By Calvin Palmer
Eartha Kitt, the singer and actress who was once described by Orson Welles as “the most exciting woman in the world, has died at the age of 81.
Famous for her cat-like purr, the self-proclaimed “sex kitten” had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer at a New York hospital.
She became a household name in the 1960s playing the role of Cat Woman in the TV series Batman and it was this role that led to the description by Welles.
Her first hit song was Santa Baby in 1953. I Want to Be Evil and the disco song, Where Is My Man, in 1984, were other hits.
Early movie roles included The Mark of the Hawk (1957) where she starred alongside Sidney Poitier and St Louis Blues (1958) with Nat King Cole.
She was blacklisted in America after speaking out against the Vietnam War during a White House luncheon.
“You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed,” she told a group of women hosted by Lady Bird Johnson in 1968. “No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.”
Kitt worked in Europe. She was a regular on British TV and many will remember her cameo appearance in Up The Chastity Belt (1971), in an improbable sex scene with Frankie Howerd.
Born in South Carolina, the daughter of a 14-year-old girl who was raped on a cotton plantation, Kitt grew up in Harlem, raised by an aunt, and attended New York’s High School of Performing Arts. She launched her career as a dancer with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe and toured the world.
Her friend and publicist Andrew Freedman said: “Europe always held a special place in her heart, particularly Paris. The city was one of her great loves. One of her first big hits was La Vie En Rose.”
Kitt returned to Broadway in 1974 and received her second Tony nomination in 1978 for her role in the musical Timbuktu. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera for a remake of the Broadway musical Nine.
By 2006, she was back in favor with the White House and lit the National Christmas Tree alongside President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
Kitt’s fans spanned all age groups. She was the voice of Yzma in Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) and continued to voice the character in a sequel and subsequent TV series.
Her theater and cabaret work continued. In September 2007, she performed at the reopening of New York’s Café Carlyle.
Kitt wrote three autobiographies — Thursday’s Child (1956); Alone With Me (1976); and I’m Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).
[Based on reports by the AFP news agency, The Daily Telegraph and The Times.]
1 Comment
January 4, 2009 at 2:09 am
Eartha Kitt contributed an immeasurable amount to the entertainment industry.. and it was so funny to find out that she was a voice in “The Emperor’s New Groove”