<Li> Sammy Davis Jr . </Li> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> earthakitt.com </Td> </Tr> <P> Eartha Kitt (January 17, 1927--December 25, 2008) was an American singer, actress, dancer, activist and comedian, known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby", which were both US Top 10 hits . Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world". Kitt began her career in 1942 and appeared in the 1945 original Broadway theatre production of the musical Carib Song . In the early 1950s, she had six US Top 30 hits, including "Uska Dara" and "I Want to be Evil". Her other notable recordings include the UK Top 10 hit "Under the Bridges of Paris" (1954), "Just an Old Fashioned Girl" (1956) and "Where Is My Man" (1983). She starred in 1967 as Catwoman, in the third and final season of the television series Batman . In 1968, her career in America suffered after she made anti-war statements at a White House luncheon . Ten years later, she made a successful return to Broadway in the 1978 original production of the musical Timbuktu!, for which she received the first of her two Tony Award nominations . Her second was for the 2000 original production of the musical The Wild Party . Kitt wrote three autobiographies--Thursday's Child (1956), Alone with Me (1976) and I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten (1989). She also played Lady Eloise in the 1992 film Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy . Kitt found a new generation of fans through her roles in the Disney films The Emperor's New Groove (2000), in which she voiced the villainous Yzma, and Holes (2003). She reprised the role as Yzma in the direct - to - video sequel Kronk's New Groove (2005), as well as the animated series The Emperor's New School (2006--2008). Her work on the latter earned her two Daytime Emmy Awards . She posthumously won a third Emmy in 2010 for her guest performance on Wonder Pets . </P> <P> Eartha Mae Keith was born on a cotton plantation near the small town of North in Orangeburg County, South Carolina on January 17, 1927 . Her mother Annie Mae Keith was of Cherokee and African descent . Though she had little knowledge of her father, it was reported that he was a son of the owner of the farm where she had been born, and that Kitt was conceived by rape . In an August 2013 biography, British journalist John Williams claimed that Kitt's father was a white man, a local doctor named Daniel Sturkie . However, Kitt's daughter Kitt Shapiro has questioned the accuracy of the claim . Eartha's mother Annie Mae Keith (later Annie Mae Riley) soon went to live with a black man who refused to accept Eartha because of her relatively pale complexion, and so she was raised by a relative named Aunt Rosa and was the victim of abuse . After the death of Annie Mae, Eartha was sent to live with another relative named Mamie Kitt (who may in fact have been her biological mother) in Harlem, New York City, where she attended the Metropolitan Vocational High School (later renamed the High School of Performing Arts). </P>

Who plays yzma from emperor's new groove