Hedy Lamarr was so much more than a pretty face. The immigrant star of the silver screen, who rose to fame under a contract at MGM in the late ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s, appeared in films like Boom Town with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy in 1940 and Samson and Delilah, the highest-grossing film of 1949. She was at one point known as the most beautiful woman in the world, and cultural icons like Snow White and Cat Woman were both reportedly based on her look.
But Lamarr was also a skilled inventor, discovering technology that would later be used in Wi-Fi, GPS, and bluetooth.
It’s that side of Lamarr that director Alexandra Dean and executive producers Susan Sarandon and Michael Kantor explore in the new documentary Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr Story.
“Hedy’s true legacy is that of a technological trailblazer,” reads promotional copy for the upcoming film.
“An Austrian Jewish emigre who invented a covert communication system to try and help defeat the Nazis, Hedy gave her patent to the Navy, but was ignored and told to sell kisses for war bonds instead. It was only towards the very end of her life that tech pioneers discovered her concept which is now used as the basis for secure Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth.”
Through interviews with her children, friends and admirers (including comedic legend Mel Brooks), and newly discovered recordings of Hedy speaking about her own life, Dean tells the story of the inventor who just so happened to be a movie star.
Watch the trailer below. Bombshell opens November 24.
