Here is why Hedy Lamarr deserves a Google Doodle

Google is celebrating 101st birth anniversary of USA and Australian film Actress Hedy Lamarr by posting the doodle on its homepage.

But Lamarr, who was once dubbed as “the most lovely woman in the world”, was eventually bored by her Hollywood acting career and developed an interest in the field of applied science, and utilized it to help the Allied forces during the Second World War. Apart from her Hollywood success, she also created an idea called the “Secret Communication System” in 1942, which later became pivotal to both secure military communications and mobile phone technology. It was during this time that Hedy Lamarr was first exposed to weapons technology at the dinner parties at which she listened to her husband and his guests discuss about the technical aspects of weapons design. She has worked in Algiers (1938), I take this Woman (1940), Comrade X (1940), Come Live With Me (1941), Samson and Delilah, White Cargo (1949), My Favorite Spy (1951) and The Story of Mankind (1957).

Her work are now incorporated into modern Wi-fi, CDMA and Bluetooth technology.

The doodle is a flawless tribute to the actress, since it highlights Lamarr in different scenarios – movie star by day, inventor by night – set in a musical video background.

On 19 January, 2000, Lamarr died at the age of 85 in Casselberry, Florida. “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.