TV's Sexiest Cat Woman, Eartha Kitt, Dies at 81

Televisions' purriest, snarliest feline, Catwoman, embodied by the sultry Eartha Kitt on the 60's era Batman show, who'd recently been in the Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, died of colon cancer Thursday, a family spokesman announced. She was 81.

Perhaps best known for her inimitable purr, Kitt, a self-proclaimed "sex kitten," is also a
triple threat of a performer. throughout her career Kitt earned two Emmy's and nabbed a third Emmy nod while also landing noms for several Tonys and two Grammys, according to APN news.

Kitt' six-decade career included her start as a dancer and subsequently her work on movies and television.

Once dubbed the "most exciting woman in the world" by Orson Welles, Kitt spent much of her life single, occasionally taking on the brief romances.

A few of Kitt's hits include "I want to be Evil" "C'est si bon," "Smoke Gets in your Eyes" and "Santa Baby."

Kitt was plainspoken about causes she believed in. Her anti-war comments at the White House came as she attended a White House luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson.

"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed," she told the group of about 50 women. "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," she said.

For the next four years Kitt performed almost exclusively oversea while She was investigated by the FBI and CIA, which allegedly found her to be foul-mouthed and promiscuous.

"The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth - in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth - you get your face slapped and you get put out of work," Kitt told Essence magazine two decades later.