Santa Baby Star Eartha Kitt Dies Aged 81

American singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died in New York at the age of 81.

The singer, who played Catwoman in the 1960s' television series Batman, had been suffering from colon cancer.

As well as receiving Tony, Emmy and Grammy nominations for her singing, Kitt also dominated the cabaret scene in Manhattan during a career which lasted six decades.

Kitt’s glittering music library included the songs ‘I Want To Be Evil’, ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ and the festive classic ‘Santa Baby’.

Controversial Career

She was blacklisted in America in the late 1960s after she spoke out against the Vietnam War at a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

Addressing a crowd of 50 women, she said: "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed.

“They rebel in the street. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."

After provoking further controversy during a South African tour, Kitt returned to the Broadway stage in 1978 to perform in a production of Timbuktu!.

Born to be a star

Kitt was born to a black mother and white father in the town of North, South Carolina, in 1927.

At the age of eight she was sent to New York to be raised by her aunt.

Her break in showbiz came in 1946 when she met the pioneering African-American dancer Dunham, who gave her a role in his Broadway production, Bal Negre.

Kitt had recently been treated at the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

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