Hedy Lamarr was one of the most beautiful stars of Hollywood's golden
era.
Her real name is Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. Hedy was born in Vienna,
Austria to the daughter of a prominent banker. Hedy Lamarr was well known for
her exotic, dark-haired beauty, which she shared with a passion throughout her
silver screen stardom.
Hedy Lamarr married Fritz Mandl, an Austrian munitions magnate. Lamarr was
signed by MGM and migrated to the United States of America in 1937. This is
when Hedy adopted her stage name, which she claimed to be an homage to the
1920s screen beauty Barbara La Marr.
Ecstasy
Hedy Lamarr's infamous nude and "sex" film scenes got her plenty of attention.
Some of Lamarr's sexiest scenes appear in a 1933
European film called
Ecstasy.
This film made Hedy a sensation
before she ever arrived in Hollywood. In this classic "adult film" of
the dirty 30's, Lamarr stars as a young sexually exhuberant woman with the misfortune
of having to deal with a husband less than interested in sex. Playing a very sexy, sultry
young lass, Ecstasy daringly pushed the borders of what was socially accepatable in
the thirties with its nudity and lovemaking scenes.
Lamarr's leading men included Clark Gable, William Powell, Spencer Tracy and
Ray Milland. Her personal favorite film, Cecil B. De Mille's
Samson and
Delilah was a huge hit in 1949. As the Delilah to Victor Mature's
Samson, Lamarr exuded sexuality.
Other films worth noting are
White Cargo,
a 1942 flick in which Lamarr seduces most of the male cast in this romantic-come-thriller, and Tortilla
Flat, another great movie made in 1942 of Steinbeck's novel about a California fishing community.
Hedy Lamarr:
"If you use your imagination, you can
look at any actress and see her nude... I hope to make you use your
imagination."
Lamarr says no to sex
In the mid-1950s, Lamarr's career started to
dwindle. Hedy said she stopped getting decent work because she wouldn't have
sex with a certain film executive to get ahead.
Hedy Lamarr, 1970 interview:
"My problem is, I'm a hell of a nice
dame. The most horrible whores are famous. I did what I did for love. The
others did it for money."
