Eartha Kitt

At 81 years old, Eartha Kitt has this physical status:

Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith, 1927 to December 25, 2008) was an American singer, actress, comedian, activist, and writer known for her distinctive singing style and her 1953 album "C'est si bon" and "Santa Baby," both of which reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100.

Orson Welles once described her as the world's most exciting woman.Kitt began her career in 1942 and appeared in the inaugural Broadway revival of the musical Carib Song in 1945.

She had six US Top 30 hits, including "Uska Dara" and "I Want to Be Evil" in the early 1950s.

"Under the Bridges of Paris" (1954), "Just an Old Fashioned Child" (1954), and "Where Is My Man" (1983) are two of her other notable recordings.

In the third and final season of the television series Batman, she appeared as Catwoman in 1967. Since making anti-Vietnam War remarks at a White House luncheon in 1968, her career in the United States slowed.

In the 1978 original production of the musical Timbuktu!, for which she received the first of her two Tony Award nominations, she made a fruitful return to Broadway.

Her second appearance was for the original version of the musical The Wild Party in 2000.

Kitt wrote three autobiographies, Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976), and I'm Still Here: Sex Kitten (1989).

In the 1992 film Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy, she appeared Lady Eloise. Kitt introduced a new generation of followers through her appearances in the Disney films The Emperor's New Groove (2000), in which she portrayed the villainous Yzma, and Holes (2003).

In the direct-to-video sequel Kronk's New Groove (2005), as well as the animated series The Emperor's New School (2006–2008), she reprised her role as Yzma.

She has received two Daytime Emmy Awards for her work on the latter.

In 2010, she received her third Emmy Award for her guest appearance on Wonder Pets!

Early life

Eartha Mae Keith was born on a cotton plantation near North, South Carolina, or St. Matthews, on January 17, 1927. Annie Mae Keith's mother was of Cherokee and African descent. Despite having no knowledge of her father, it was reported that he was the son of the farm where she had been born and that Kitt was conceived by rape. Kitt's father, according to British journalist John Williams' biography, was a white man, a local doctor named Daniel Sturkie. Kitt McDonald Shapiro, Kitt's niece, has doubted the allegation. Annie Mae Keith (later Annie Mae Riley) came to live with a black man who refused to recognise Eartha due to her relatively pale skin; she was raised by a relative named Aunt Rosa in whose household she was abused. Eartha was sent to live with another relative named Mamie Kitt (who may have been her biological mother) in Harlem, New York City, where she attended the Metropolitan Vocational High School (later renamed the High School of Performing Arts).

Personal life

On June 6, 1960, she married John William McDonald, an associate of a real estate investment firm, after romances with cosmetics magnate Charles Revson and banking heir John Barry Ryan III. They had one child, Kitt McDonald, who was born on November 26, 1961, and baptized Catholic at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. In 1965, Kitt and McDonald divorced.

Eartha Kitt, a long-serving Connecticut resident, lived in a sprawling barn on a sprawling farm in New Milford's Merryall neighborhood for many years, and was active in local charities and causes throughout Litchfield County. She later moved to Pound Ridge, New York, but she returned to Weston, Connecticut's southern Fairfield County, to be near her daughter Kitt and her family. Kitt's daughter married Charles Lawrence Shapiro in 1987.

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Career

Kitt started her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and continued to serve as a member of the troupe until 1948. "Just an Old Fashioned Girl," "Champagne Taste," "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch," "Not an Old Fashioned Girl," "Mink, Schmink," "I'd Rather Burned as a Witch," "Let's Do It," "Adams" ("a Turkish melody), "I'd Rather Burned as a Witch," "C'est Si Bon"), "Want," "I's "Under, "Champ; During her years of being in Europe, Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in French. She performed in eleven languages (she is said to have learned German and Dutch from her stepfather, English from her grandmother, and French from the European cabaret circuit) and performed in eleven of her live recordings of her cabaret performances. Diana Ross said that she largely based her appearance and sound on Kitt's.

In 1950, Orson Welles gave Kitt her first acting role as Helen of Troy in his production of Dr. Faustus. She appeared in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing "Monotonous" and "Bal, Petit Bal," two songs in which she is still identified. In 1954, 20th Century Fox produced "Monotonous," "Unfortunately si bon," and "Santa Baby," in which she appeared "Monotonous," "United Dara," "C'est si bon," and "Santa Baby." Although Welles and Kitt were often accused of an affair during her 1957 tenure in Shinbone Alley, Kitt categorically denied it during a Vanity Fair interview in June 2001 with George Wayne. Kitt told Vanity Fair, "I never had sex with Orson Welles." The Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958), and Anna Lucasta (1958). Kitt's record in Sweden, "Rosenkyssar" ("Rose Kisses") (RCA FAS 521), was a minor hit in Sweden in 1956.

She appeared in film, television, and nightclubs throughout the 1950s and 1960s; and then returned to Broadway in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954-1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1959), and Jolly's Progress (in 1959). Kitt opened the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, in 1964. After Julie Newmar left the show in 1967, Batman introduced Kitt as a Catwoman. She appeared in "The Traitor," a 1967 Mission: Impossible film in which she played a contortionist.

