Hedy Lamarr (/ˈhɛdi/; bornHedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914[a] – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian and American actress and inventor. After a brief early film career inCzechoslovakia, including the controversial erotic romantic dramaEcstasy (1933), she fled from her first husband,Friedrich Mandl, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she metLouis B. Mayer, who offered her a film contract in Hollywood. Lamarr became a film star with her performance in the romantic dramaAlgiers (1938).[2] She achieved further success with the WesternBoom Town (1940) and the dramaWhite Cargo (1942). Lamarr's most successful film was the religious epicSamson and Delilah (1949).[3] She also acted on television before the release of her final film in 1958. She was honored with a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
At the beginning ofWorld War II, along with composerGeorge Antheil, Lamarr co-invented a radio guidance system forAlliedtorpedoes that usedspread spectrum andfrequency hopping technology to defeat the threat ofradio jamming by theAxis powers. This approach, conceptualized as a "Secret Communication System," was intended to provide secure, jam-resistant communication for weapon guidance by spreading the signal across multiple frequencies.[4][5][6][7] Similar technology was used in operational systems only beginning in 1962,[8] which was well after World War II and three years after the expiry of theLamarr-Antheil patent.[9] Frequency hopping, which existed and was utilized before theLamarr-Antheil patent, is a foundational technology for spread spectrum communications. Its principles are utilized for secure wireless networking, including Bluetooth and early versions of Wi-Fi, which use variants of spread spectrum to protect data from interception and interference.[10][11][12]
As a child, Lamarr showed an interest in acting and was fascinated by theater and film. At the age of 12, she won a beauty contest in Vienna.[18] She also began to learn about technological inventions with her father, who would take her out on walks, explaining how devices functioned.[19][20]
Lamarr was taking acting classes in Vienna when one day, she forged a note from her mother and went toSascha-Film and was able to have herself hired as ascript girl. While there, she had a role as anextra in the romantic comedyMoney on the Street (1930), and then a small speaking part in the comedyStorm in a Water Glass (1931). ProducerMax Reinhardt then cast her in a play entitledThe Weaker Sex, which was performed at theTheater in der Josefstadt. Reinhardt was so impressed with her that he brought her with him back toBerlin.[21]
However, she never actually trained with Reinhardt or appeared in any of his Berlin productions. Instead, she met the Russian theatre producerAlexis Granowsky, who cast her in his film directorial debut,The Trunks of Mr. O.F. (1931), starringWalter Abel andPeter Lorre.[22] Granowsky soon moved to Paris, but Lamarr stayed in Berlin and was given the lead role inNo Money Needed (1932), a comedy directed byCarl Boese.[23] Lamarr then starred in the film which made her internationally famous.
Lamarr in a 1934 publicity photo with the name "Heddie Kietzler"
In early 1933, at age 18, Lamarr was given the lead inGustav Machatý's filmEcstasy (Ekstase in German,Extase in Czech). She played the neglected young wife of an indifferent older man.
