|
Eartha Mae Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American actress, singer, cabaret star, dancer, stand-up comedian, activist and voice artist, known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby", which were both US Top 10 hits. She starred in 1967 as Catwoman, in the third and final season of the television series ''Batman''. Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world". Kitt began her career in 1943 and appeared in the 1945 original Broadway production of the musical ''Carib Song''. In the early 1950s, she had six US Top 30 hits, including "Uska Dara" and "I Want to be Evil". Her other notable recordings include the UK Top 10 hit "Under the Bridges of Paris" (1954), "Just an Old Fashioned Girl" (1956) and "Where Is My Man" (1983). In 1968, her career in America suffered after she made anti-war statements at a White House luncheon. Ten years later, she made a successful return to Broadway in the 1978 original production of the musical ''Timbuktu!'', for which she received the first of her two Tony Award nominations. Her second was for the 2000 original production of the musical ''The Wild Party''. For her voice role as Yzma in the animated series ''The Emperor's New School'' (2006–08), she won two Emmy Awards. She won a third Emmy posthumously in 2010 for ''The Wonder Pets''. ==Early life== Kitt was born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation near the small town of North, in Orangeburg County South Carolina on January 17, 1927.〔 Kitt's mother was of Cherokee and African descent. Though it remains unconfirmed, it has been widely reported that her father was of German descent.〔 〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Eartha Kitt, Chanteuse, Cherokee, and a seducer of audiences, Walked On at 81 )〕 Kitt was raised by Anna Mae Riley, a black woman whom she believed to be her mother. When she was eight, Anna Mae went to live with a black man, but he refused to accept Kitt because of her relatively pale complexion,〔 so the girl lived with another family until Riley's death. She was then sent to live in New York City with Mamie Kitt. She had no knowledge of her father, except that his surname was Kitt and that he was supposedly a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born.〔 Newspaper obituaries state that her white father was "a poor cotton farmer". In an August 2013 biography, British journalist John Williams claimed that Kitt's father was a white man, a local doctor named Daniel Sturkie. However, Kitt's daughter Kitt Shapiro has questioned the accuracy of the claim.〔Adam Luck, ("Eartha Kitt's life was scarred by failure to learn the identity of her white father, says daughter" ), ''The Observer'', October 19, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eartha Kitt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|