She wrote an autobiography titled "Everybody's Child" in 1956, which would later be used as inspiration for the name of David Bowie's 1999 "Thursday's Child."

Kitt suffered a serious career setback in January 1968, when Lyndon B. Johnson's administration began, after making anti-war remarks during a White House luncheon. When First Lady Lady Bird Johnson questioned Kitt about the Vietnam War, she was asked about the war. "You send the best of this world off to be shot and maimed," she said. The kids are undisputed, and they eat pot." Kitt explained it during a question-and-answer session: 'Itt said in a question-and-answer session: '

Mrs. Johnson was reportedly compelled to weep into tears by her words. Following Kitt's characterization of the Vietnam War, the CIA described her as "a sadistic nymphomaniac" by the CIA, it is widely believed that his stay in the US was ended. In 1975, Seymour Hersh discovered a defamatory CIA dossier about Kitt. In The New York Times, Hersh published an article on the dossier. The dossier contained information about Kitt's sex and family history, as well as derogatory reviews of her that had been shared by former coworkers. Kitt's retort to the dossier was to state, "I don't know what this is about." I find it repulsive. Kitt devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia following the tragedy.

Kitt appeared on television many times on BBC's long-running variety show The Good Old Days in 1987, and then returned from Dolores Gray in Stephen Sondheim's Follies to appear in a one-woman performance in the Shaftesbury Theatre, which earned critical acclaim. "I'm Still Here" is the show-stopping dramatic anthem on both sets. Kitt returned to New York City in a triumphant appearance in the Broadway show Timbuktu! (a version of the legendary Kismet, which was set in Africa) in 1978. One song gives a "recipe" for mahoun, a cannabis-processing product in which her sultry purring interpretation of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was unique. For her appearance, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. In the North American national touring company The Wizard of Oz, she appeared in the late 1990s as the Wicked Witch of the West. In 2000, Kitt returned to Broadway in the short-lived reign of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party. Kitt appeared as the Fairy Godmother in the United States national tour of Cinderella beginning in late 2000. Chita Rivera was replaced in Nine by her in 2003. Kitt reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special edition of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004. Kitt appeared in the off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck from October to early December 2006.

Kitt did the voice-over in a television commercial for the rock band Steely Dan's album Aja in 1978. Kaa in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book was one of her more notable appearances. Bagheera appeared in the live-action Disney film The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story in 1998. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to Yzma in The Emperor's New Groove (for which she received her first Annie Award) and reprised her role in Kronk's New Groove and The Emperor's New School, for which she received two Emmy Awards and two more in 2007. In the Nickelodeon series My Life as a Teenager Robot, she also voiced Vexus.

Kitt returned to the music charts in 1984 with the release of "Where Is My Man," the first official gold record of her career. The album "Where Is My Man" debuted on the UK Singles Chart, where it reached its high point at No. 40. 36; the song became a hit in discos and dance clubs of the day, and it made the top ten on the US Billboard dance charts, where it reached No. 36; it debuted at No. 36; where it debuted at No. 104. 7. On the Recordshack label, the single was followed by the album I Love Men. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the United Kingdom and the United States, including a whole new generation of gay males, and she responded by regularly giving benefit performances to HIV/AIDS charities. The 1989 sequel to Divine's "Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat), which was supposed to be released by Divine, received a warm response from UK dance clubs, peaking No. In the United States, the 32nd in the charts are ranked 32nd in the world's top ten most influential countries. Kitt replaced Dolores Gray in Stephen Sondheim's Follies in the West End production as Carlotta, receiving standing ovations every night for her interpretation of "I'm Still Here" at the beginning of act 2. After Follies, she went on to perform her own one-woman show at The Shaftesbury Theatre to sold-out audiences for three weeks in early 1989.

At a fundraiser held by Jimmy James and George Burns in 1990, Kitt appeared alongside Jimmy James and George Burns. It was planned that James would impersonate Kitt and then Kitt would walk out to take the microphone. This was met with a standing ovation. Kitt appeared in Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore in 1991. She appeared in Boomerang as Lady Eloise in 1992. Kitt appeared on Nanny's episode in 1995, where she sang in French and flirted with Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). She appeared in an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy in November 1996. She also worked on a string of Old Navy advertisements.

Eartha Kitt received an Annie Award in 2000 for her role as "Yzma" in the Disney film The Emperor's New Groove, then reprising the role in Disney's New Groove in 2005. Kitt returned to the silver screen once more in 2003, playing Madame Zeroni in the film Holes based on author Louis Sachar's book. Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. The occasion was shown on the MAC website, and the song was performed at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month. She appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams. Kitt performed in annual shows in the New York cabaret scene, such as the Ballroom and Café Carlyle. Kitt did voice work for the animated films The Emperor's New Groove and its spinoffs, as well as My Life as a Teenager Robot. Kitt appeared at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in April 2008, just months before her death; her appearance was recorded. She appeared in "Once Upon a Time in Springfield," The Simpsons' "Once Upon a Time," where she was depicted as one of Krusty's past marriages.

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