Once proclaimed “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Hedy Lamarr is remembered as the silver screen siren who scandalized show business in a 1930s nude scene. The raven-haired actress, who died at the turn of the millennium at age 86, wrote in her memoirs that “any girl can be glamorous: all you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” In reality, as a new PBS documentary reveals, Lamarr’s sultry beauty stood in the way of her getting the credit she deserved as an ingenious scientist and engineer whose inventions helped revolutionize modern communications. Lamarr never publicly talked about her life outside the movies, and her family thought her story had died with her, but in 2016, never-before-heard tapes of the actress telling her own life story emerged. “People have the idea that I’m sort of a stupid thing. I never knew I looked good to begin with, because my mother wanted a boy named Georg,” she says on one of the tapes. “Unfortunately I didn’t become that and she wasn’t too thrilled about it. I was different, I guess. Maybe I came from a different planet, who knows? But whatever it is, inventions are easy for me to do.” Combining the recordings with intimate reflections from her children, closest friends, family and admirers, “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” explores Lamarr’s true legacy as a technological trailblazer. The film, co-executive produced by Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, attempts to shine a light on the atmosphere that created the disconnect between her brilliance and beauty.