Susan Sarandon To Make Hedy Lamarr Documentary, As Google Honours The Actress And Inventor
By Stephanie Chase in Movies / TV / Theatre on 10 November 2015
Hedy Lamarr would have been 101 on November 9th and left a lasting legacy on screen and with modern technology.
Susan Sarandon has announced she’s making a documentary on actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr in conjunction with Reframed Pictures, American Masters and Submarine. The legendary film star would have turned 101 yesterday (November 9th) and her birthday was marked with a special Google Doodle, honouring her unique legacy.
Susan Sarandon is making a documentary about Hedy Lamarr.
Announcing the doc, which has the working title Hedy: The Untold Story of Actress and Inventor Hedy Lamarr, Sarandon said: “This is the story of a Hollywood actress, defined by her appearance, who is secretly a brilliant inventor and changes the course of history.”
The film will be directed by Alexandra Dean and produced by Katherine Drew and Adam Haggiag with Sarandon and Michael Kantor executive producing. It will have its exclusive U.S. broadcast premiere on PBS's 'American Masters' series.
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Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria on November 9th 1914. Once described as “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Lamarr first found fame when she appeared nude at the age of 17 in the 1933 Czech film, Ecstasy.
But along with her beauty and acting talents Lamarr was also an inventor, who used her intelligence to help the Allies during World War II. In 1942 she patented an idea called the ‘Secret Communication System’, which later became an important piece of technology for both military communications and modern mobile phones.
She created the technology alongside composer, George Antheil, using the principles of how pianos worked to identify a way to prevent German submarines from jamming Ally radio signals. Her discoveries laid the groundwork technology such as Bluetooth, GPS and wifi that have become important parts of modern life.
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On Monday her legacy was honoured by Google with a special Doodle to mark her 101st birthday. "We love highlighting the many good stories about women’s achievements in science and technology. When the story involves a 1940s Hollywood star-turned-inventor who developed technologies we all use with our smartphones today … well, we just have to share it with the world," said Google doodler Jennifer Hom.
The doodle is an animation which tells the story of the actress’ life set to a soundtrack created by composer Adam Ever-Hadani. "Lamarr has kind of a mythical status at Google, and I was pretty excited at the chance to tell her story in Doodle form," Hom added. "Sketching storyboards on a yellow notepad helped me figure out how to show Lamarr in very different scenarios – movie star by day, inventor by night – which we then animated."
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