Hedy Lamar (1914–2000) was an Austrian-American actress and inventor. After a brief film career in Czechoslovakia, including the erotic romantic drama Ecstasy (1933), she fled her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, and secretly moved to Paris. Upon arriving in London, she met Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a Hollywood film contract. Lamar became a screen star with her role in the romantic drama Algiers (1938). She achieved even greater success with the Western Boom Town (1940) and the drama White Cargo (1942). Lamar's most successful film was the religious epic Samson and Delilah (1949). She also appeared in television before her final film was released in 1958. In 1960, she was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At the beginning of World War II, Lamarr and George Antheil co-invented a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes – using spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to overcome the threat of radio jamming from the Axis powers. However, during World War II, the technology was not used in combat systems. Only after the war was it applied independently of their patent.