Eartha Kitt Dies Aged 81

Eartha Mae Kitt was born illegitimately in 1927 on a cotton plantation in South Carolina. Her mother, aged 14, half black and half Cherokee Indian, had been raped by Kitt's white father, the son of the plantation owner, and she took her surname from the plantation. She had a harsh upbringing and as a child she picked cotton and fought with the animals in the backyard for scraps of food.

In her teens, Ms Kitt won a place at the Katherine Dunham dancing school and made her film debut in Casbah (1948). After touring the Continent, she stayed in Paris as a cabaret singer. Orson Welles discovered her in 1951 and cast her as Helen of Troy in Doctor Faustus. Welles became her lover and called her "the most exciting woman in the world."

Eartha returned to New York, where she found roles in films, including a black version of Philip Yordan's play Anna Lucasta (1959), and television, including her unforgettable role as Catwoman in Batman. Her first album, RCA Victor Presents Eartha Kitt, appeared in 1954 and featured such songs as I Want to Be Evil, C'est Si Bon and Santa Baby. She followed it up with That Bad Eartha, a collection of even more sensual classics including Let's Do It, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and My Heart Belongs to Daddy.

After making controversial statements against the war in Vietnam during a luncheon with President Lyndon Johnson, Eartha found herself barred by the television networks and branded "a sadistic nymphomaniac" by the CIA. Unable to continue working in the US, Ms Kitt moved to Europe. In Britain she made a series for ITV and appeared in the Frankie Howerd comedy Up the Chastity Belt (1971).

Eartha was finally forgiven by the US Establishment when President Jimmy Carter invited her to the White House in 1976, and two years later she returned to the Broadway stage in a version of the musical Kismet with an all-black cast. In 1984 Eartha received her first gold record with a disco song, Where is My Man.

She returned to Britain for a tour in 1992 and the following year she had a cult success at the Edinburgh Festival fringe playing Molly Bloom in the erotic monologue taken from James Joyce's Ulysses. Ms Kitt made a final brief appearance in England not long before her death, playing several sell-out-shows at the Pigalle Club, where she proved that she was still "that bad Eartha", wowing audiences aged from eighteen to eighty with her sultry voice and spectacularly flirtatious stage manner, even at the sprightly age of 81.

Eartha Kitt

17th January 1927- 25th December 2008