Do we like Hedy Lamarr?
Our score: 8 out of 10. We found no harmful words or acts, and there's real good in her war work and her invention; a couple of stray scraps keep her off the top rung.
Hedy Lamarr began life as Hedy Kiesler, and by 18 she was starring in the 1933 Czech film Ecstasy. PBS reports Hitler banned it in Germany because she was Jewish, and the Pope and the Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it too. That's a hell of a start for a teenager.
The famous bit is the patent. In 1941 she and composer George Antheil filed for a frequency-hopping system to guide radio-controlled torpedoes, and it was granted in 1942. Lamarr supplied the hopping idea, and Antheil came up with a player-piano-style mechanism to sync the changes. The Navy thought the clockwork too bulky, but the idea was later adopted in 1957 and used on ships blockading Cuba in 1962.
During the war she also did the other kind of useful. Her 1942 bond drive raised about $25 million, and she volunteered at the Hollywood Canteen, dancing with service members, signing autographs and even helping wash dishes. The kiss-for-bonds stunt was staged, with the same sailor picked at every rally. PBS says she was steered to selling kisses instead of being recognised for her invention.
Now the mess. She sued Warner Bros. over the Hedley Lamarr character in Blazing Saddles and, per PBS, got a small out-of-court settlement and an apology from Mel Brooks. In 1991 she was accused of shoplifting in Florida, and the reports we found differ on how that ended. One accusation and one cranky lawsuit don't make a pattern.
On the harm check, we found nothing: no campaigning against anyone's rights, no conspiracy theories, no dodgy company. She also produced her own films after her MGM contract lapsed, including The Strange Woman in 1946, which was unusual for the time. The caveat is that she died in 2000, so there's no social media trail to read.
The good stuff is the stuff that outlasted her. The Electronic Frontier Foundation gave her its Pioneer Award in the late 1990s, and she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014. The recognition came late, and she wasn't paid for the invention, which says more about the system than about her.