eartha kitt
Kittsville Co-Founder
Ms. Kitt had an enduring career spanning film, theater, cabaret, television, and music film. Ms. Kitt is an international star who gives new meaning to the word versatile. She was one of only a handful of performers to be nominated for Tony (three times), Grammy (twice), and Emmy Awards.
From her star studded engagements at New York's Café Carlyle, performing for fans of all ages to her Grammy nominated album Back in Business (released on DRG Records), and her Tony and Drama Desk nomination for her portrayal of Delores in the 2000 Broadway production of George Wolfe's The Wild Party, Miss Kitt, who was 81 at the time of her death, was still going strong. Her hilarious performance as Yzma, the villain in Disney's 2001 feature animation The Emperor's New Groove, won her an ANNIE Award for Best Vocal performance in an Animated Feature Film. She could also be seen as Mme. Zeroni in Disney's family comedy Holes and the Samuel Goldwyn film Anything But Love.
Ostracized at an early age due to her mixed-race heritage, eight year old Eartha Mae Kitt was given away by her mother and sent from the poverty-ridden South Carolina cotton fields to live with an aunt in Harlem. It was in New York that her distinct individuality and flair for show business manifested itself, when on a friend's dare, the shy teen auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe. She was awarded a position as a featured dancer and vocalist, she had toured worldwide before the age of twenty, she had toured worldwide. While performing with the Dunham Troupe in Paris, Ms. Kitt was spotted by a nightclub owner who signed her on as a singer. She gained fame and admirers quickly, including Orson Welles, who called her "the most exciting woman in the world" and signed her to play Helen of Troy in his acclaimed stage production of Dr. Faust. While performing at the Village Vanguard in New York, she was seen by Leonard Sillman, who cast her to sing her sultry tune "Monotonous" in his "New Faces of 1952." Her legendary performance in "New Faces," which ran for a year on Broadway, would lead to a national tour and a Twentieth Century Fox film by the same name.
Broadway stardom led to a recording contract and a succession of best-selling records including "Love For Sale," "I Want to Be Evil," "Santa Baby" and "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa," for which she received a Grammy nomination. She also published her first autobiography, Thursday's Child, during this period. Ms. Kitt then returned to Broadway in the dramatic play "Mrs. Patterson," for which she received her first Tony nomination. Other stage appearances followed, as did films including The Mark of the Hawk with Sidney Poitier and Anna Lucasta with Sammy Davis, Jr.
In 1967, Miss Kitt played the infamous Catwoman in the television series, Batman, a role that became synonymous with her. Singing in ten different languages, Ms. Kitt performed in 100 countries and was honored with a star on Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame in 1960. In 1966 she was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the series, I Spy. Ms. Kitt’s career took a sudden turn in 1968 when at a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, Kitt spoke out against the Vietnam War. For many years afterward, she was blacklisted by many in the U.S. entertainment industry and was forced to work abroad where her status remained undiminished. In 1974 she returned to the United States in an acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert and in 1978 received her second Tony Award nomination for her starring role in the Broadway musical Timbuktu. Ms. Kitt's second autobiography, Alone With Me, was published in 1976, and the third volume, I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten, was released in 1989. Her best-selling book, Rejuvenate! (It's Never Too Late), was released by Scribner in May 2001.
As Stephen Holden of the New York Times recently wrote, "Eartha Kitt is finally being discovered by the generation that thought Madonna pioneered the image of the pop singer as a gold-digging femme fatale...Her avariciously slinky stage alter ego is as classic in its way as Mae West's shimmying blond bawd, and just as funny." In her final years Eartha Kitt whad frequent guest appearances on television programs such as The Nanny and New York Undercover, Hollywood Squares and her world-famous voice can be heard on commercials and in New York City taxis advising riders to buckle up.
On December 25, 2008, Ms. Kitt passed away. She is survived by her daughter/manager Kitt Shapiro and her grandchildren.