Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of Kitt by Carl Van Vechten, October 1952 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Eartha Mae Keith[1] |
| Also known as | "Miss Kitt" |
| Born | January 17, 1927[1] North, South Carolina, United States[1] |
| Died | Error: Need valid birth date (second date): year, month, day[1] Weston, Connecticut, United States[1] |
| Genres | Vocal jazz, cabaret Dance, torch |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actress |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 1943–2008 |
| Labels | RCA (1953-1959)
|
| Website | http://www.earthakitt.com |
Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008)[2] was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world."[3] She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the 1960s Batman television series, replacing Julie Newmar, who was unavailable due to other commitments. She also voiced Yzma on Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and its television spinoff, The Emperor's New School, earning five Emmy Awards in the process, the last shortly before her death.
Life and career
Early years
Kitt was born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation in North, a small town in Orangeburg County near Columbia, South Carolina. Kitt's mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent and her father of German descent. Kitt was conceived by rape.[4][5]
Kitt was raised by Anna Mae Riley, an African-American woman whom she believed to be her mother. Anna Mae went to live with a black man when Eartha was aged eight. He refused to accept Kitt because of her relatively pale complexion.[4] Kitt lived with another family until Riley's death. She was then sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt, who she learned was her biological mother.[citation needed] She had no knowledge of her father, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was supposedly a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born.[4] Newspaper obituaries state that her white father was "a poor cotton farmer".[6]
Career
Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943 and remained a member of the troupe until 1948. A talented singer with a distinctive voice, she recorded the hits "Let's Do It"; "Champagne Taste"; "C'est si bon" (which Stan Freberg famously burlesqued); "Just an Old Fashioned Girl"; "Monotonous"; "Je cherche un homme"; "Love for Sale"; "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch"; "Katibim" (a Turkish melody) ; "Mink, Schmink"; "Under the Bridges of Paris"; and her most recognizable hit, "Santa Baby", which was released in 1953. Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in the French language during her years performing in Europe. Her English-speaking performances always seemed to be enriched by a soft French feel. She spoke four languages and sang in seven, which she effortlessly demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances
Career peaks
In 1950, Orson Welles gave Kitt her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing "Monotonous" and "Bal, Petit Bal", two songs with which she is still identified. In 1954, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the revue, titled New Faces, in which she performed "Monotonous", "Uska Dara", and "C'est Si Bon".[7] Though it is often alleged that Welles and Kitt had an affair during her 1957 run in Shinbone Alley, Kitt categorically denied this in a June 2001 interview with George Wayne of Vanity Fair. "I never had sex with Orson Welles", Kitt told Vanity Fair: "It was a working situation and nothing else".[8] Her other films in the 1950s included Mark of the Hawk (1957), St. Louis Blues (1958) and Anna Lucasta (1959).
Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt recorded; worked in film, television, and nightclubs; and returned to the Broadway stage, in Mrs. Patterson (during the 1954–1955 season), Shinbone Alley (in 1957), and the short-lived Jolly's Progress (in 1959).[9] In 1964, Kitt helped open the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California. In the late 1960s, the television series Batman featured her as Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role.
Anti-war controversy
In 1968, during the administration of US President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon.[10][11] Kitt was invited to the White House luncheon and was asked by Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War. She replied: "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot."
During a question and answer session, Kitt stated:
The children of America are not rebelling for no reason. They are not hippies for no reason at all. We don’t have what we have on Sunset Blvd. for no reason. They are rebelling against something. There are so many things burning the people of this country, particularly mothers. They feel they are going to raise sons — and I know what it's like, and you have children of your own, Mrs. Johnson — we raise children and send them to war.
Her remarks reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears and led to a derailment in Kitt's career.[12] The public reaction to Kitt's statements was extreme, both pro and con. Publicly ostracized in the US, she devoted her energies to performances in Europe and Asia.
Broadway
She returned to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a "recipe" for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.
Later years
In 1978, Kitt did the voice-over in a TV commercial for the album Aja by the rock group Steely Dan. She wrote three autobiographies — Thursday's Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976) and I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989).
