The character arc of Hedy Lamarr

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born Hedwig Kiesler on 9 November 1914 in Vienna. Died 19 January 2000 in Florida, aged eighty five. Between the two sit a father who explained machines on childhood walks, a flight from her first marriage in 1937, a Hollywood contract, a debut in 1938, a patent granted on 11 August 1942, a Navy that would not use it, a Walk of Fame star in 1960, retirement in 1958, and an award in 1997. The line below draws that whole life in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who was Hedy Lamarr?

She patented it in 1942, and nobody used it.

Her father was a banker who explained to her on walks how the machines around them worked, and her mother was a pianist. That is where the technical half of this line starts, decades before anybody would take it seriously. She married Friedrich Mandl, and in 1937 she fled the marriage, reaching London, where Louis B. Mayer signed her to MGM.

She debuted in Algiers in 1938 and became a star. Her best known role was in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah in 1949, the highest grossing film of 1950. She retired from acting in 1958 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. That is the half of the line everybody knew at the time.

The other half happened in wartime. Working with the composer George Antheil, she developed a radio guidance system using frequency hopping across a spread spectrum, so that a signal steering a torpedo could not be jammed by an enemy sitting on one frequency. They were granted United States patent 2,292,387 on 11 August 1942, filed under her legal name, Hedy Kiesler Markey. The Navy rejected it as too bulky. The patent ran out before anybody built anything with it, and practical applications only began appearing in 1962. She received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award in 1997, three years before her death, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame posthumously. Her line is worth reading because she was right fifty years early and nobody was listening.

The moments

Hedy Lamarr's timeline.

The 1920s

~1922

Her father explained machines

Milestone, and it changed her direction. On walks, as a small child, being told how things worked. That is where the second half of this line starts.

The 1930s

Jun 1937

She fled the marriage

Setback, and it changed everything. Out of a marriage and out of a country, at twenty two.

Sep 1937

Mayer signed her

Milestone, and it changed her direction. From the escape straight into a studio contract.

15 Jul 1938

Algiers

Milestone, and it changed her direction. One film, and she was a name.

The 1940s

1 Jun 1940

Sell war bonds, or invent

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: work on the problem, taken, or do what was expected. The Navy rejected it as too large, the patent expired unused, and the principle now carries Bluetooth and early Wi-Fi.

11 Aug 1942

A patent, in her own name

Milestone, and it changed everything. A film star and a composer, holding a patent on a way to make a signal unjammable.

Oct 1942

The Navy said no

Setback, and it changed everything. Too bulky. That was the whole answer, and the idea sat unused.

21 Dec 1949

Samson and Delilah

Milestone, and it changed her direction. The biggest film of its year, and the work she was known for while she lived.

The 1950s

~1958

She stopped acting

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Forty three years old, and done with the half of her life people knew about.

The 1960s

~1962

The patent had expired

Setback, and it changed everything. By the time anybody built it, the twenty years were up and she owned nothing.

The 1990s

12 Mar 1997

Recognised at last

Milestone, and it changed everything. Fifty five years after the patent, and three years before she died.

The line ends 19 Jan 2000, in Florida, at eighty five. What it set moving is in the room with you: Bluetooth and the early versions of Wi-Fi work on the principle she patented in 1942 and was told was too bulky to bother with.

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Hedy Lamarr: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What was Hedy Lamarr's character arc?

A Hollywood star who was also an inventor, fled her first marriage in 1937, patented a frequency hopping radio system in 1942 that the Navy would not use, and was recognised for it only in 1997.

What did Hedy Lamarr invent?

A radio guidance system using spread spectrum and frequency hopping, developed with the composer George Antheil, so that a signal steering a torpedo could not be jammed. They were granted United States patent 2,292,387 on 11 August 1942.

Why was Hedy Lamarr's invention not used?

The Navy rejected it as too large. The patent then expired before practical applications began appearing in 1962, which meant that when the idea was finally built she owned no rights in it at all.

Is Wi-Fi based on Hedy Lamarr's patent?

Modern technologies including Bluetooth and early versions of Wi-Fi use principles from the frequency hopping system she and George Antheil patented in 1942. She held the idea more than fifty years before it was in general use.

What films was Hedy Lamarr in?

She debuted in Algiers in 1938 and became a star. Her most acclaimed role was in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah in 1949, which was the highest grossing film of 1950. She retired from acting in 1958.

Why did Hedy Lamarr leave Austria?

She fled her first marriage, to Friedrich Mandl, in 1937, and reached London, where Louis B. Mayer signed her to MGM. This page records the flight and does not describe the marriage.

Was Hedy Lamarr ever recognised as an inventor?

Yes, but very late. She received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award in 1997, three years before her death, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame after she had died.

Where does this timeline of Hedy Lamarr's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Hedy Lamarr isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Hedy Lamarr, English Wikipedia biography.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Hedy Lamarr.
United States Patent 2,292,387, granted 11 August 1942.