Hedy Lamarr as Dolores Sweets Ramirez in Tortilla flat 1942. Colorized Print

This is a colorized version of an old photo of Hedy Lamarr as Dolores Sweets Ramirez in Tortilla flat 1942. Hedy Lamarr, one of the most beautiful women in film was Austrian-born American film star who was often typecast as a provocative femme fatale. She made dozens of Hollywood films between 1938 and 1958. Algiers (1938), Boomtown (1940), and Samson and Delilah (1949) were her biggest films. She was very attractive and talented, and an extremely famous Hollywood movie star but also an inventor who pioneered the technology that would one day form the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. Lamarr had a brilliant mind but it was ignored and her beauty took center stage when she was discovered by director Max Reinhardt at age 16. She studied acting with Reinhardt in Berlin and was in her first small film role by 1930, in a German film called Geld auf der Straβe (“Money on the Street”). However, it wasn’t until 1932 that Lamarr gained name recognition as an actress for her role in the controversial film, Ecstasy. While in London, Lamarr’s luck took a turn when she was introduced to Louis B. Mayer of the famed MGM Studios. With this meeting, she secured her ticket to Hollywood. When she came to America, she enchanted American audiences with her grace, beauty, and accent. During MGM's "Golden Age." She starred in such films as Tortilla Flat, Lady of the Tropics, Boom Town, and Samson and Delilah, with the likes of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracey. During her heyday, Lamarr was considered the most beautiful woman in the world and her face was the inspiration for Disney’s Snow White and for Catwoman. Hedy Lamarr, the woman many critics and fans alike regard as the most beautiful ever to appear in films, was born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9, 1914, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria] in a Jewish family. She died on January 19, 2000 (age 85) in Casselberry, Florida, USA From the collection Colorized Old Black & White