Legendary Star Eartha Kitt Dies at 81

Eartha Kitt has died at 81 of colon cancer according to her longtime publicist, Andrew Freedman.

Kitt had an enduring international career that spans theatre, cabaret, television and the recording industry. She won the 2007 Emmy Award for her performance as the voice of Yzma in Disney's series The Emperor's New School; she had been nominated twice for a Grammy Award and three times for a Tony Award, one for the title role of Mrs. Patterson in 1955 (a part she later played at Westport Country Playhouse); Timbuktu! in 1978 and The Wild Party in 2000. In 2003, Kitt appeared as Liliane Le Fleur in the revival of Nine, The Musical.

Born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, Eartha Kitt was given away by her mother and sent to live with an aunt in Harlem at the age of eight. It was in New York that her distinct individuality and flair for show business manifested itself, when at the urging of a friend she auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe. She was awarded a position as a featured dancer and vocalist, and before she turned twenty, she had toured with them worldwide.

While performing with the Dunham Troupe in Paris, Ms. Kitt was spotted by a nightclub owner who signed her on as a cabaret singer. She gained fame and admirers quickly, including Orson Welles, who called her "the most exciting woman in the world" and signed her to play Helen of Troy in his acclaimed production of "Dr. Faust."

Upon her return to the United States, Ms. Kitt played a twenty-week run at the Blue Angel - a still unbroken record for cabaret artists &emdash; before moving on the Village Vanguard. There she was seen by Leonard Stillman, who included her in "New Faces of 1952." Her legendary performance in "Monotonous," in which she appeared for a year on Broadway, would lead to a national tour and Twentieth Century Fox film by the same name.

Broadway stardom led to a recording contract and a succession of best-selling records including "Love For Sale" and "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa," for which she received a Grammy nomination. She also published her first autobiography, Thursday's Child," during this period, and returned again to the cabaret scene with runs at The Persian Room, The Empire Room, and London's Talk of the Town, among others.

Ms. Kitt then made her return to Broadway in the dramatic play "Mrs. Patterson," for which she received a Tony nomination. Other stage appearances followed, as did film work that included "The Mark of the Hawk" with Sidney Poitier and "Anna Lucasta" with Sammy Davis, Jr. During this period she also became involved in the "Batman" television series in her infamous Catwoman role while continually finding time to make concert appearances. Singing in ten different languages, Ms. Kitt has sung in one hundred countries and was honored with a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame in 1960.

Ms. Kitt's career came to a sudden about face in 1968 when at a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson, Kitt spoke out against the Vietnam War. For many years afterward, she would be blacklisted by many in the U.S. entertainment industry and would be forced to work abroad where her status remained undiminished. In 1974 she returned to the United States in an acclaimed Carnegie Hall concert and in 1978 received her second Tony Award nomination.

Ms. Kitt's second autobiography, Alone With Me, was published in 1976, and the third volume, I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten, was released in 1989. In 1982 a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary on her life entitled "All By Myself" was produced by filmmaker Christian Blackwood.

Ms. Kitt's fans are getting younger all the time. As Stephen Holden of the New York Times recently wrote, "Eartha Kitt is finally being discovered by the generation that thought Madonna pioneered the image of the pop singer as a gold-digging femme fatale....Her avariciously slinky stage alter ego is as classic in its way as Mae West's shimmying blond bawd, and just as funny."

In recent years Eartha Kitt has been just as active as ever. In 1994 her performance at the Café Carlyle in New York had star-studded audiences and her album "Back in Business" was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1996. She has also made frequent guest appearances on television programs such as "The Nanny" and "New York Undercover," while her world famous voice can be heard on commercials and in New York City taxis advising riders to buckle up.