Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt was a glamor figure of Hollywood's golden age, with a career that extended into the 2000s. She was born on a South Carolina cotton plantation and was apparently a mixed-race child; it was rumored that her father was the son of the plantation's owner and had conceived her by rape. She entered the Katherine Dunham Company of singer/dancers in her late teens, her elegant beauty standing out from the start. She became an accomplished cabaret singer and scored her first hit with the Cole Porter song, "Let's Do It." She was discovered in 1950 by Orson Welles who cast her as Helen of Troy in his staging of Doctor Faustus; this began a long string of film, television and nightclub work. The 1954 film "New Faces" was her first screen success, and spawned a vinyl EP that included her two signature songs: "C'est Si Bon" (the first U.S. hit version of the French pop standard) and "Santa Baby," the playfully vampish Christmas song that remained a seasonal fixture decades later. Her fame grew in the '60s with a recurring roles in "Batman" (ABC 1966-68) (where she took over the Catwoman role from Julie Newmar) and guest-starring roles in other popular series and her own TV variety special in 1967. However she stirred controversy in 1968 for speaking out against the Vietnam War when invited to a White House lunch by President Lyndon Johnson. She was investigated by the CIA and effectively blackballed from U.S. film and TV work for years afterward, though she had success in London's West End where she starred both in the musical Follies and a later one-women show. In 1976 she made a triumphant Broadway return in the musical Timbuktu!, which earned her a Tony nomination. Her next comeback came in the disco era, when she had a hit with "Where Is My Man" and a Bronski Beat collaboration, "Cha-Cha Heels," both of which led to her being embraced as an icon by the gay community. She later became an advocate for LGBT rights and a regular at fundraisers. She continued to tread the boards in the next two decades, returning to London for a Follies revival in the late '80s and touring America as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz during the '90s while also making annual cabaret appearances in New York. A performer to the end, she returned to the UK for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2008, releasing a DVD of the performance. She died on colon cancer on Christmas of that year, in her Connecticut home.
Photos
Eartha Kitt
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
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17% |
|
And Then Came Love | Mona (Character) | - | 2007 |
36% |
|
Preaching to the Choir | Sister Nettie (Character) | $397.9K | 2005 |
0% |
|
Kronk's New Groove | Yzma (Voice) | - | 2005 |
78% |
|
Holes | Madame Zeroni (Character) | $67.3M | 2003 |
35% |
|
Anything but Love | Self | $80.8K | 2002 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Santa, Baby! | Emerald (Voice) | - | 2001 |
86% |
|
The Emperor's New Groove | Yzma (Voice) | $89.6M | 2000 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ill Gotten Gains | The Wood (Voice) | - | 1998 |
27% |
|
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died | Cult Leader (Character) | $863 | 1998 |
47% |
|
Harriet the Spy | Agatha K. Plummer (Character) | $26.6M | 1996 |
17% |
|
Fatal Instinct | First Trial Judge (Character) | $7.6M | 1993 |
49% |
|
Boomerang | Lady Eloise (Character) | $66.7M | 1992 |
22% |
|
Ernest Scared Stupid | Old Lady Hackmore (Character) | $14.1M | 1991 |
No Score Yet |
|
Living Doll | Mrs. Swartz (Character) | - | 1990 |
50% |
|
Erik the Viking | Freya (Character) | $656.7K | 1989 |
No Score Yet |
|
Master of Dragonard Hill | Naomi (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Dragonard | Naomi (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Pink Chiquitas |
Betty/ |
- | 1986 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Serpent Warriors | Snake Priestess (Character) | - | 1986 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Butterflies in Heat | Lola (Character) | - | 1979 |
No Score Yet |
|
Friday Foster | Madame Rena (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Lieutenant Schuster's Wife | Lady (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet |
|
Up the Chastity Belt | Scheherazade (Character) | - | 1971 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Synanon | Betty Coleman (Character) | - | 1965 |
56% |
|
St. Louis Blues | Gogo Germaine (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Mark of the Hawk | Renee (Character) | - | 1958 |
44% |
|
Anna Lucasta | Anna Lucasta (Character) | - | 1958 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | New Faces | Self | - | 1954 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
85% | 76% | The Simpsons | Herself (Guest Voice) | 2010 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Wonder Pets! | Unknown (Guest Voice) | 2009 |
No Score Yet | 60% | The Emperor's New School | Unknown (Voice) | 2006-2008 |
No Score Yet | 90% | American Dad! | Fortune Teller (Guest Voice) | 2007 |
54% | No Score Yet | Welcome to New York | Unknown (Guest Star) | 2000 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | Unknown (Voice) | 2000 |
No Score Yet | 97% | The Wild Thornberrys | Unknown (Guest Voice) | 1998 |
No Score Yet | 73% | The Nanny | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1996 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Living Single | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1995 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | New York Undercover | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1995 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Space Ghost: Coast to Coast | Guest | 1994 |
71% | 89% | Miami Vice | Priestess Chata (Guest Star) | 1985 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Police Woman | Black Amelia (Guest Star) | 1978 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Protectors | Carrie Blaine (Character) | 1974 |
72% | 79% | Batman | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1967-1968 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | I Spy | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ben Casey | Danielle Taylor (Guest Star) | 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | What's My Line? | Guest | 1954 1959 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Toast of the Town | Guest | 1960 |