If you know this forties matinee idol for anything, it's probably from her name being used a running joke in Mel Brooks' masterpiece parody western Blazing Saddles. If you were familiar with her work before she became the bane of Harvey Korman's existence, however, you'll know that Hedy Lamarr was one of the biggest stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, her biggest role being one half of the titular couple in Cecil B DeMille's Samson And Delilah. Something you might not know is that Lamarr had just as interesting a career off the screen as on it. Whilst she never won any awards for her acting work she did receive a special honour from the the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1997, an international non-profit digital rights group that supports new technologies and the like. What warranted a Hollywood actress getting the gong? Well, in 1942 Lamarr put her considerable scientific talent (which may even have superseded her acting chops) into inventing methods of radio communication that are still used today and which, when she came up with it, was deemed so vital to national defence that government kept it quiet.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
