Once considered the most beautiful woman in the world, Hollywood siren and legendary inventor Hedy Lamarr spent her final years in a humble home in Florida.
Despite being one of the most important inventors of the 20th century, she lived her last days in solitude, far from the glare of Hollywood, in a three-bedroom house in Casselberry, 20 minutes from Orlando.
Described as a recluse during her final years, Lamarr died at the age of 85 in January 2000, never having been fully recognized for her invention that helped change the world.
“Mom visited friends in Florida and ended up staying there,” said Lamarr’s daughter, Denise Loder-DeLuca. Click Orlando.
It was an unexpected end for a woman who defied all expectations of women at the time, helping to create the technology behind the telephone and wireless Internet in an effort to help the Allies during World War II.
Once considered the most beautiful woman in the world, Hollywood siren Hedy Lamarr spent her final years in a humble home in Florida.
Lamarr, born in Austria, came to Hollywood’s attention after she fled her Nazi-sympathizing husband in the early 1930s.
The beauty, who was married six times, emigrated to the United States after a stopover in London and starred in films with the likes of Spencer Tracy, James Stewart and Clark Gable in what turned out to be a brilliant career.
But after becoming disillusioned with acting and the roles he was offered, he decided He helped devise the technology for which he became most famous in response to repeated jamming of radio signals used by the Nazis to guide torpedoes to their targets in World War II.
Together with composer and fellow inventor George Antheil, he created a device that enabled “frequency hopping,” making radio transmissions more difficult to intercept and allowing missiles to reach their target.
The couple based the system on the 88 keys of a piano and filed a patent for the idea in 1941.
He helped design the technology for which he became most famous in response to repeated jamming of radio signals used by the Nazis to guide torpedoes to their targets in World War II.
Despite being one of the most important inventors of the 20th century, she lived her last days in solitude, in a three-bedroom house in Casselberry, 20 minutes from Orlando.
The Florida home is a far cry from the Hollywood mansion Lamarr once lived in at 2707 Benedict Canyon Road.
A patent was granted the following year, but the US Navy opted not to use the technology in war.
Instead, Lamarr supported the war effort by using his celebrity to help sell war bonds in his adopted country.
His technology was later used on American warships during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, although Lamarr did not receive a cent.
It was decades after Lamarr came to the United States in search of the peace of the American Dream.
Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, daughter of a banker and pianist in Vienna, Austria, in 1914.
She began as an actress in her teens, debuting in the Czech film Ecstasy at the age of 18 in 1933.
The film was controversial because it portrayed the first female orgasm ever seen in a non-pornographic film.
Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, daughter of a banker and pianist in Vienna, Austria, in 1914.
She began as an actress in her teens, debuting in the Czech film Ecstasy in 1933. The film was controversial because it portrayed the first female orgasm ever seen in a non-pornographic film.
It was in 1934 in her native Vienna that she married her first husband, the arms manufacturer Fritz Mandl, but she quickly became disillusioned with the union and fled home in the middle of the night.
He later claimed in his autobiography that Mandl had established close business ties with the Nazis and alleged that Adolf Hitler and Italy’s fascist ruler Benito Mussolini attended parties at his house.
After traveling to London, he convinced MGM studio head Louis B.Mayer to give him a lucrative contract, although at the time he only spoke a little English.
Lamarr then moved to the US and mingled with the likes of future US president John F. Kennedy and aviation millionaire Howard Hughes, whom she dated, in Beverly Hills.
He gave her the equipment she needed to conduct experiments in his trailer and took her to his aircraft factory, where he showed her how his machines were built.
After seeing her planes, Lamarr drew them a new wing design, leading Hughes to call her “genius.”
Lamarr is credited in a total of 35 films, but the actress was reportedly bored with the roles she was given, which were often light-lined and focused on her appearance.
His technology was later used on American warships during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, although Lamarr did not receive a cent.
Lamarr is credited with a total of 35 films, but the actress was reportedly bored with the roles she was given, which were often light-lined and focused on her appearance.
“Any girl can be glamorous,” he once said. “All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.”
Lamarr, who had three children, divorced her sixth husband in 1965 after only two years with him.
The star died in 2000 in Florida after suffering heart failure.
The 2017 documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story retold the story of the movie star’s incredible life.
