Google honors actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr with animated doodle
If you visited Google today, you may have noticed the flashy animated logo -- a video honoring glamorous Hollywood actress and "secret communications system" inventor Hedy Lamarr.
Lamarr, who would've turned 101 on Nov. 9, started out as an actress in Vienna, Austria -- credited with performing the first on-screen orgasm at the age of 18.
She later moved to Hollywood to become one of MGM's leading ladies, appearing regularly onscreen throughout the 1940s and reportedly romancing the likes of Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and Spencer Tracey.
Author Richard Rhodes told CBS News in 2012 that she truly garnered quite a bit of fame and fortune. "The boys abroad, during the Second World War, voted her the most desirable, beautiful actress or pinup that they could possibly see."
But Hollywood and all its sparkle wasn't enough for Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Keisler.
"Any girl can be glamorous," Lamarr famously said. "All you have to do is stand still and look stupid."
Having already taken an interest in military technology from first husband Friedrick Mandle, an arms manufacturer, Lamarr took her curiosities a step further, using her spare time to dream up ways to help thwart the Nazis during WWII.
Teaming up with her composer friend and neighbor George Antheil, "the two worked together to figure out how to help devise a system to prevent the Nazis from blocking signals from radio-controlled Allied torpedoes," according to CNN. "The frequency-hopping system -- based on the 88 keys in pianos -- would keep enemies from being able to detect the radio messages." Their work also reportedly laid the foundation for Bluetooth and wi-fi.
Lamarr died at the age of 85 in 2000.
In 2014, Lamarr and Antheil were even inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Jennifer Hom, who designed the animated doodle, told CNN that Lamarr was "just so cool. She was very complicated and very accomplished at the same time."
