Kitt's mother was
Black Indian with
Cherokee ancestry, and her father was
European-American. She was born (
out of wedlock, as would have to be the case given the laws regarding
miscegenation at the time) in tiny
North, South Carolina, but jokes about the fact that many audiences assume her to be from somewhere more exotic. Her hits include "
Let's Do It", "
C'est si bon", "
Just an Old Fashioned Girl", "Monotonous", "
Love for Sale", "I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch", "Uska Dara", "Mink, Schmink", "
Under the Bridges of Paris", and her most recognizable hit, "
Santa Baby." Kitt's unique style was enhanced as she became fluent in
French during her years performing in Europe. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrates with finesse in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
Kitt got her start as a member of the
Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in
Casbah (1948). In 1950,
Orson Welles gave her 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", "C'est si bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs with which she continues to be identified. In 1954,
20th Century-Fox filmed a version of the revue simply titled
New Faces. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in
Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world". In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite
Sidney Poitier in
The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s, television series
Batman, she played
Catwoman in succession to
Julie Newmar.
In 1964, Kitt helped open the
Circle Star Theater in
San Carlos, California.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a
White House luncheon. It was falsely reported that she made First Lady
Lady Bird Johnson cry uncontrollably when in fact, the First Lady replied very diplomatically. The public reaction to Kitt's statements were much more extreme, both for and against her statements. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances.
During that time cultural references to her grew, including outside the United States, such as the well-known
Monty Python sketch ("the cycling tour") where an amnesiac believes he is first
Clodagh Rogers, then
Trotsky and finally Eartha Kitt (while performing to an enthusiastic crowd in Moscow). 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.
In 1984, she returned to hit music with a disco song,
Where Is My Man (UK # 34); the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of
HIV/AIDS organizations. Her 1989 follow-up hit "Cha-Cha Heels" (featuring
Bronski Beat) received a positive response from UK dance clubs and reached #32 in the UK charts.
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. 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. Begininng in late 2000, she starred as the Fairy Godmother in the National tour of
Cinderella alongside
Deborah Gibson and then
Jamie-Lynn Sigler. In 2003, she replaced
Chita Rivera in
Nine. She reprised her role of the Fairy Godmother at a special engagement of
Cinderella which took place at
Madison Square Gardens 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 lent her distinctive voice to the role of
Yzma in
Disney's The Emperor's New Groove 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 a 2006
Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production. She is currently doing other voiceover work such as the voice of
Queen Vexus on the animated TV series
My Life as a Teenage Robot.
In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York have made her a fixture of the Manhattan
cabaret scene. She takes the stage at venues such as The Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as
Old Fashioned Millionaire), which emphasize a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performs with an unexpected ferocity and bite that present her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience — her version of
Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number, is a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is reflected in at least one of her recordings,
Thinking Jazz, which preserves a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in
Germany and which includes both standards (
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as
Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry
Yesterdays and a live take of
C'est Si Bon that good-humoredly satirizes her sex-kitten persona.
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 L. Williams, and is voicing the character of Fossa in the animated movie
Madagascar 2, due out in 2008.
She was married to Bill McDonald from 1960 to 1965 and had one child, a daughter, Kitt Shapiro. Eartha has two grandchildren, Jason and Rachel. She lived for many years in
Pound Ridge, NY, but recently moved to Connecticut to be near her daughter's family. In 2007 she performed at the Hotel Carlyle in New York.
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.
She was a great friend of the actor
James Dean and makes appearances in films about the late actor.
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