Below is a compiled list of the most interesting facts about Eartha Kitt. Check it out!
An out-of-wedlock child, Eartha Kitt was born in the cotton fields of South Carolina. Kitt’s mother was a sharecropper of African-American and Cherokee Native American descent. Her father’s identity is unknown. Given away by her mother, she arrived in Harlem at age nine. At 15, she quit high school to work in a Brooklyn factory. As a teenager, Kitt lived in friends’ homes and in the subways. However, by the 1950s, she had sung and danced her way out of poverty and into the spotlight: performing with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe on a European tour, soloing at a Paris nightclub and becoming the toast of the Continent. Orson Welles called her “the most exciting girl in the world”. She also spoke out on hard issues. She took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of the television series Batman (1966), replacing Julie Newmar. Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer in her home in Weston, Connecticut, on Christmas Day 2008.
Interesting Facts about Eartha Kitt
- She died on the same date as actress Ann Savage.
- Friends with Freda Payne, and Dick Gregory.
- Was inspired to go into show business after witnessing the wild applause that the audience gave José Ferrer after one of his stage performances as Cyrano de Bergerac in 1946.
- Among her liaisons with wealthy men included Charles Revson, the Revlon cosmetics founder, and actor Orson Welles, who spotted her in a Paris nightclub and cast her in his Paris stage production of “Faust”.
- Holds two Daytime Emmy Award records. She is both the only performer to win the Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program award three times, as well as the only winner to win three consecutive awards.
- Daughter: Kitt McDonald. Grandchildren: Justin and Rachel Shapiro.
- Replaced Chita Rivera for a time in the Broadway revival of the musical “Nine”.
- She was a staunch liberal Democrat.
- Well-known for her recordings of “Santa Baby” in the 1950s and 1960s. She died on Christmas Day 2008 at her home in Weston, Connecticut.
- Her name can be seen on a marquee in the infamously terrible Edward D. Wood Jr. cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957).
- Kitt’s age was always a mystery, until 1998, when a group of students from her hometown in South Carolina unearthed her birth certificate. The document revealed that her true birthday is January 17, 1927.
- Was nominated in 1996 for a Grammy Award in traditional pop vocal performance for her album “Back in Business”.
Personal Quotes by Eartha Kitt
Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected.
Eartha Kitt
I’m an orphan. But the public has adopted me, and that has been my only family. The biggest family in the world is my fans.
Eartha Kitt
Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.
Eartha Kitt
I used to love it when I walked down the street and construction workers would whistle.
Eartha Kitt
Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.
Eartha Kitt
