered in her spare time on other hobbies and ideas, which included an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a flavored carbonated drink.

{{Template:Frequency Hopping Technology}}

== See Also ==

*[[George Antheil]]

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