Eartha Kitt

USA, 1943–2008

Singer and actress born in North, South Carolina, in 1927. She toured with Katherine Dunham's dance company, stayed in Paris as a nightclub singer, played Helen of Troy for Orson Welles, and after New Faces of 1952 recorded 'C'est si bon', 'I Want to Be Evil' and 'Santa Baby' in a purring cabaret style. She was Catwoman on television's Batman; her 1968 anti-war remarks at the White House kept her out of American work for a decade.