Who Was Hedy Lamarr? Johnny Depp Releases New Song About Fame

Johnny Depp has released a new song lamenting the pressures of fame that's named after Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr.

Depp released the new track, "This Is a Song for Miss Hedy Lamarr," on Thursday in collaboration with his friend, musician Jeff Beck.

Following his success in his court battle against ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp has embarked on a tour with guitarist Beck, playing concerts all over the U.K.

The actor has been making a string of public appearances since his court victory and has announced he and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame musician are releasing a new album this summer, titled 18.

"I don't believe, I can't believe, I won't believe humans anymore," Depp sings in the chorus of the song about the 1940s starlet.

"This is a song for Ms. Hedy Lamarr," the song's hook goes. "Erased by the world that made her a star, strung on beauty, trapped by its web, she's a perfect cocoon twined in gold thread."

"It's so hard to talk when no one will hear, and everyone stares as you quiver in fear," he later sings in a verse.

Depp, 58, announced the single on Instagram on Wednesday by sharing a photo of Lamarr with the cryptic caption: "Soon... X."

Johnny Depp, Hedy Lamarr
Johnny Depp has released a new song named after Hollywood icon Hedy Lamarr. Getty Images

Who was Hedy Lamarr?

Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-born American film actress and femme fatale. She was also a pioneering inventor whose work led to the development of Wi-Fi technology.

Lamarr enjoyed success with her early film career in Czechoslovakia and went on to share the screen with Hollywood legends like Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Stewart.

Some of her most noteworthy films include Algiers (1938), Lady of the Tropics (1939), Boom Town (1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) and White Cargo.

But it was in the movie Samson and Delilah that she became most famous.

Hedy Lamarr
1944: Austrian born actress Hedy Lamarr (1913 - 2000) stands with her hands on her hips, wearing a shimmering blouse decorated with cord. She is starring as Irene in 'The Conspirators,' directed by Jean Negulesco. John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images

Lamarr died in 2000 and while she was remembered for being a silver screen icon, in recent years, her work an inventor has become more widely recognized.

Although she had no formal training, inventing was a hobby of hers, which led to her creating an improved traffic stoplight and a tablet that would dissolve in water to create a carbonated drink.

She worked with aviation tycoon Howard Hughes on making his planes fly faster and during World War II, Lamarr's contribution to wireless communication technology paved the way for modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Lamarr was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

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