Eartha Kitt Biography

Fast Facts

• Earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 located at 6656 Hollywood Boulevard
• Earned numerous Annie Awards for her voiceover work as the character Yzma on "The Emperor's New Groove" and "The Emperor's New School"
• Established the Kittsville Youth Foundation in 1966, a non-profit aimed at educating underprivileged Los Angeles-area children
• Born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, her mother was of Cherokee and African-American descent, while her father was German
• Passed away at age 81 on Christmas Day 2008 after a short battle with colon cancer
• Quote: "I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody․ After all, it's the general public that made -- not any one particular group․ So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have․"
• Quote: "I have a great need for affection from an audience․"
• Suffered a minor career setback after voicing her anti-war concerns while visiting the White House in 1968 as a guest of Lady Bird Johnson, a scandal that would ultimately drive her to permanently move to Europe immediately after the fact
• Given her first starring stage role by director Orson Welles in his production of Dr․ Faustus in 1950
• After more than a decade in Europe, she would return to the United States to perform on Broadway in the 1978 production of Timbuktu!
• Began her professional singing career at 16-years-old as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company in 1943, a New York City-based group that she would remain with for five years
• Focused solely on television, film and voiceover roles by the 1990s and 2000s, a career move that would eventually earn her numerous Annie and Emmy nominations
• A frequent performer overseas, she became fluent in French after many trips abroad during the height of her career