Colon cancer, at the age of 81.
From Santa Baby to Catwoman, quite a performer.
My kids also loved her as Yzma in The Emperor’s New Groove. A very versatile lady who seemed to have a good sense of humor.
Aw, man. She was one of the greats, with the sexiest voice ever. What a loss.
The only Catwoman worth a damn is gone. 
I’ve read that Orson Welles considered her the greatest love of his life save perhaps for Rita Hayworth, and that she had a major flame for him as well. They met when he cast her out of hundreds of unknown actresses as Helen of Troy in a production of Faustus he directed and starred in. It’s an odd twosome- she was so tiny and he was so not- but I can see the sensuality of both, especially in their prime.
Somewhere Ladybird Johnson is incensed over her Christmas Party being crashed.
Beautiful lady. May she rest in peace.
Q
Heartbreaking. I was just reading some interviews of hers and looking at photos earlier today! Here’s a photo of her and her then-husband Bill McDonald holding their infant daughter Kitty, in 1961. Eartha looks so happy.
Aw, she was wonderful. She had a helluva life!
I had to laugh at this part of the OP’s link:
Ooooh, scary lady!
My first thought was “Kitty Kitt” Really? Cool!" but then I realized she would be Kitty McDonald.
“Santa Baby…”
And here’s the little tyke, all growed up:
When “The Emperor’s New School” was created, I thought the guy they got as Kuzco did a pretty passable David Spade impression.
I cannot imagine they could ever do that for Eartha Kitt in a million years.
Kitt now goes by her ex-husband’s name, Shapiro (she had two children with him). She’s married to a Rothschild now, but I don’t know if he’s one of THE Rothschilds.
Eartha received two Daytime Emmys and three Annies for her work as Yzma (and Principal Amzy)- strangely, she didn’t get many other awards in her lifetime. Either way, an unforgettable voice no matter how she used it.
“Santa Baby” gets played a lot on radio over here this time of year. RIP.
I’m firmly convinced that her death was a hit. Cats were jealous of the fact that her purr could reduce any man to a puddle.
Here’s a pic of Eartha and Kitt…
Eartha was loved by the Gay community in the 80’s… She will be missed…
Rest in peace, Catwoman. =^…^=
Aw man. Another woman who reminded me of my late mom, gone – joining Suzanne Pleshette and Anne Bancroft.
She was one of a kind. I remember as a youngster seeing her in Timbuktu, an all-black revival of Kismet on Broadway. She played the Vizier’s wife, a seductive, supremely confident dame (in other words, a pretty typical Kitt role). I’ll never forget her entrance–borne aloft by a set of hunky, barely dressed courtiers, she rode silent, calm and supine amid tremendous pomp and tumbling acrobatics. Finally the procession stopped when her chair was set down and – in the sudden quiet–she stared into the audience, smiled like a well-sated cat, and murmured in That Voice:
“I’m here.”
Needless to say, the audience went wild.
I’d kinda like to think that if there’s a heaven, that’s precisely how she made her entrance.
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Not just in the 80s; she has always been one of our Divas, and always will be.
I didn’t realize that catwoman sang Santa Baby until I heard of her passing. Dang.