Though many of the fans of her time knew her primarily as a glamorous, provocative actress who exuded a striking energy on screen, Hedy Lamarr was so much more than that. Not only was she marked presence in the performing sense, she was also a brilliant inventor whose innovative ideas would, in time, come to change the world.
After escaping the Third Reich with her family from their native Austria, Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) would go on to become one of the world’s most controversial and celebrated stars of the silver screen whose films sparked conversations and challenged the public’s ideas about female sexuality.
But while Lamarr made headlines about her performances and personal relationships, her astonishing talent for invention and technological thinking went largely unnoticed.
When Lamar wasn’t acting, she spent much of her time mapping out and developing new ideas that pushed the limits of current technology like her concepts for more aerodynamic aeroplanes. Of all of Lamarr’s ideas, her frequency-hopping signals inspired by the conflicts of World War II, though neglected at the time, would go on to become a game-changer in future wars and become the basis for other modern advancements like Wi-Fi and mobile phones.
Considering the whole of Lamar’s accomplishments, it makes all the sense in the world that her story would be adapted into a film, but in addition to that, Humanoids publishing is putting out a graphic novelisation of her life from writer William Roy and artist Sylvain Dorange that you’ve gotta see.
Humanoids’ Hedy Lamarr: An Incredible Life is available now and you can take a deeper look at the book below.