Eartha Kitt was an American actress, singer, cabaret star, dancer, stand-up comedian, activist and voice artist. She’s known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of “C’est Si Bon” and the enduring Christmas novelty smash “Santa Baby.” In 1967, she starred as Catwoman in the third and final season of the television series Batman. Orson Welles once called her the “most exciting woman in the world.” Kitt began her career in 1943 and appeared in the 1945 original Broadway production of the musical Carib Song. In the early 1950s, she had six U.S. Top 30 hits, including “Uska Dara” and “I Want to be Evil.” In 1968, her career in America suffered after she made anti-war statements at an LBJ White House luncheon. Kitt was born on January 17, 1927 and died on December 25, 2008.
Brigitte Bardot is a French former actress, singer and fashion model. She was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s and was widely referred to by her initials. During her career in show business, she starred in 47 films, performed in several musical shows and recorded over 60 songs. Bardot started her acting career in 1952 and became world-famous in 1957 with the controversial film And God Created Woman. She later starred in the 1963 film Contempt by Jean-Luc Godard. French photographer Sam Lévin was instrumental in creating Bardot’s image, particularly with The Towel Session shoot in 1959. Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals and was the subject of a famous essay, Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome by Simone de Beauvoir. Bardot retired from the entertainment industry in 1973. After her retirement, she established herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s, she generated controversy by criticizing immigration and Islam in France and has been fined five times for inciting racial hatred. Bardot was born on September 28, 1934.
Debbie Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known as the lead singer of the new wave and punk rock band Blondie. She recorded several No.1 singles with Blondie and is sometimes considered the first rapper to chart at number one in the United States as well, due to her vocals on “Rapture.” She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she recorded and performed with The Jazz Passengers. Her acting career spans over 30 film roles and numerous television appearances. She was born on July 1, 1945.
Carmen Miranda was a Portuguese Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress and film star who was popular from the 1930s to the 1950s. In 1940, she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, with Don Ameche and Betty Grable. In the same year, Miranda was invited to sing and dance for President Franklin Roosevelt. Nicknamed “The Brazilian Bombshell,” she was noted for her Latin accent, exotic clothing and signature fruit hat outfit she wore in her American films, particularly in The Gang’s All Here (1943). By 1945, she was the highest paid woman in the U.S. Miranda made a total of 14 Hollywood films. She was the first Latin American star to be invited to imprint her hands and feet in the courtyard of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, in 1941. Miranda was also the first South American to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was born on February 9, 1909.
P.S. The United Fruit Company took advantage of the Carmen Miranda craze by creating the cartoon mascot Chiquita Banana. Speaking of which, consider this matchup: Carmen Miranda vs. Chiquita Banana. Fight!
Grace Kelly was an American film actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, she appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. She starred in films from 1953 to 1956, including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and The Country Girl (in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance). She retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier and enter upon her duties in Monaco. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. She was born on November 12, 1929 and died on September 14, 1982.
Ruth Elizabeth “Bette” Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in cinema history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was reputed for her performances in a range of film genres. Davis was the first person to secure 10 Academy Award nominations for acting, winning two. Some of her most celebrated films include All About Eve (1950), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Now, Voyager (1942). Davis was born on April 5, 1908 and died on October 6, 1989.
Elizabeth “Betty” Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer. She appeared in several smash-hit musical films in the 1940s, including Mother Wore Tights (1947). Grable was celebrated for having the most beautiful legs in Hollywood and studio publicity widely dispersed photos featuring them. Her iconic bathing suit poster for Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943) made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the Life magazine project 100 Photographs that Changed the World. Grable’s legs were famously insured by her studio for a million dollars with Lloyds of London. She was born on this day in 1916.
Greta Garbo was a Swedish film actress and an international star and icon during Hollywood’s silent and classic periods. Garbo was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress and received an honorary one in 1954 for her “luminous and unforgettable screen performances.” She is best known for starring in Anna Karenina (1935), Camille (1936) and Ninotchka (1939). In 1941, she retired at the age of 35 after appearing in 28 films. Although she was offered many opportunities to return to the screen, she declined all of them. Instead, she lived a private life, shunning publicity. She was born on this day in 1905.
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards and the Tony Award for Best Actress. Bergman is best remembered for her starring roles in Casablanca (1942) and Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946). She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. Bergman was born on this day in 1915 and died in 1982 on her 67th birthday.
