Eartha Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer, a Tony Award winning actress, dancer and cabaret star. She's best known for her role of Catwoman in the 60's show Batman starring Adam West.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Kitt was born on a cotton plantation in North, a small town in Orangeburg County, South Carolina. Around the age of 8, Kitt moved to New York City to live with an aunt. There, she eventually enrolled in the New York School of Performing Arts.
Around the age of 16, Kitt won a scholarship to study with Katherine Dunham, and later joined Dunham's dance troupe. She toured with the group for several years before going solo. In Paris, Kitt became a popular nightclub singer. She was discovered in Europe by actor-director Orson Welles. Welles, who reportedly called her "the most exciting woman alive," cast her as Helen of Troy in his production of Dr. Faustus.
Career[]
Kitt became a rising star with her appearance in the Broadway review New Faces of 1952. In the production, she sang "Monotonous." Her performance helped launch her music career with the release of her first album in 1954. The recording featured such signature songs as "I Want To Be Evil" and "C'est Si Bon," as well as the perennially holiday classic "Santa Baby."
On the big screen, Kitt starred opposite Nat King Cole in the W. C. Handy biopic St. Louis Blues (1958). She netted her one and only Academy Award nomination the following year, for her role as the title character in Anna Lucasta. In the film, Kitt plays a sassy young woman who is forced to use her womanly wiles to survive, starring opposite Sammy Davis Jr.
Late in the 60s, Kitt portrayed the role of Catwoman in the television show after Julie Newmar left the role. This was considered as one of her most recognized and most famous roles. Remarkably, Kitt only played Catwoman on a handful of episodes of the short-lived campy crime show, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, but she made the role her own with her lithe, cat-like frame and her distinctive voice. The series found a second life in reruns, and it remains on the air today.
Known for being blunt and short-tempered at times, Kitt found herself in a media firestorm in 1968. She attended a luncheon on the subject on juvenile delinquency and crime hosted by Lady Bird Johnson at the White House. At the event, Kitt shared her thoughts on the matter, telling the First Lady that "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," according to the Washington Post. "No wonder the kids rebel and take pot." Her remarks against the Vietnam War offended Johnson, and made headlines. Her popularity took a significant hit after that, and she spent several years mostly performing abroad.
In 1978, Kitt enjoyed a career renaissance with her performance on Broadway in Timbuktu!. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play, and received an invitation to the White House by President Jimmy Carter. In 1984, Kitt returned to the music charts with "Where Is My Man." She continued to win acclaim for her music, including scoring a Grammy Award nomination for 1994's Back in Business.
Eartha Kitt portrayed The Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring of The Wizard of Oz in 1998. Kitt was a replacement for Roseanne Barr who played the witch in 1997.
For many years, Kitt performed her cabaret act at New York's Cafe Carlyle. She continued to wow audiences as she had so many decades before, when she was the toast of Paris. With her voice, charm and sex appeal, Kitt knew how to win over a crowd.
Kitt learned that she had colon cancer in 2006, a disease that ended up taking her life on December 25, 2008.