The film became both celebrated and notorious for showing Lamarr's face in the throes of orgasm as well as close-up and brief scenes of nudity. Lamarr claimed she was "duped" by the director and producer, who used high-power telephoto lenses, although the director contested her claims.[24][b][25]
Although she was dismayed and now disillusioned about taking other roles, the film gained world recognition after winning an award at theVenice Film Festival.[26] Throughout Europe, it was regarded as an artistic work. In America, it was considered overly sexual and received negative publicity, especially among women's groups.[24] It was banned there and in Germany.[27]
Studio publicity still of Lamarr for the filmZiegfeld Girl (1941)
Lamarr played a number of stage roles, including a starring one inSissy, a play aboutEmpress Elisabeth of Austria produced in Vienna. It won accolades from critics. Admirers sent roses to herdressing room and tried to get backstage to meet her. She sent most of them away, including a man who was more insistent,Friedrich Mandl.[24] He became obsessed with getting to know her.[28]
Mandl was an Austrian military arms merchant[29] and munitions manufacturer who was reputedly the third-richest man in Austria. She fell for his charming and fascinating personality, partly due to his immense financial wealth.[27] Her parents, both ofJewish descent, did not approve due to Mandl's ties to Italian fascist leaderBenito Mussolini and, later, German FührerAdolf Hitler, but they could not stop the headstrong Lamarr.[24]
On August 10, 1933, Lamarr married Mandl at theKarlskirche. She was 18 years old and he was 33. In Lamarr's ghostwritten[30] autobiography,Ecstasy and Me, Mandl is described as an extremely controlling husband who strongly objected to her simulated orgasm scene inEcstasy and prevented her from pursuing her acting career. She claimed she was kept a virtual prisoner in their castle home,Schloss Schwarzenau [de].[27]
Hedy Lamarr, 1944
Mandl had close social and business ties to the Italian government, selling munitions to the country,[16] and had ties to theNazi regime of Germany as well, even though his own father was Jewish, as was Hedy's. Lamarr wrote that the dictators of both countries attended lavish parties at the Mandl home. Lamarr accompanied Mandl to business meetings, where he conferred with scientists and other professionals involved in military technology. These conferences were her introduction to the field of applied science and nurtured her latent talent in science.[31]
Lamarr's marriage to Mandl eventually became unbearable and she decided to separate herself from both her husband and country in 1937. In herautobiography, she wrote that she disguised herself as her maid and fled toParis, but according to other accounts she persuaded Mandl to let her wear all of her jewelry for a dinner party and then disappeared afterward.[32] She wrote about her marriage:
I knew very soon that I could never be an actress while I was his wife. ... He was the absolute monarch in his marriage. ... I was like a doll. I was like a thing, some object of art which had to be guarded—and imprisoned—having no mind, no life of its own.[33]
After arriving in London[34] in 1937, she metLouis B. Mayer, head ofMGM, who was scouting for talent in Europe.[35] She initially turned down the offer he made her (of $125 a week), but then booked herself onto the same New York–bound liner as him, and she managed to impress him enough to secure a $500-a-week contract. Mayer persuaded her to change her name to Hedy Lamarr (to distance herself from her real identity and "theEcstasy lady" reputation associated with it),[32] choosing the surname in homage to the beautiful silent film starBarbara La Marr, on the suggestion of his wife, who admired La Marr. He brought her to Hollywood in 1938 and began promoting her as the "world's most beautiful woman".[36]
Mayer loaned Lamarr to producerWalter Wanger, who was makingAlgiers (1938), an American version of the French filmPépé le Moko (1937). Lamarr was cast in the lead oppositeCharles Boyer. The film created a "national sensation", says Shearer.[16]: 77 She was billed as an unknown but well-publicized Austrian actress, which created anticipation in audiences. Mayer hoped she would become anotherGreta Garbo orMarlene Dietrich.[16]: 77 According to one viewer, when her face first appeared on the screen, "everyone gasped ... Lamarr's beauty literally took one's breath away."[16]: 2
Her off-screen life and personality during her Hollywood years was quite different from her screen image. She spent much of her time feeling lonely and homesick. She might swim at her agent's pool, but shunned the beaches and staring crowds. When asked for an autograph, she wondered why anyone would want it. In December 1938, writer Howard Sharpe interviewed her and gave his impression:
Hedy has the most incredible personal sophistication. She knows the peculiarly European art of being womanly; she knows what men want in a beautiful woman, what attracts them, and she forces herself to be these things. She has magnetism with warmth, something that neither Dietrich nor Garbo has managed to achieve.[24]