Josephine Baker was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Born in St. Louis, she became a citizen of France in 1937. Fluent in both English and French, Baker was an international icon, perhaps best known for her infamous banana dance. She was the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, Zouzou (1934), integrate an American concert hall and become a world-famous entertainer. Baker is also noted for her contributions to the civil rights movement in the United States, for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for receiving the French military honor, the Croix de guerre.
Note: Baker was offered the unofficial leadership of the civil rights movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., but turned it down.
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century. During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best known as Fred Astaire’s romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of 10 Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940) and was Hollywood’s highest paid star of 1942. She was married and divorced five times. During the last years of her life Rogers retired in Oregon and bought a ranch in the Medford area because she liked the climate. She was born on this day in 1911.
Ginger Rogers was one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam in 1943. That picture, along with other photos and newspaper cuttings of WWII-era stars and heroes, can still be seen on the walls of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Heidi and I and visited the Anne Frank House, located on the Prinsengracht canal, in October 2012. The experience elicited both fascination and sorrow; the building is charged with strong emotional energy.
Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character who originally appeared in the Talkartoons and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios. She has also been featured in comic strips and mass merchandising. Betty Boop was created as an anthropomorphic French poodle in 1930, but was transformed into a caricature of singer Helen Kane by 1932. In the mid-1930s, her carefree flapper persona was toned down to appear more demure.
Veronica Lake was an American film actress and pin-up model. She received both popular and critical acclaim, most notably for her role in Sullivan’s Travels and for her femme fatale roles in film noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s. Lake was well known for her peekaboo hairstyle. She died of complications of alcoholism in 1973.
Note: Lake was one of the models for the animated character of Jessica Rabbit in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, especially for her hairstyle.
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who garnered fame during the 1940s as one of the era’s top stars. Appearing first as Rita Cansino, she agreed to change her name and dye her hair dark red to attract a greater range of roles. She was featured on the cover of Life magazine five times, beginning in 1940. Hayworth appeared in a total of 61 films over 37 years.
Sophia Loren is an Italian actress. In 1962, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance. Loren has won several international awards, including a Golden Globe, a Grammy, a BAFTA Award and a Laurel Award. She was born on this day in 1934.
Note: The risqué negligee worn by 8-bit Sophia Loren is from an iconic photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The controversial shot appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1966. It caused many Life readers to cancel their subscriptions. See more beautiful Eisenstaedt photos of Loren from 1961.
Mae West was a controversial American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades. Known for her bawdy double entendres, she made a name for herself in burlesque and vaudeville, and on the stage in New York, before moving to Hollywood in 1932. The American Film Institute named West 15th among the greatest female stars of all time. She was born on this day in 1893.
Roger Rabbit’s buxom human wife in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the 1988 live-action/animated adaptation of the 1981 mystery novel. In the film, Jessica is portrayed as a sultry cartoon singer at a Los Angeles club. She is one of the most famous sex symbols on the animated screen. “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way,” she claims.
An American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur born on this day in 1958. Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is the world’s top-selling female recording artist of all time. The Queen of Pop is known for reinventing her image and her music. One trend was the Gaultier cone-bra corset from her 1990 Blond Ambition Tour.
Norma Jeane was born on this day in 1926. She became a cultural icon and American sex symbol. Yankees star Joe DiMaggio was one of her three husbands. She allegedly had affairs with both John and Robert Kennedy. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1962, but conspiracy theories about the nature of her death abound.
A glamorously elfin British actress and UNICEF humanitarian. She was a film and fashion icon of the 20th century and possibly the loveliest actress to ever grace the silver screen.
Ginger Rogers – No. 647
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio and television throughout much of the 20th century. During her long career, she made a total of 73 films, and was best known as Fred Astaire’s romantic interest and dancing partner in a series of 10 Hollywood musical films that revolutionized the genre. Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Kitty Foyle (1940) and was Hollywood’s highest paid star of 1942. She was married and divorced five times. During the last years of her life Rogers retired in Oregon and bought a ranch in the Medford area because she liked the climate. She was born on this day in 1911.
Ginger Rogers was one of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam in 1943. That picture, along with other photos and newspaper cuttings of WWII-era stars and heroes, can still be seen on the walls of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Heidi and I and visited the Anne Frank House, located on the Prinsengracht canal, in October 2012. The experience elicited both fascination and sorrow; the building is charged with strong emotional energy.