HEDY LAMARR

Hedy Lamarr, surely one of the most beautiful women ever, was born in 1914 (or was it 1913?). She was born Hedwig Kiesler in Vienna Austria, and she appeared in movies in Germany and Czechoslovakia as a teen. In 1933, she stunned the world when she appeared in the Czechoslovakian movie Ekstase (released internationally as Ecstasy) because she both appeared completely nude and in sex scenes! Naturally that caught the eye of Hollywood, and she was signed by MGM and renamed, although her next movie was not for five years later. She held on to her beauty quite well throughout the 1940s (nicknamed "The Most Beautiful Woman in Films"), and her biggest hit came at the end of that decade, playing Delilah to Victor Mature's Samson. She had a complicated private life! She is credited with major scientific inventions, and she had run-ins with the law for shoplifting. In 1974 Mel Brooks named one of the lead characters in Blazing Saddles "Hedley Lamarr", and she sued him over that! She is also best remembered for her roles in Show Business at War, The Love Goddesses, and H.M. Pulham, Esq. She passed away in 2000 at the age of 85.