In future Hollywood films, she was frequentlytypecast as the archetypal glamorous seductress of exotic origin. Her second American film was to beI Take This Woman, co-starring withSpencer Tracy under the direction of regular Dietrich collaboratorJosef von Sternberg. Von Sternberg was fired during the shoot, replaced byFrank Borzage. The film was put on hold, and Lamarr was put intoLady of the Tropics (1939), where she played a mixed-race seductress in Saigon oppositeRobert Taylor. She returned toI Take This Woman, re-shot byW. S. Van Dyke. Lamarr later remembered the filming ofI Take This Woman: "We were seated around a table one day, rehearsing our lines. It was my first Metro film, and little Hedy was learning English, when Spencer turned to me and said, briskly, 'Get me a taxi.' I obligingly arose and started to walk toward the sound‐stage door, not realizing that it was the next line in the script. He was a great actor, but there were times when he made me cry. He was not precisely my favorite person."[37]
InBoom Town (1940), one of her most popular films, she co-starred withClark Gable,Claudette Colbert and Spencer Tracy; it made $5 million.[38] Of her co-stars, Lamarr said, "Clark Gable, so warm and friendly to the insecure actress … Claudette Colbert, such a lady to me, although much higher in the MGM pecking order."[37] MGM promptly reteamed Lamarr and Gable inComrade X (1940), a comedy film in the vein ofNinotchka (1939), which was another hit. She got along well with Gable: "Although I never quite understood his sex appeal, I thought he was one of the nicest people I'd met, and a great practical joker."[37]
Lamarr was teamed withJames Stewart inCome Live with Me (1941), playing a Viennese refugee. She described Stewart as "one of the sweetest men in the world" and also liked the film because it was different from her previous ones: "I was so happy about this picture, it was my first chance to do a charming, humorous story. Until then, my image was that of an exotic creature."[37] Stewart was also inZiegfeld Girl (1941), where Lamarr,Judy Garland andLana Turner played aspiring showgirls—a big success.[38]
Lamarr was top-billed inH. M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), although the film's protagonist was the title role played byRobert Young. She made a third film with Tracy,Tortilla Flat (1942), which also co-starredJohn Garfield. Lamarr recalled, "John Garfield was wonderful to work with. He later toldLife magazine, 'I tried to steal scenes from Hedy, Hedy tried to steal them from Frank, Frank tried to steal them from me, and the dogs (Morgan's) stole the show.'"[37] It was successful at the box office, as wasCrossroads (1942) withWilliam Powell.
Lamarr played the exotic Arab seductress[39] Tondelayo inWhite Cargo (1942), top billed overWalter Pidgeon. It was a huge hit. Lamarr had a dance number in the film: "I was proud of my authentic African dance, which I rehearsed for weeks, and which gave me splinters in my feet. It was done with a bed showing in the background, and it was so sexy almost all of the scene was cut. How I'd like to own that footage today!"[37]White Cargo contains arguably her most memorable film quote, delivered with provocative invitation: "I am Tondelayo. I maketiffin for you?" This line typifies many of Lamarr's roles, which emphasized her beauty and sensuality while giving her relatively few lines. The lack of acting challenges bored Lamarr. She reportedly took up inventing to relieve her boredom.[40]
Lamarr turned down the leading female roles in the 20th Century-Fox film noirLaura and the MGM melodramaGaslight (both 1944).[37] She was reunited with Powell in a comedyThe Heavenly Body (1944), then was borrowed by Warner Bros for a top-billed role inThe Conspirators (1944), co-starring fellow Austrian actorPaul Henreid. This was an attempt to repeat the success ofCasablanca (1943), and RKO borrowed her for a melodramaExperiment Perilous (1944).
Back at MGM Lamarr was teamed withRobert Walker in the romantic comedyHer Highness and the Bellboy (1945), playing a princess who falls in love with a New Yorker. It was very popular, but would be the last film she made under her MGM contract.[41] She said of the film, "There I am, eight months pregnant, being photographed behind potted palms and in full ball gowns, which fortunately fit the story."[37]
Of all the European émigrés who escaped Nazi Germany and Nazi Austria, she was one of the very few who succeeded in moving to another culture and becoming a full-fledged star herself. There were so very few who could make the transition linguistically or culturally. She really was a resourceful human being–I think because of her father's strong influence on her as a child.[42]
She participated in a war-bond-selling campaign with a sailor named Eddie Rhodes. Rhodes was in the crowd at each Lamarr appearance, and she would call him up on stage. She would briefly flirt with him before asking the audience if she should give him a kiss. The crowd would say yes, to which Hedy would reply that she would if enough people bought war bonds. After enough bonds were purchased, she would kiss Rhodes and he would head back into the audience. Then they would head off to the next war bond rally.[46]
After leaving MGM in 1945, Lamarr formed a production company withJack Chertok and made the thrillerThe Strange Woman (1946), an adaptation of a novel of the same title byBen Ames Williams. It went over budget and only made minor profits.[47] Lamarr's performance won praise from critics.The New York Times wrote, "Undoubtedly every actress this side of ten yearns for a tour de force and Hedy Lamarr […] can consider that yearning wholly realized. For the somber drama of a suave sinner inBangor, Me., of a century ago affords Miss Lamarr her meatiest assignment in years, a chance at large chunks of choice dialogue and an opportunity to wear a wardrobe that won't go unnoticed by the ladies."[48]
She and Chertok then madeDishonored Lady (1947), another thriller starring Lamarr, which also went over budget – but was not a commercial success. She tried a comedy withRobert Cummings,Let's Live a Little (1948).
