Eartha Kitt
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
For years, Kitt was unaware of her actual date of birth due to her adoption, so she chose her own birthday, January 26. In 1997, fans tracked down her birth certificate which indicated she was born January 17, 1927.
"I wasn't black enough to be black or white enough to be white, so I had no race, creed or color. I made my own race--me." --Eartha Kitt quoted in New York Press August 7, 1991.
Biography
Eartha Kitt was a glamor figure of Hollywood's golden age, with a career that extended into the 2000s. She was born on a South Carolina cotton plantation and was apparently a mixed-race child; it was rumored that her father was the son of the plantation's owner and had conceived her by rape. She entered the Katherine Dunham Company of singer/dancers in her late teens, her elegant beauty standing out from the start. She became an accomplished cabaret singer and scored her first hit with the Cole Porter song, "Let's Do It." She was discovered in 1950 by Orson Welles who cast her as Helen of Troy in his staging of Doctor Faustus; this began a long string of film, television and nightclub work. The 1954 film "New Faces" was her first screen success, and spawned a vinyl EP that included her two signature songs: "C'est Si Bon" (the first U.S. hit version of the French pop standard) and "Santa Baby," the playfully vampish Christmas song that remained a seasonal fixture decades later. Her fame grew in the '60s with a recurring roles in "Batman" (ABC 1966-68) (where she took over the Catwoman role from Julie Newmar) and guest-starring roles in other popular series and her own TV variety special in 1967. However she stirred controversy in 1968 for speaking out against the Vietnam War when invited to a White House lunch by President Lyndon Johnson. She was investigated by the CIA and effectively blackballed from U.S. film and TV work for years afterward, though she had success in London's West End where she starred both in the musical Follies and a later one-women show. In 1976 she made a triumphant Broadway return in the musical Timbuktu!, which earned her a Tony nomination. Her next comeback came in the disco era, when she had a hit with "Where Is My Man" and a Bronski Beat collaboration, "Cha-Cha Heels," both of which led to her being embraced as an icon by the gay community. She later became an advocate for LGBT rights and a regular at fundraisers. She continued to tread the boards in the next two decades, returning to London for a Follies revival in the late '80s and touring America as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz during the '90s while also making annual cabaret appearances in New York. A performer to the end, she returned to the UK for the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in 2008, releasing a DVD of the performance. She died on colon cancer on Christmas of that year, in her Connecticut home.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Special Thanks (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1943
Joined the Katherine Dunham Company
1945
Made Broadway debut in "Blue Holiday"
1946
Toured Europe in "Bal Negre" with the Katherine Dunham Troupe
1951
Appeared as Helen of Troy opposite Orson Welles in "Orson Welles' Faust"
1952
Gained notice for her work in the Broadway revue, "New Faces of 1952"
1954
Made film debut performing songs in the plotless musical comedy revue, "New Faces of 1952"
1955
Earliest TV appearances include a guest spot on the NBC variety special, "Show Biz"
1957
Film acting debut, "Mark of the Hawk"; also sang the song, "This Man Is Mine"
1958
First top-billed acting role in a feature, "Anna Lucasta"
1965
Returned to features to play a role in "Synanon"
1968
Played role of Catwoman in the ABC series "Batman"
1969
Starred in the syndicated one-woman concert, "The Eartha Kitt Show"
1972
TV-movie debut, "Lieutenant Schuster's Wife"
1975
Returned again to features to play a role in "Friday Foster"
1978
First role in a miniseries, "To Kill a Cop" (NBC)
1978
Returned to Broadway after two decades in "Timbuktu," a revised, all-black version of the musical, "Kismet"
1981
Was the subject of the documentary film, "All by Myself"
1985
Toured in the musical, "Blues in the Night," in the role of "Woman of the World"
1986
Began acting more regularly in features with her role in "The Serpent Warriors"
1988
Appeared on the London stage as Carlotta Campion in the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical "Follies"
1992
Had a supporting role as Lady Eloise in the hit film "Boomerang" starring Eddie Murphy
1993
Acted in the USA Network's action fantasy series, "Matrix"
1994
Released first album in several decades, <i>Back in Business</i>
1995
Appeared in the Isaac Mizrahi documentary "Unzipped"
2000
Provided the voice for the villainess Yzma in the Disney animated comedy "The Emperor's New Groove"
2000
Returned to Broadway as co-star of the musical "The Wild Party"; received Tony nomination
2001
Toured in a stage production of "Cinderella"
2003
Replaced Chita Rivera as Liliane in "Nine" at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre
2003
Voiced Queen Vexus on the animated TV series "My Life as a Teenage Robot" (Nicktoons Network)
2006
Co-starred in the Off-Broadway musical "Mimi le Duck"
2007
Appeared in the independent film "And Then Came Love" opposite Vanessa L. Williams
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
For years, Kitt was unaware of her actual date of birth due to her adoption, so she chose her own birthday, January 26. In 1997, fans tracked down her birth certificate which indicated she was born January 17, 1927.
"I wasn't black enough to be black or white enough to be white, so I had no race, creed or color. I made my own race--me." --Eartha Kitt quoted in New York Press August 7, 1991.
"How can you understand what I've been through? . . . I have no mother. I have been the victim of racism. Every time I perform I have to deal with the terror of the tremendous pain of rejection. And then my career was so successful and then I nearly lost it all." --Eartha Kitt quoted in The Daily Telegraph, June 26, 2000.
"If the audience had never loved me, I would never have become Eartha Kitt." --from The Daily Telegraph, June 26, 2000.
She was given the Golden Rose of Montreux for "Kaskade" (1962).
Kitt was named Woman of the Year by the National Association of Negro Musicians in 1968.
