Eartha Kitt Biography, Photos and Posters

Eartha Kitt

Biography

Born: January 17, 1927
City and Country of Origin: Columbia, South Carolina
Music Training:
Awards: 2008 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program—The Emperor's New School; 2008 Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production—The Emperor's New School; 2007 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program—The Emperor's New School; 2007 Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production—The Emperor's New School; 2001 Annie Award for Best Voice Acting by a Female Performer in a Featured Film—The Emperor's New Groove; 1960 Hollywood Walk of Fame—6656 Hollywood Boulevard
Top Recordings: Let's Do It," "Champagne Taste," "C'est si bon," "Just an Old Fashioned Girl," "Monotonous," "Je cherche un homme," "Love for Sale," "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch," "Uska Dara," "Mink, Schmink," "Under the Bridges of Paris," "Santa Baby," "Where Is My Man",
Eartha Kitt Biography: Eartha Mae Kitt was an American actress, singer and cabaret star. Orson Welles once referred to her as, the "most exciting woman in the world".

Eartha was born and raised on a cotton plantation in North a small town in South Carolina. She is of Cherokee and African-American descent on her mother's side and German and Dutch descent on her father's side. She always claimed to have been conceived by rape. She was raised by her mother's sister whom she believed to be her mother. She claimed to have been abused at the hands of a family that her aunt, Anna Mae Riley, entrusted her to. After Riley's death she was sent to live in New York with Mamie Kitt, who she learned was her biological mother; she did not know her father, who supposedly was the son of the owner of the farm where she had been born.

Kitt's performing career began in her film debut, as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company, in the 1948 musical Casbah, based on the 1938 film Algiers. She spent much time during her career performing in Europe and became fluent in French and also conversant in several other languages.

In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy, in his staging of Dr. Faustus. She followed this with a role in the revue New Faces of 1952 introducing the songs"Monotonous" and "Bal, Petit Bal." She made her film debut starring opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk, in 1958. Throughout the late 50s and 60s, Kitt appeared in numerous movies and TV shows including playing Catwoman in Tv's Batman series after Julie Newmar left the role.

After an anti-war remark that she made to First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, she was ostracized in the U.S. and spent much time appearing overseas.

By 1978 attitudes towards her and the war changed, she made a triumphant return in the Broadway show Timbuktu! (Kismet set in Africa).

She scored her first gold record with the 1984 disco song "Where Is My Man." She followed this with the album I Love Men" on the Record Shack label. By now her popularity was such that she was in demand both on the U.S. and U.K. club circuit. It was at this time that her popularity spread to the gay male audience.

Kitt appeared in the Eddie Murphy hit movie Boomerang, in 1992. In 1994, she played the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. She returned to Broadway in 2000 in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. She appeared along with Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler, starting in 2000, as the Fairy Godmother in the US national tour of Cinderella . In recent years she became a fizture on th eNew York cabaret scene appearing in such locales as the Café Carlyle.
Died: December 25, 2008

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