Her career went into decline. She went to Italy to play multiple roles inLoves of Three Queens (1954), which she also produced. However she lacked the experience necessary to make a success of such an epic production, and lost millions of dollars when she was unable to secure distribution of the picture.
Lamarr was signed to act in the 1966 filmPicture Mommy Dead,[49] but was let go when she collapsed during filming from nervous exhaustion.[50] She was replaced in the role of Jessica Flagmore Shelley byZsa Zsa Gabor.
Although Lamarr had no formal training and was primarily self-taught, she invested her spare time, including on set between takes, in designing and drafting inventions,[51] which included an improvedtraffic stoplight and atablet that would dissolve in water to create a flavoredcarbonated drink.[40]
Copy of U.S. patent for "Secret Communication System"
During the late 1930s, Lamarr attended arms deals with her then-husband, arms dealer Fritz Mandl, "possibly to improve his chances of making a sale".[52] From the meetings, she learned that navies needed "a way to guide a torpedo as it raced through the water." Radio control had been proposed. However, an enemy might be able tojam such a torpedo's guidance system and set it off course.[53]
When later discussing this with a new friend, composer and pianistGeorge Antheil, her idea to prevent jamming by frequency hopping met Antheil's previous work in music. In that earlier work, Antheil attempted synchronizing note-hopping in the avant-garde piece written as a score for the filmBallet Mécanique (1923–24) that involved multiple synchronizedplayer pianos. Antheil's idea in the piece was to synchronize the start time of four player pianos with matching player piano rolls, so the pianos would play in time with one another. Together, they realized that radio frequencies could be changed similarly, using the same kind of mechanism, but miniaturized.[9][52]
Based on the strength of the initial submission of their ideas to theNational Inventors Council (NIC) in late December 1940, in early 1941 the NIC introduced Antheil to Samuel Stuart Mackeown, Professor of Electrical Engineering atCaltech, to consult on the electrical systems.[54][51] Lamarr hired the legal firm ofLyon & Lyon to draft the application for the patent[55][56] which was granted asU.S. patent 2,292,387 on August 11, 1942, under her legal name Hedy Kiesler Markey.[57] The invention was proposed to the Navy, who rejected it on the basis that it would be too large to fit in a torpedo,[58] and Lamarr and Antheil, shunned by the Navy, pursued their invention no further. It was suggested that Lamarr invest her time and attention to selling war bonds since she was a celebrity.[59]
Lamarr became anaturalized citizen of the United States at age 38 on April 10, 1953. Herautobiography,Ecstasy and Me, was published in 1966. She said on TV that it was not written by her, and much of it was fictional.[60] Lamarr later sued the publisher, saying that many details were fabricated by itsghost writer, Leo Guild.[61][62] Lamarr, in turn, was sued by Gene Ringgold, who asserted that the book plagiarized material from an article he had written in 1965 forScreen Facts magazine.[63]
In the late 1950s, along with former husband W. Howard Lee, Lamarr designed and developed the Villa LaMarr ski resort in Aspen, Colorado.[64][65]
In 1966, Lamarr was arrested in Los Angeles forshoplifting. The charges were eventually dropped. In 1991, she was arrested on the same charge inOrlando, Florida, this time for stealing $21.48 worth of laxatives and eye drops.[66][67] She pleaded no contest to avoid a court appearance, and the charges were dropped in return for her promise to refrain from breaking any laws for a year.[68]
The 1970s was a decade of increasing seclusion for Lamarr. She was offered several scripts, television commercials, and stage projects, but none piqued her interest. In 1974, she filed a $10 million lawsuit againstWarner Bros., claiming that the running parody of her name ("Hedley Lamarr") in theMel Brooks comedyBlazing Saddles infringed her right to privacy. Brooks said he was flattered. The studio settled out of court for an undisclosed nominal sum and an apology to Lamarr for "almost using her name". Brooks said that Lamarr "never got the joke".[69][70] In 1981, with her eyesight failing, Lamarr retreated from public life and settled inMiami Beach, Florida.[16]
