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17 January 1927 – 25 December 2008

Eartha Mae Kitt died at her Weston Connecticut home at the age of 81 from colon cancer. She is survived by her daughter Kitt Shapiro and four grandchildren.

Eartha Mae (born Eartha Mae Keith) was an international star who gave new meaning to the word versatile. She distinguished herself in film, theatre, cabaret, music and on television. Kitt is one of only a handful of performers to be nominated for a Tony (three times), the Grammy (twice), and Emmy Award (twice).

Kitt’s distinctive voice has enthralled an entirely new generation of fans with her superb ‘sublime characterisation’ of Lady Eloise in Eddie Murphy’s Boomerang (1992) and as YZMA, the villain, in Disney’s animated feature The Emperor’s New Groove, (2001 Annie Award for Best Vocal Performance / Animated Feature). Kitt was also featured in the sequel, The Emperor’s New Groove II and reprised the role in the popular Saturday morning animated series The Emperor’s New School for which she received a 2007 and 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program and a 2007 and 2008 Annie Award for Best Vocal Performance in an Animated Television Production.

Eartha Mae Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith) was ostracised at an early age because of her mixed-race heritage. At eight years old, she was given away by her mother and sent from the South Carolina cotton fields to live with an aunt in Harlem. In New York her distinct individuality and flair for show business manifested itself, and on a friend’s dare, the shy teen auditioned for the famed Katharine Dunham Dance Troupe. She won a spot as a featured dancer and vocalist and before the age of twenty, toured worldwide with the company. During a performance in Paris, Kitt was spotted by a nightclub owner and booked as a featured singer at his club. Her unique persona earned her fans and fame quickly, including Orson Welles, who called her “the most exciting woman in the world”. Welles was so taken with her talent that he cast her as Helen of Troy in his fabled production of Dr. Faust.

Back in New York, Kitt was booked at The Village Vanguard, and soon spotted by a Broadway producer who put her in New Faces Of 1952 where every night she transfixed audiences with her sultry rendition of Monotonous. Her show stopping performance in New Faces, which ran for a year, led to a national tour and a Twentieth Century Fox film version.

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, which earned her a Grammy nomination. During this period, she published her first autobiography, Thursday’s Child. Kitt then returned to Broadway in the dramatic play Mrs. Patterson, and received her first Tony nomination. Other stage appearances followed, as did films including The Mark The Hawk with Sidney Poitier, Anna Lucusta with Sammy Davis, Jr. and St Louis Blues with Nat King Cole.

In 1967, Kitt made an indelible mark on pop culture as the infamous Catwoman in the television series, Batman. She immediately became synonymous with the role and her trademark growl became imitated worldwide.

Singing in ten different languages, Kitt has performed in over 100 countries and was honoured with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. In 1966, she was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the series, I Spy.

In 1968, Miss Kitt’s career took a sudden turn when, at a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, she spoke out against the Vietnam War. For years afterward, Kitt was blacklisted in the U.S. and was forced to work abroad where her status remained undiminished.

In December 2006 she returned to Washington and lit the National Christmas Tree alongside President and Mrs. George W. Bush. In 1974, Kitt returned to the United States, with a triumphant Carnegie Hall concert and, in 1978, received a second Tony nomination for her starring role in the musical, Timbuktu. Kitt’s second autobiography, Alone With Me, was published in 1976 and I’m Still Here: Confessions Of A Sex Kitten was released in 1989. Her best-selling book on fitness and positive attitude, Rejuvenate! (It’s Never To Late), was released by Scribner in May 2001.

Live theatre was Kitt’s passion. In 2001, Broadway critics singled her out with a Tony and Drama Desk nomination for her role as Dolores in George Wolfe’s The Wild Party. Over the last few years, she starred in National Tours of The Wizard Of Oz and Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. In December 2003, Kitt dazzled Broadway audiences as Liliane Le Fleur in the revival of Nine, The Musical. In December 2004, she appeared as The Fairy Godmother in The New York City Opera production (Lincoln Center) of Cinderella. She also starred in the off-Broadway production of Mimi The Duck (2006) and The Westport County Playhouse production of The Skin Of Our Teeth (2007).

Kitt remained devoted to performing in front of live audiences, from intimate cabarets to concert halls with local symphonies including appearances with The Atlanta Symphony, The Portland Symphony, Detroit’s Music Hall, D.C.’s Blues Alley, Seattle’s Jazz Alley, Palm Beach’s Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, The Mohegan Sun, Sarasota’s Van Wetzel Center for the Performing Arts Festival.

Kitt was especially proud to have brought her one-woman show to the 51st Annual JVC Newport Jazz Festival and the Miami Beach JVC Jazz Festival.

In February 2007, Kitt returned to London after a 15 year absence for a remarkable series of sold-out performances at The Shaw Theatre. She returned to Great Britain in 2008 to critical raves at London’s Place Pigalle and to headline the prestigious Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

On January 17 2007, Kitt turned eighty years old and marked the occasion at Carnegie Hall with a celebratory concert, JVC Jazz presents Eartha Kitt And Friends.

Kitt was a vocal advocate for gay rights. She publicly supported same-sex marriage, which she believed to be a civil right. Kitt has been quoted to say;

“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?”