'Most Beautiful Woman' By Day, Inventor By Night

The article comes close but does not mention one interesting piece of trivia. The frequency hopping device was made using (and inspired by) a pianoroll for an autopiano. An instrument that Lamarr and her collaborator, composer Antheil would have been familiar with. In their scheme of things, the torpedo and the sub would play the same "song" and jump frequencies in sync. Their patent lay ignored till fairly recently

EDIT: here is an Atlantic article that has more detail:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/celebr...

Another piece of trivia about her that I remember and am surprised nobody else pointed out:

She was the woman on the cover of CorelDraw who sued Corel and won because they used her likeness:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fsDWp0rXAo8/TWyXPD4a_YI/A...

Fun tidbit for gamers: in Half Life 2, the headcrab that causes the portal mixup is named Lamarr, after Hedy. Get it?

Previous coverage on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1368176.

I'm quite surprised that they ignored her past - she was married to Friedrich Mandl, an arms manufacturer. She learned about military technology from his friends.

So obvious option - that historians considers - is that she basically patented ideas she obtained/discussed during her marriage. Missing details are also behind the reason why she could not reproduce some of them.

i can think of a few trolls who would love to snatch up that patent and sue everyone who ever had anything to do with a smartphone.

She also starred in the first erotic movie ever:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(film)

That's Hedley.