A largeCorel-drawn image of Lamarr wonCorelDRAW's yearly software suite cover design contest in 1996. For several years, beginning in 1997, it was featured on boxes of the software suite. Lamarr sued the company for using her image without her permission. Corel countered that she did not own rights to the image. The parties reached an undisclosed settlement in 1998.[71][72]
Lamarr became estranged from her older son, James Lamarr Loder, when he was 12 years old. Their relationship ended abruptly, and he moved in with another family. They did not speak again for almost 50 years. Lamarr left James Loder out of her will, and he sued for control of the US$3.3 million estate left by Lamarr in 2000.[75] He eventually settled for US$50,000.[76]
In her later years, Lamarr lived inAltamonte Springs, Florida, before moving toCasselberry, Florida, in the final months of her life.[77] She communicated with family and friends almost exclusively by telephone.[78] However, after moving to Casselberry, two friends who lived nearby would visit her at home to check on her a few times a week.[77]
Memorial to Hedy Lamarr at Vienna'sCentral Cemetery (Group 33G, Tomb n°80)
On January 19, 2000, Lamarr was found dead at her home in Casselberry at the age of 85; the cause of death was heart disease.[16][77] Her son Anthony Loder spread part of her ashes in Austria'sVienna Woods in accordance with her last wishes.[79]
In 2014, a memorial to Lamarr was unveiled in Vienna'sCentral Cemetery.[80] The remainder of her ashes were buried there.[81][82]
On January 7, 1939, Hedy Lamarr was selected the "most promising new actress" of 1938 in a poll ofPhiladelphia film fans conducted by Elsie Finn, thePhiladelphia Record film critic.[83]
On January 26, 1939, Lamar was chosen the "ideal type" of woman in a poll of both male and female students conducted by thePomona College newspaper.[84]
On May 9, 1939, Lamarr was named the "most beautiful actress" in "a secret poll of 30 Hollywood correspondents" conducted by the American magazineLook.[85]
On August 30, 1940, Lamarr won "top honors for facial features" in a poll of 400 members of the California Models Association.[86]
In December 1943, makeup expertMax Factor, Jr. included Lamarr among the ten glamorous Hollywood actresses with the most appealing voices.[87]
In 1951, British moviegoers voted Lamarr the year's 10th best actress, for her performance inSamson and Delilah.[88]
In 1960, Lamarr was honored with a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the motion picture industry.[89]
In 1997, Lamarr andGeorge Antheil were jointly honored with theElectronic Frontier Foundation'sPioneer Award[90] and Lamarr also was the first woman to receive the Invention Convention's BULBIE Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, known as the "Oscars of inventing".[91][92][93] given to individuals whose creative lifetime achievements in the arts, sciences, business, or invention fields have significantly contributed to society.[94] The following year, Lamarr's native Austria awarded her the Viktor Kaplan Medal of the Austrian Association of Patent Holders and Inventors.[95]
In 2006, theHedy-Lamarr-Weg was founded in ViennaMeidling (12th District), named after the actress.
In 2014, Lamarr was posthumously inducted into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame for frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology.[97] The same year, Anthony Loder's request that the remaining ashes of his mother should be buried in an honorary grave of the city ofVienna was realized. On November 7, her urn was buried at theVienna Central Cemetery in Group 33 G, Tomb No. 80, not far from the centrally located presidential tomb.[81][82]
On November 9, 2015,Google honored her on the 101st anniversary of her birth, and on her 109th on November 9, 2023, with adoodle.[98]
On August 6, 2023Star Trek: Prodigy showrunners Dan and Kevin Hageman debuted the first five minutes of footage from season two, showing the new Lamarr-class USSVoyager-A, in tribute to her.[101]
Lamarr and her second husband,Gene Markey, in 1939.
