Hedy Lamarr

Birth Name: Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler
Birth Date: November 9, 1914
Deceased: January 19, 2000

Biography

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Hedy Lamarr  After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial Ecstasy (1933). Traveling to London, she met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood, where she became a film star from the late 1930s to the 1950s. Mayer persuaded her to change her name to Hedy Lamarr (to distance herself from her real identity, and "the Ecstasy lady" reputation associated with it), choosing the surname in homage to the beautiful silent film star, Barbara La Marr, on the suggestion of his wife, who admired La Marr. He brought her to Hollywood in 1938 and began promoting her as the "world's most beautiful woman".