Eartha Kitt: The Times obituary

Eartha Kitt, the sultry American singer and actress who died on Christmas Day aged 81, had a career spanning six decades and mesmerised audiences with her mellifluous voice and sensuality on both stage and screen.

But her beginnings on a cotton plantation in South Carolina were far more humble.

Her parentage is still uncertain, but her mother, she told The Times in April, was “taken advantage of” by the son of a white plantation owner in South Carolina. Miss Kitt was raised in poverty by a woman named Anna Mae, whom for much of her life she believed to be her mother.

Dame Shirley Bassey was among those who paid tribute to the star, who died in New York where she was being treated for colon cancer at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

“Eartha Kitt was one of the guiding influences on cabaret art in the 20th century. She had an influence that will last far beyond her 81 years,” Dame Shirley said. “My condolences and deep, deep thoughts go to all of her family and friends at this tragic time,” she added.

Kitt, whose hits included Santa Baby and Let’s Do It, was best known for her portrayal of Catwoman in the 1960s.

A self-described “sex kitten,” her trademark feline purr and uncanny persona won her millions of fans, among them Hollywood’s Orson Welles, who became one of her lovers and called her “the most exciting woman in the world."

Her outspokenness was a hallmark of her career but also led to a self-imposed exile in Europe in the 1960s and 70s after she made a stinging critique of the war in Vietnam which got her blacklisted by the White House and investigated by the FBI and CIA.

She was one of the few artists nominated for Tony, Grammy and Emmy awards and scooped two Emmy television awards.

“She was certainly a legendary performer and while I think there may have been many imitations, she was an original,” Andrew Freedman, her agent, said.

She had an overtly sexy act and even as an octogenarian took the stage in dresses with thigh-high slits. Her agent said she still had gigs booked in for 2009 despite her ill health.

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