Lamarr was married and divorced six times and had three children:
Friedrich Mandl (married 1933–1937), chairman of theHirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik[102]
Gene Markey (married 1939–1941), screenwriter and producer. She adopted a boy (however this was later contested by the child, see below) during her marriage with Markey. Lamarr became estranged from the boy when he was 12 years old, their relationship ended abruptly, they did not speak again for almost 50 years, and Lamarr left him out of her will.[75] Lamarr and Markey lived at 2727 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills, California during their marriage, at a place called Hedgerow Farm. The home still exists.[103]
John Loder (married 1943–1947), actor. The two had a daughter, Denise, who marriedLarry Colton, a writer and former baseball player, and a son, Anthony, who worked for illustratorJames McMullan.[104] Anthony Loder was featured in the 2004 documentary filmCalling Hedy Lamarr.[79]
Ernest "Teddy" Stauffer (married 1951–1952), nightclub owner, restaurateur, and former bandleader
W. Howard Lee (married 1953–1960), a Texas oilman (who later married film actressGene Tierney)
Lewis J. Boies (married 1963–1965), Lamarr's divorce lawyer
Following her sixth and final divorce in 1965, Lamarr remained unmarried for the last 35 years of her life.
Throughout her life, Lamarr claimed that her first son, James Lamarr Loder, was not biologically related to her and was adopted during her marriage to Gene Markey.[105][106] Years later, her son found documentation that he was theout-of-wedlock son of Lamarr and actor John Loder, whom she later married as her third husband.[107] However, a later DNA test proved him not to be biologically related to either, as documented inBombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.[108][109][110]
In the 1952 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelThe Caine Mutiny byHerman Wouk, Hedy Lamarr is mentioned by name in Chapter 37 when defense attorney Lieutenant Barney Greenwald confronts Lieutenant Tom Keefer at a party after Lieutenant Stephen Maryk's court-martial acquittal in theCaine mutiny.[c] – [117]
In the 1955I Love Lucy episode "The Dancing Star",Lucille Ball says, "Gee, that means that you didn't see Clark Gable or Walter Pidgeon or Hedy Lamarr. They were all down by the pool."[118]
TheMel Brooks 1974 western parodyBlazing Saddles features a villain, played byHarvey Korman, named "Hedley Lamarr". As a running gag, various characters mistakenly refer to him as "Hedy Lamarr" prompting him to testily reply "That's Hedley."
In the 1982off-Broadway musicalLittle Shop of Horrors and subsequent film adaptation (1986), Audrey II says to Seymour in the song "Feed Me", that he can get Seymour anything he wants including "A date with Hedy Lamarr."[119]
Her son, Anthony Loder, was featured in the 2004 documentary filmCalling Hedy Lamarr, in which he played excerpts from tapes of her many telephone calls.
In 2008, anoff-Broadway play,Frequency Hopping, features the lives of Lamarr and Antheil. The play was written and staged by Elyse Singer, and the script won a prize for best new play about science and technology fromSTAGE.[16][121]
In the 2009 mockumentaryThe Chronoscope,[122] written and directed by Andrew Legge, the fictional Irish scientist Charlotte Keppel is likely modeled after Hedy Lamarr. The film satirizes the extreme politics of the 1930s and tells the story of a fictionalized fascist group that steals a device invented by Keppel. This chronoscope can see the past and is used by the group to create propaganda films of their heroes from the past.