In 1984, she returned to the music charts with a disco song, "Where Is My Man", the first certified gold record of her career. "Where Is My Man" reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at No. 36;[13] The song also made the Top 10 on the US Billboard dance chart, where it reached No. 7.[14] The single was followed by the album I Love Men on the Record Shack label. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the UK and the US, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations. Kitt appeared with Jimmy James and George Burns at a fundraiser in 1990 produced by Scott Sherman, Agent from The Atlantic Entertainment Group. It was arranged that James would impersonate Kitt and then Kitt would walk out to take the microphone. This was met with a standing ovation. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring Bronski Beat), which was originally intended to be recorded by Divine, received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached No. 32 in the charts in that country.
In 1991, Eartha returned to the screen in the Jim Varney children's Halloween movie Ernest Scared Stupid as Old Lady Hackmore. In 1992, Kitt had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in the film Boomerang starring Eddie Murphy. In the late 1990s, she appeared as the Wicked Witch of the West in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz. 1995 saw Eartha Kitt appear as herself in an episode of The Nanny, where she performed a song in French and flirted with Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). In November 1996, she appeared on an episode of Celebrity Jeopardy!. In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short-lived run of Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. Beginning in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the US national tour of Cinderella alongside Deborah Gibson and then Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. She reprised her role as the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of Cinderella, which took place at Lincoln Center during the holiday season of 2004.
One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt also lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove, for which she won her first Annie Award, and returned to the role in the straight-to-video sequel Kronk's New Groove and the spin-off TV series The Emperor's New School, for which she won two Emmy Awards and two more Annie Awards (both in 2007–08) for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She had a voiceover as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot.
In her later years Kitt made annual appearances in the New York Manhattan cabaret scene at venues such as the Ballroom and the Café Carlyle.
She was also a guest star in The Simpsons episode "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", where she was depicted as one of Krusty's past marriages.
From October to early December 2006, Kitt co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical Mimi le Duck. She also appeared in the 2007 independent film And Then Came Love opposite Vanessa Williams.
Kitt was the spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics' Smoke Signals collection in August 2007. She re-recorded "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" for the occasion, was showcased on the MAC website, and the song was played at all MAC locations carrying the collection for the month.
Personal life
After romances with the cosmetics magnate Charles Revson and banking heir John Barry Ryan III, she married John William McDonald, an associate of a real estate investment company, on June 6, 1960.[15] They had one child, a daughter named Kitt McDonald, born on November 26, 1961. After divorcing in 1965, Kitt went on to have other lovers.
A long-time Connecticut resident, Eartha Kitt lived in a converted barn on a sprawling farm in the Merryall section of New Milford for many years and was active in local charities and causes throughout Litchfield County. She later moved to Pound Ridge, New York, and then to the southern Fairfield County town of Weston in 2002, to be near her daughter Kitt and family. (Kitt McDonald married Charles Lawrence Shapiro in 1987[16] and had two children, Jason and Rachel Shapiro.)
Activism
Kitt was active in numerous social causes in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, she established the Kittsville Youth Foundation, a chartered and non-profit organization for underprivileged youth in the Watts area of Los Angeles.[17] Kitt was also involved with a group of youth in the area of Anacostia in Washington, D.C., who called themselves Rebels with a Cause. Kitt supported the group's efforts to clean up streets and establish recreation areas in an effort to keep them out of trouble by testifying with them before the House General Subcommittee on Education of the Committee on Education and Labor. In her testimony in May 1967, Kitt stated that the Rebels' "achievements and accomplishments should certainly make the adult 'do-gooders' realize that these young men and women have performed in 1 short year - with limited finances - that which was not achieved by the same people who might object to turning over some of the duties of planning, rehabilitation, and prevention of juvenile delinquents and juvenile delinquency to those who understand it and are living it". She added that "the Rebels could act as a model for all urban areas throughout the United States with similar problems".[18] Rebels with a Cause subsequently received the needed funding.[19]
Kitt was also a member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, thus her criticism of the Vietnam War and its connection to poverty and racial unrest in 1968 can be seen as part of a larger commitment to peace activism.[20]
Like many politically active public figures of her time, Kitt was under surveillance by the CIA beginning in 1956. After The New York Times discovered the CIA file on Kitt in 1975, she granted the paper permission to print portions of the report, stating: "I have nothing to be afraid of and I have nothing to hide."[21]
Kitt later became a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and publicly supported same-sex marriage, which she considered a civil right. She had been quoted as saying: "I support it [gay marriage] because we're asking for the same thing. If I have a partner and something happens to me, I want that partner to enjoy the benefits of what we have reaped together. It's a civil-rights thing, isn't it?"[22] Kitt famously appeared at many LGBT fundraisers, including a mega event in Baltimore, Maryland, with George Burns and Jimmy James. Scott Sherman, an agent at Atlantic Entertainment Group, stated: "Eartha Kitt is fantastic... appears at so many LGBT events in support of civil rights."
