The American singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died. She was 81.
Miss Kitt, whose sultry voice and sensuality made her an international star, died of colon cancer. Her publicist, Andrew Freedman says she still had performances scheduled for 2009.
She was best known for songs such as "Old Fashioned Girl", "C'est Si Bon" and "Santa Baby", and for her role as Catwoman in the 1960s television series Batman.
Miss Kitt was famous for her trademark feline purr and sultry voice and was still performing in cabaret in her seventies and eighties, with a sensuousness and humour that were hallmarks of her professional life.
She was one of the few artists to be nominated in the Tony, Grammy and Emmy award categories and was a stalwart of the Manhattan cabaret scene.
Blacklisted in the United States in the late 1960s after speaking out against the Vietnam War at a White House function, Miss Kitt returned triumphantly to New York's Broadway in a 1974 production, Timbuktu! and continued to perform regularly in theatre shows and concert halls.
She rose to the top of the entertainment world from humble origins. Her mother worked on a cotton plantation and was just 14 when she gave birth. Miss Kitt was then given away at the age of eight and sent to live with an aunt in New York.