In 2010, Lamarr was selected out of 150 IT people to be featured in a short film launched by theBritish Computer Society on May 20.[123]
Also during 2011,Anne Hathaway revealed that she had learned that the original Catwoman was based on Lamarr, so she studied all of Lamarr's films and incorporated some of her breathing techniques into her portrayal ofCatwoman in the 2012 filmThe Dark Knight Rises.[127]
In 2015, on November 9, the 101st anniversary of Lamarr's birth, Google paid tribute to Hedy Lamarr's work in film and her contributions to scientific advancement with an animatedGoogle Doodle.[128]
In 2016, Lamarr was depicted in an off-Broadway play,HEDY! The Life and Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, a one-woman show written and performed by Heather Massie.[129][130]
Also in 2016, the off-Broadway, one-actor showStand Still and Look Stupid: The Life Story of Hedy Lamarr, starring Emily Ebertz and written by Mike Broemmel, went into production.[131][132]
In 2017, actress Celia Massingham portrayed Lamarr onThe CW television seriesLegends of Tomorrow in the sixth episode of the third season, titled "Helen Hunt". The episode is set in 1937 Hollywoodland. The episode aired on November 14, 2017.[134]
In 2018, actressAlyssa Sutherland portrayed Lamarr on the NBC television seriesTimeless in the third episode of the second season, titled "Hollywoodland". The episode aired March 25, 2018.[136]
Also in 2019,The Only Woman in the Room, a novel based on Hedy Lamarr's life byMarie Benedict, was published bySourcebooks Landmark. The book is aNew York Times andUSA Today bestseller andBarnes & Noble Book Club Pick.[138] In 2019, it received a space in Library Reads's Hall of Fame.[139]
In 2021, Lamarr was mentioned in the first episode of the Marvel'sWhat If...?.[140] The episode aired on August 11, 2021.
In May 2023, a dance production calledHedy Lamarr: An American Muse was made in her honor by Linze Rickles McRae. She was accompanied by her daughter, Azalea McRae, with whom she performed it, alongside her students at her dancing school, Downtown Dance Conservatory in Gadsden, AL.[141]
In July 2024, the principal setting of the second season of the Netflix/Nickelodeon/Paramount television seriesStar Trek Prodigy is the science vessel USS Voyager, NCC-74656-A, a Starship of the Lamarr class, classified in honor of Lamarr's scientific contributions.[142]
^According to Lamarr biographerStephen Michael Shearer (pp. 8, 339), she was born in 1914, not 1913.
^When Lamarr applied for the role, she had little experience nor understood the planned filming. Anxious for the job, she signed the contract without reading it. When, during an outdoor scene, the director told her to disrobe, she protested and threatened to quit, but he said that if she refused, she would have to pay for the cost of all the scenes already filmed. To calm her, he said they were using "long shots" in any case, and no intimate details would be visible. At the preview in Prague, sitting next to the director, when she saw the numerous close-ups produced with telephoto lenses, she screamed at him for tricking her. She left the theater in tears, worried about her parents' reaction and that it might have ruined her budding career. However, the cinematographer of the film claimed that she was aware during filming that there would be nude scenes and did not raise concerns during filming.[24]
^"You’ll retire old and full of fat fitness reports. You’ll publish your novel proving that the Navy stinks, and you’ll make a million dollars and marry Hedy Lamarr. No letter of reprimand for you, just royalties on your novel."
^Morandini, Laura; Morandini, Luisa; Morandini, Morando (2009).Il Morandini 2010: dizionario dei film [The Morandini 2010 Dictionary of Films] (in Italian). Bologna: Zanichelli. p. 493.ISBN978-88-08-20183-6.OCLC475597884.
^abFriedrich, Otto (1997).City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (reprint ed.). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 12–13.ISBN0-520-20949-4.
^Genzlinger, Neil (March 18, 2013)."On the Origins of Gadgets".The New York Times.Archived from the original on November 29, 2016. RetrievedDecember 30, 2015.
Shearer, Stephen Michael (2010).Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr. New York: St. Martin's Press.ISBN978-0-312-55098-1.
Young, Christopher (1979).The Films of Hedy Lamarr. New York: Citadel Press.ISBN978-0-8065-0579-4.
Busch-Vishniac, Ilene; Busch, Lauren; Tietjen, Jill (2024). "Chapter 14. Hedy Lamarr".Women in the National Inventors Hall of Fame: The First 50 Years. Springer Nature.ISBN9783031755255.
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