And now Eartha Kitt's purr has been silenced...

Hey folks, Harry here... I was at Christmas dinner with my family when during a lull in gorging, Yoko looks at her phone to be giddy with her new phone - and sees a FACEBOOK status message alerting folks that Eartha Kitt died. She shows me the screen and I announce, "Oh man, the coolest Catwoman is dead." And in unison, my dad, sister and her boyfriend proclaim... "Eartha Kitt died?" It would have been funny had it not been so true. From the beginning of her career she literally rocked the CASBAH, making her debut uncredited in that film dancing. Just yesterday I was listening to her "SANTA BABY" on XM's Holiday Traditional channel - and Yoko and I sat in the parking lot, stalling our shopping to enjoy her purrfect singing of that classy song. The earliest film of Ms Kitt's that I'm personally familiar with is ST LOUIS BLUES in 1958. Starring alongside Nat 'King' Cole, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald - as the fabulous Gogo Germaine. That was her biggest film mark - until she became the second television Cat Woman in the camp classic BATMAN with Adam West. Her Catwoman was feral and fun. I've never seen her DR FAUSTUS with Orson Welles, though I have always meant to, just haven't found a copy. Her biggest impression was through Broadway and her Singing career. Though she continued work on film and television in everything from the Blaxploitation fun FRIDAY FOSTER to an episode of MIAMI VICE. You may remember her in ERIK THE VIKING or perhaps the idiotically fun ERNEST SCARED STUPID. Her biggest modern role was the voice of YZMA in THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE - and as Madame Zeroni in HOLES. But for me, she'll always be THE COOLEST CATWOMAN EVER, in that part she was always purrfect! Our thoughts go out to her friends and family this Christmas.