In a 1992 interview with Dr. Anthony Clare, Kitt spoke about her gay following, saying:
We're all rejected people, we know what it is to be refused, we know it is to be oppressed, depressed, and then, accused, and I am very familiar with that feeling. Nothing in the world is more painful than rejection, I am a rejected and oppressed person, that is how I understand them, as best as I can, even though I am heterosexual.[23]
Death
Kitt died from colon cancer on Christmas Day 2008, at her home in Weston, Connecticut.[2][24]
Awards
Kitt has won awards for her film, television and stage work, and in 1960, the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored her with a star, which can be found on 6656 Hollywood Boulevard.[25]
Discography
Acting career
Theatrical releases
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | Casbah | Uncredited | Film debut. |
| 1957 | The Mark of the Hawk | Renee | |
| 1958 | St. Louis Blues | Gogo Germaine | |
| 1959 | Anna Lucasta | Anna Lucasta | |
| 1961 | Saint of Devil's Island | Annette | |
| 1965 | Uncle Tom's Cabin | Singer (uncredited) | |
| Synanon | Betty | ||
| 1971 | Up the Chastity Belt | Scheherazade | |
| 1975 | Friday Foster | Madame Rena | |
| 1979 | Butterflies in Heat | Lola | |
| 1985 | The Serpent Warriors | Snake Priestess | |
| 1987 | Master of Dragonard Hill | Naomi | |
| Dragonard | Naomi | ||
| The Pink Chiquitas | Betty/The Meteor (voice) | ||
| 1989 | Erik the Viking | Freya | |
| 1990 | Living Doll | Mrs. Swartz | |
| 1991 | Ernest Scared Stupid | Old Lady Hackmore | |
| 1992 | Boomerang | Lady Eloise | |
| 1993 | Fatal Instinct | First Trial Judge | |
| 1996 | Harriet the Spy | Agatha K. Plummer | |
| 1997 | III Gotten Gains | The Wood (Voice) | |
| 1998 | I Woke Up Early The Day I Died | Cult Leader | |
| 2000 | The Emperor's New Groove | Yzma (voice) | * Won: Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production * Nominated: Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 2003 | Holes | Madame Zeroni | |
| 2005 | Preaching to the Choir | Ms. Nettie | |
| 2007 | And Then Came Love | Mona | Last motion picture appearance. |
Direct-to-video releases
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (video) | Bagheera the Panther (voice) | |
| 2005 | Kronk's New Groove (video) | Yzma (voice) |
Documentary
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | All by Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story (Documentary) | Herself | |
| 1995 | Unzipped (Documentary) | Herself | |
| 2002 | The Making and Meaning of We Are Family (Documentary) | Herself | |
| The Sweatbox (Documentary) | Herself |
Television (TV movie, TV series, TV special)
| Year | Title | Episode | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | I Spy | The Loser | Angel | Nominated: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series |
| 1967 | Mission: Impossible | The Traitor | Tina Maria | |
| 1968 | Batman | * The Joke's on Catwoman * The Funny Feline Felonies * The Ogg Couple * Catwoman's Dressed to Kill * The Bloody Tower |
Catwoman | |
| 1972 | Lieutenant Schuster's Wife (Tv movie) | Lady | ||
| 1974 | The Protectors | A Pocketful of Posies | Carrie Blaine | |
| 1978 | Police Woman | Tigress | Amelia | |
| To Kill a Cop (TV movie) | Paula | |||
| 1983 | A Night on the Town (TV movie) | |||
| 1985 | Miami Vice | Whatever Works | Priestess Chata | |
| 1993 | Jack's Place | The Seventh Meal | Isabel Lang | |
| Matrix | Moths to a Flame | Sister Rowena | ||
| 1995 | The Magic School Bus | Going Batty | Mrs. Franklin | |
| New York Undercover | Student Affairs | Mrs. Stubbs | ||
| Living Single | He Works Hard for the Money | Jacqueline Richards | Nominated: Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | |
| 1998 | The Wild Thornberrys | Flood Warning | Lioness #1 | |
| 1999 | The Famous Jett Jackson | Field of Dweebs | Albertine Whethers | |
| 2000 | Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child | The Snow Queen | The Snow Queen | |
| Welcome to New York | * The Car * Jim Gets a Car |
June | ||
| 2001 | The Feast of All Saints (TV movie) | Lola Dede | ||
| Santa, Baby! (TV movie) | Emerald (voice) | |||
| 2005 | Escape from Cluster Prime (TV movie) | Vexus (voice) | ||
| My Life as a Teenage Robot | * Escape from Cluster Prime * Hostile Makeover/Grid Iron Glory |
Queen Vexus (voice) | ||
| 2007 | American Dad | Dope and Faith | Fortune Teller | |
| The Emperor's New School | Yzma (voice) | Won: * Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production * Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program * Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production * Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program. | ||
| 2009 | The Wonder Pets | Save the Cool Cat and the Hip Hippo/Tuck and Buck | Cool Cat (voice) | Won: Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program |
Stage work
| Year | Title | Location | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | Blue Holiday | Broadway | Performer | |
| Carib Song | Broadway | Company | Original Broadway Production | |
| 1946 | Bal Negre | Broadway, and Europe | Performer | Concert |
| 1950 | Tim Runs | Paris | Performer | |
| 1951 | Dr. Faustus | Paris | Performer | |
| 1952 | New Faces of 1952 | Broadway | * Polynesian Girl * Featured Dancer * Featured Singer |
|
| 1954 | Mrs. Patterson | Broadway | Theodora (Teddy) Hicks | Original Broadway Production |
| 1957 | Shinbone Alley | Broadway | Mehitabel | Original Broadway Production |
| 1959 | Jolly's Progress | Broadway | Jolly Rivers | |
| 1965 | The Owl and the Pussycat | U.S. National Tour | Performer | |
| 1967 | Peg | Regional (US) | ||
| 1970 | The High Bid | London | Performer | |
| 1972 | Bunny | London | Performer | |
| 1974 | Bread and Beans and Things | Aquarius Theater[26] | Performer | |
| 1976 | A Musical Jubilee | U.S. National Tour | Performer | |
| 1978 | Timbuktu! | Broadway | Shaleem-La-Lume | Nominated: Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical |
| 1980 | Cowboy and the Legend | Regional (US) | Performer | |
| 1982 | New Faces of 1952 (Revival) | Off-Off-Broadway | * Polynesian Girl * Featured Dancer * Featured Singer |
|
| 1985 | Blues in the Night | U.S. National Tour | Performer | |
| 1987 | Follies (London Revival) | London | Carlotta Campion | Replacement for Dolores Gray |
| 1989 | Aladdin | Palace Theatre, Manchester | Performer | |
| 1989 | Eartha Kitt in Concert | London | Performer | |
| 1994 | Yes | Edinburgh | Performer | |
| 1995 | Sam's Song | Unitarian Church of All Souls | Performer | Benefit concert |
| 1996 | Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill | Chicago | Performer | |
| 1998 | The Wizard of Oz (Return Engagement) [off-Broadway] | U.S. National Tour | Performer | |
| 2000 | The Wild Party | Broadway | Delores | Original Broadway Production * Nominated: Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical * Nominated: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical |
| Cinderella | Madison Square Garden, and U.S. National Tour | Fairy Godmother | ||
| 2003 | Nine | Broadway | Dolores | Replacement for Chita Rivera |
| 2004 | Cinderella (New York City Opera Revival) | David H. Koch Theater | Fairy Godmother | |
| 2006 | Mimi le Duck | Off-Off-Broadway | Madame Vallet | |
| 2007 | All About Us | Westport Country Playhouse | Performer |
References
- ^ a b c d e "Eartha Kitt - Biography". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
- ^ a b "Singer-actress Eartha Kitt dies at 81". MSNBC. December 26, 2008.
