Does any one know the actress Hedy Lamarr ?!?

Question

In wich movies was she involved, and wy is Meel Brooks
making fun of her name in "Blazing Saddles" — Please help !!!

Answer 1

Hedy LamarrHedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000) was an actress and communications technology innovator. She was known for her great beauty on camera, and also for co-inventing the first form of spread spectrum, a key to modern wireless communication.

Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, on November 9, 1913, and died in 2000 in Altamonte Springs, Florida (near Orlando, Orange County, Florida) of natural causes at the age of 86.

While married to her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, aka Fritz Mandl, an arms manufacturer, she socialized with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. She also became educated technically in his trade. Mandl was obsessed with his wife and never let her out of his sight. She hated him and his Nazi friends and finally escaped to London by drugging him and the French maid he had hired to spy on her. Ironically, Mandl was from a Jewish background. Whether the Nazis ever knew about Mandl's and Lamarr's Jewish origins has been debated by historians; Friedrich Mandl came from an extremely assimilated family and it appears that he overtly hid his Jewish origins, and he converted to Christianity under evident pressure. Many also say that Lamarr's co-invention of spread spectrum as a potential World War II military application was sparked by her desire to do anything in her power to help see Nazism defeated.

She met Louis B. Mayer in London. He hired her and changed her name to Hedy Lamarr, the surname in homage to a famously beautiful film star of the silent era, Barbara LaMarr, who had died of a drug overdose in 1926. She had already appeared in several European films, including Ecstasy (1933), in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in passion, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety. She also gained notoriety as one of the first actresses to bare her breasts in a major film. Mandl bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity, as well as "the expression on her face."


French movie poster for Samson and DelilahIn Hollywood, she appeared in many films, usually cast as glamorous and seductive, including Algiers (1938), White Cargo, and Tortilla Flat (both 1942), based on the novel by John Steinbeck. In 1941 she was cast alongside two other Hollywood beauties Lana Turner and Judy Garland in a musical extravaganza Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Her biggest success came in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949) with Victor Mature as the Biblical strongman. Unfortunately, she was more used for her stunning exotic beauty than her ability as an actress.

Lamarr became a naturalized citizen of the United States on April 10, 1953.

[edit]
Frequency-hopped spread spectrum invention
Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil received U.S. patent #2,292,387 for their Secret Communication System. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. The patent was little-known until recently because Lamarr applied for it under her then-married name of Hedy Kiesler Markey. Neither Lamarr nor Antheil made any money from the patent. It had expired by the time the U.S. military barely began using this system after 1962. It took electronics technology a long time to catch up with the concept.

Lamarr's frequency-hopping idea served as the basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology used in devices ranging from cordless telephones to WiFi Internet connections. In 1997, the two of them received an EFF Pioneer Award for the invention.

Lamarr wanted to join the National Inventors Council but she was told that she could better help the war effort by using her celebrity status to sell War Bonds. She once raised $7,000,000 at just one event.

In 2003, the Boeing corporation ran a series of recruitment ads featuring Hedy Lamarr as a woman of science. No reference to her film career was made in the ads.

In 2005, the first Inventor's Day in German-speaking countries was held in her honor on November 9, on what would have been her 92nd birthday.

In an interview appended to the DVD release of Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks claims that Hedy Lamarr threatened to sue the producers. He says she believed the film's running "Hedley Lamarr" joke infringed her right to publicity. In one scene, one character even warns another that Hedy would sue. Brooks says they settled out of court for a small sum.

In 1965 Lamarr made headlines for being arrested for shoplifting; charges were eventually dropped. This bizarre situation played out again in 1991.

In 1998, a vector illustration of Lamarr's face was used by Corel Corporation on the packaging and in the publicity for its CorelDraw 8 software. Lamarr sued Corel for damages relating to unauthorized use of her likeness. The case was resolved in 1999 and settled out-of-court for an undisclosed sum, under terms that allowed Corel five years of exclusive rights to the image.

[edit]
Quotes
"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." — Hedy Lamarr
"Films have a certain place in a certain time period. Technology is forever." — Hedy Lamarr

Filmography
Money on the Street (1930)
Storm in a Water Glass (1931)
The Trunks of Mr. O.F. (1931)
We Need No Money (1932)
Ecstasy (1933)
Algiers (1938)
Hollywood Goes to Town (1938) (short subject)
Screen Snapshots: Stars at a Charity Ball (1939) (short subject)
Lady of the Tropics (1939)
I Take This Woman (1940)
Boom Town (1940)
Comrade X (1940)
Come Live with Me (1941)
H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)
Tortilla Flat (1942)
Crossroads (1942)
White Cargo (1942)
Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
The Heavenly Body (1944)
The Conspirators (1944)
Experiment Perilous (1944)
Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945)
The Strange Woman (1946)
Dishonored Lady (1947)
Let's Live a Little (1948)
Samson and Delilah (1949)
A Lady Without Passport (1950)
Copper Canyon (1950)
My Favorite Spy (1951)
The Eternal Female (1954) (unfinished)
Loves of Three Queens (1954)
The Story of Mankind (film) (1957)
The Female Animal (1958)

Answer 2

Ecstasy - Algiers - Lady of the Tropics - White Cargo - I Take This Woman - Boomtown

Comrade X - Come Live With Me - Ziegfeld Girl - H.M. Pullman Esq. - Tortilla Flat

Crossroads - The Heavenly Body - Her Highness and the Bellboy - A Lady Without Passport

The Conspirators - Experiment Perilous - The Strange Woman - Dishonored Lady

Let's Live a Little - Samson & Delilah - Copper Canyon - My Favorite Spy

The Love of Three Queens - The Story of Mankind - The Female Animal


Also - she was an extremely intelligent woman and intevntor.

Answer 3

Besides being a drop-dead beautiful actress, she invented a torpedo guiding system used in WWII. By the way, she sued Mel Brooks over Blazing Saddles name, and settled out of court.

Answer 4

Yes, I've heard of her. She's from the 40's/50's. Below is a link to all of her movies. While I distinctly remember the scene w/ Madelin Kahn in Blazing Saddles, I'm not sure why is making fun of her. I also think there is a reference to her in one of the "I love Lucy" episodes...one of the ones when they are in Hollywood.

She was in Samson & Delilah and my favorite spy. Full list in attached.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001443/

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr