Hedy Lamarr: The most beautiful Hollywood star in the world, credited with finding Wifi

Hedy Lamarr possesses a beauty that has been dubbed "the most beautiful in the world", captivating millions of viewers, but at the same time a genius inventor who laid the foundation for modern wireless technologies.

Talented youth and tragic marriage

Hedy Lamarr was born in 1914 in Austria, into a wealthy Jewish family. From an early age, she showed an outstanding intellect and a passion for science, encouraged by her banker father to explore the world around her. However, instead of pursuing an education, she soon fell in love with art. At the age of 19, she shocked European public opinion with her role in the film Ecstasy (1933). The film was banned in many places, but Hedy's bold beauty made her the center of attention.

Success soon came, but also tragedy. She married an Austrian arms dealer. This marriage is like a "golden prison". He is extremely patriarchal, controlling all of her activities and forcing her to stop acting. He often took her to meetings with arms dealers and Nazi officials, where she overheard discussions of military technology. It was during those times that she rekindled the idea of applying science to fight the enemy. After 4 years of living in suffocation, Hedy had the courage to plan to run away from her authoritarian husband.

From Austria to Hollywood: Changing Lives Thanks to Unbelievable Beauty and Intelligence

In 1937, taking advantage of a trip to London, Hedy successfully escaped. There, she met the studio tycoon. Recognizing Hedy's potential, he signed her. Hollywood was quickly conquered by her beauty. Hedy became an A-list star, paired with top actors, and hailed as "the most beautiful woman in the world".

She was praised, often appeared on magazine covers, and became a beauty model. People even used Hedy's face as the design inspiration for Snow White in Disney animation.

But Hedy doesn't want to be remembered only for her beauty. In between filming breaks, she tinkered with diagrams, read technical books, and disassembled electronics in the house. A close friend once said: "While other actresses look in the mirror, Hedy is stuck in researching radio equipment." Despite gaining fame and money, Hedy still feels empty and "framed" in her beauty. She once said: "Any girl can be seductive. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."

In her free time, she spends most of her time at home researching and tinkering with inventions. She built a small lab at home, where she tested her inventive ideas. She was the one who improved the design of traffic lights, the inventor of bubbles. But the most important and far-reaching achievement is undoubtedly the frequency conversion method – the precursor to Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS .

In 1940, at the outbreak of World War II, Hedy noticed the weakness of the Allied army's radio-guided torpedoes. The radio signal is easily intercepted and jammed by the enemy, causing the torpedo to deflect. She came up with a groundbreaking idea: a radio torpedo control system that could "jump" between different frequencies at random.

Hedy Lamarr has collaborated with a genius composer. Together, they created a device that synchronizes between the transmitter and receiver, allowing the signal to "jump" through 88 different frequencies at random, in a pre-programmed sequence. This idea was inspired by the punched paper roll of an automatic piano. They filed a patent in 1942 and donated it to the U.S. Navy.

Belated recognition

Hedy and Antheil's invention was so complex and ahead of its time that it was rejected by the U.S. Navy. They thought the idea was not feasible and instead suggested that Hedy use his fame to raise money for war bonds. She followed suit, but her scientific contributions were forgotten. It wasn't until 1962 that the technology was applied to some U.S. warships, but by then the patent had expired. Hedy Lamarr does not receive any royalties.

And it wasn't until decades later that Hedy's talent was recognized. In 1997, when she was 82 years old, the Electronic Frontier Foundation honored her with two honorary awards for her achievements. In 2014, her name was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Life is complicated, the end of life is quiet

Besides talent, Hedy Lamarr's life was full of troubles: she was married 6 times, had 3 children, and suffered many personal turbulences from power relationships to controversial memoirs. Among them, the most painful is the relationship that keeps getting along and then breaks up with the actor Gone with the Wind.

When she entered Hollywood, she met actor Clark Gable and was fascinated by his elegant pomp. Although at that time the handsome Captain Rhett Butler in the movie Gone with the Wind was dating Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr was still willing to divorce and go to Gable. Who would have thought that after that, Hedy would not be able to keep the heart of this peach actor.

In her twilight years, the female star still could not find true love, encountered many legal troubles with the media and also could not find a satisfactory work to return to the screen. She lived alone in the United States and died of heart disease, at the age of 85.

Hedy Lamarr's life is a reminder that intellect and talent can be clouded by beauty and social prejudices. She is a testament to a woman who lived a double life, both shining on the screen and quietly contributing to humanity, leaving a great scientific legacy that we still use every day.

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