Eartha Kitt and Orson Welles in Time Runs.
Eartha Kitt’s daughter, Kitt McDonald Shapiro, reflected on her famous mother’s legacy more than nine years after her passing with Closer Weekly.
Kitt, who had a hit with Santa Baby, died on Christmas Day 2008 from colon cancer at the age of 81.
In a loving essay, Sharpiro wrote, “I still miss my mother talking to me. I still miss hearing her laughter. And I still miss her voice, but I carry it in my heart. As a young girl, Eartha never knew her father. Passed from home to home, she was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. She literally didn’t have anybody to lean on. Instead, she turned to nature, which is so fitting because Eartha was her given name and she truly was of the earth. As a child, Eartha would pick cotton in the fields and watch the animals and the plants, observing how nature took care of itself and how animals took care of each other. Those lessons would inform her parenting skills.”
She also wrote of her mother’s famous roles and famous friendships.
“She was close to Orson Welles, and she was like a sponge around him because she was so drawn to his intensity and his incredible knowledge of many different subjects,” Shapiro wrote. “People often thought they were lovers, but she said they never were. It was more of a mentorship.”
Kitt made her acting debut as Helen of Troy in Time Runs, an Orson Welles adaptation of Faust, in 1950. He once called Kitt “the most exciting woman on earth.”
Stars and Stripes wrote of her performance, Eartha Kitt, whose haunting rendition of Duke Ellington’s Hungry Little Trouble blends beautifully with the poetry of Faust, quite literally steals the show. The petite 22-year-old South Carolinian invariably draws applause by her singing of Yo Creo Yo Tengo un Amor (I Think I Have a Love), a song she wrote herself. Her brief recital between the dramatic portions of the production is certainly worth the price of admission.”
Kitt said of Welles, “After rehearsing all night, Orson would walk me up the Champs-Elysée to my hotel with the sun coming up. We would look at the sights, window-shop, and he would recite Shakespeare to me.” Kitt, who had had an affair with the millionaire playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, recalled the “fabulous lunches” Welles would buy her. “Orson really introduced me to a marvelous gourmet type of living. Him and Rubirosa – I tell you, I was absolutely spoiled by the best kind of men.”
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