- ^ Messer, Kate X. (July 21, 2006). "Just An Old Fashioned Cat". The Austin Chronicle.
- ^ a b c Bone, James (April 11, 2008). "Legendary seductress Eartha Kitt — The Original Pussycat Doll". The Times. London. (subscription required)
- ^ "Eartha Kitt, Chanteuse, Cherokee, and a seducer of audiences, Walked On at 81". Indian Country News. February 26, 2009.
- ^ Weil, Martin (December 26, 2008). "Bewitching Entertainer Eartha Kitt, 81". The Washington Post. p. B05.
- ^ Hall, Phil (January 4, 2001). "New Faces". Film Threat.
- ^ Wayne, George (June 2001). "Back to Eartha". Vanity Fair. p. 160.
- ^ "Eartha Kitt". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
- ^ Amorosi, A.D. (February 27, 1997). "Eartha Kitt". Philadelphia City Paper.
- ^ James, Frank (December 26, 2008). "Eartha Kitt versus the LBJs". The Swamp. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009.
- ^ Hoerburger, Rob (December 25, 2008). "Eartha Kitt, a Seducer of Audiences, Dies at 81". The New York Times.
- ^ "Where Is My Man". Chart Stats. Archived from the original on December 2, 2008.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco 1974–2003. Record Research Inc.
- ^ "Eartha Kitt to Be Married". The New York Times. May 12, 1960. p. 40. (subscription required)
- ^ "Kitt McDonald is Wed to Charles L. Shapiro". The New York Times. June 14, 1987.
- ^ Johnson, Robert E. (June 14, 1973). "Eartha Kitt Observes Seventh Year With Black Ghetto School". Jet 44: 56.
- ^ Hearings, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. 558 (1967). pp. 559-60.
- ^ Kitt, Eartha (1976). Alone With Me. H. Regnery Co. p. 239. ISBN 9780809283514.
- ^ Blackwell, Joyce (2004). No Peace Without Freedom: Race and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809325641.
- ^ Hersh, Seymour (January 3, 1975). "C.I.A. in '68 Gave Secret Service Report Containing Gossip About Eartha Kitt After White House Incident". The New York Times. p. 28, col. 1.
- ^ "Eartha Kitt, actress and gay rights ally, dies at age 81". PageOneQ. December 28, 2008.
- ^ "Eartha Kitt sings Swedish and talks about her gay-fans". YouTube. Retrieved May 14, 2013.
- ^ Wilson, Christopher (December 26, 2008). "Seductive singer Eartha Kitt dies at 81". Reuters.
- ^ "Eartha Kitt tickets competition". The Telegraph. January 24, 2008.
- ^ Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and Los Angeles Times. June 8, 1974.
External links
- Official website
- Eartha Kitt at the Internet Broadway Database
- Please use a more specific IOBDB template. See the template documentation for available templates.
- Eartha Kitt at IMDb
- Eartha Kitt at TV Guide
Video/audio footage
- "An Evening with Eartha Kitt". Say Brother. WGBH-TV. September 14, 1979.
- "Singer And Actress Eartha Kitt Dies". All Things Considered. NPR. December 25, 2008.
- "Eartha Kitt on Piano Jazz". Piano Jazz. NPR. May 1, 2009 (recorded February 12, 1993).
- "Eartha Kitt". National Visionary Leadership Project.
Further reading
- Walsh, David (December 27, 2008). "Harold Pinter and Eartha Kitt, artists and opponents of imperialist war". World Socialist Web Site.
- Gent, Helen (May 4, 2009). "Eartha Kitt: The Feline Femme Fatale". Marie Claire (Australia).
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1927 births
- 2008 deaths
- Actresses from South Carolina
- African-American film actresses
- African-American singers
- African-American female singers
- American anti–Vietnam War activists
- American female singers
- African-American stage actresses
- African-American musical theatre actresses
- American people of Cherokee descent
- American people of German descent
- African-American television actresses
- African-American voice actresses
- Annie Award winners
- Cabaret singers
- Cancer deaths in Connecticut
- Deaths from colorectal cancer
- LGBT rights activists from the United States
- Musicians from South Carolina
- People from North, South Carolina
- RCA Victor artists
- Vocal jazz musicians
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses