Eartha Mae Kitt (Jan 17, 1927 â Dec 25, 2008) was a multifaceted American talent – actress, singer, cabaret star, dancer, comedian, activist, and voice artist.
Known for her unique voice, she scored big with 1953 hits âCâest Si Bonâ and âSanta Baby,â both US Top 10. She shone as Catwoman in Batmanâs final season (1967). Orson Welles dubbed her âthe most exciting woman in the world.â
Meet Michelle Thomas, born September 23, 1968 or â69, an American actress and comedian who passed December 22 or 23, 1998. She was known as Justine Phillips on NBCâs The Cosby Show (â88ââ90) and as Myra Monkhouse, Steve Urkelâs girlfriend, on ABC/CBSâs Family Matters (â93ââ98).
Meet Grace Patricia Kelly, born November 12, 1929, an American actress who leveled up to Princess of Monaco after marryinâ Prince Rainier III in April â56. She kicked off her actinâ career in 1950 at 20, hittinâ the stage in New York City and poppinâ up in over 40 episodes of live drama shows durinâ the early â50s Golden Age of TV.
Meet Candice Ann Rialson (December 18, 1951 – March 31, 2006), aka Candy Rialson, an American actress who lit up the screen in Hollywood Boulevard (1976).
Meet Kerry McGregor (October 30, 1974 â January 4, 2012), a Scottish singer-songwriter and actress from West Lothian. She lit up the stage on the third UK series of The X Factor, mentored by Sharon Osbourne. Sadly, Kerry passed away on January 4, 2012, from complications of bladder cancer, which she battled for years.
Meet Christa Speck, born August 1, 1942, in Danzig, Germany (now GdaĆsk, Poland), passed away March 22, 2013. She was a German model and actress who got picked as Playboyâs Playmate of the Month for September 1961 and crowned Playmate of the Year in 1962.
Sam Wu shot her iconic pictorial. She later tied the knot with Marty Krofft, a big name in kidsâ TV production. Her centerfold even popped up in the 1978 flick Animal House, set in 1962. Christa left us at 70 from natural causes at her Los Angeles crib.
Meet Susan Strasberg (May 22, 1938 â January 21, 1999), an American actress who lit up the stage, big screen, and TV. She was known for flicks like The Manitou, Psych-Out, Le sorelle, and In Praise of Older Women.
Jennifer Nitsch (born December 10, 1966, in Cologne, passed June 13, 2004, in Munich) was a German TV actress. She kicked things off with small parts in shows like Forsthaus Falkenau, Derrick, Der Alte, and Freunde fĂŒrs Leben in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
She also hit the big screen early, snaggin’ a minor role in Boomerang (1989) by Hans Wilhelm GeiĂendörfer. Her first major movie gig was a lead in Sönke Wortmannâs Alone Among Women (1990). Nitsch blew up in ’93 with the starring role in ZDFâs Nur eine kleine AffĂ€re, earninâ her the Adolf Grimme Prize and the Bavarian Television Prize the next year.
Carmen Miranda, GCIH âą OMC (February 9, 1909 â August 5, 1955) was a Luso-Brazilian samba singer, dancer, Broadway actress, and film star who was popular from the 1930s to the 1950s.
Miranda became a popular radio and film star in Brazil in the late 1920s. Her first albums soon made her a national star. Miranda’s career in Brazil as a singer of samba was established in the 1920s and 1930s, when she recorded gramophone records, performed regularly on the radio stations of Rio de Janeiro, and was featured in many of the first sound films or chanchadas made in Brazil. By the mid-1930s she had become the most popular female Brazilian singer. Lee Shubert, a Broadway businessman, offered Carmen Miranda an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris on Broadway after seeing her perform in a casino in Urca, Rio de Janeiro in 1939.
In 1940, she made her first Hollywood film, Down Argentine Way, with Don Ameche and Betty Grable; her exotic clothing and Latin accent became her trademark. In the same year, she was voted the third most popular personality in the United States, and was invited to sing and dance for President Franklin Roosevelt, along with her group, Bando da Lua. Nicknamed “The Brazilian Bombshell”, Carmen Miranda is noted for her signature fruit hat outfit she wore in her American films, particularly in 1943’s The Gang’s All Here. By 1945, she was the highest paid woman in the United States.
Miranda made a total of fourteen Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953. Though hailed as a talented performer, her popularity waned by the end of World War II. She later grew to resent the stereotypical “Brazilian Bombshell” image she cultivated and attempted to break free of it, with limited success. Undaunted, Miranda focused increasingly on her nightclub appearances, also becoming a fixture on television variety showsâindeed, for all the stereotyping she faced throughout her career, her performances made huge strides in popularizing Brazilian music, while at the same time paving the way for the increasing awareness of all Latin culture.
Carmen Miranda 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. She became the first South American to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is considered the precursor of Brazil’s Tropicalismo cultural movement of the 1960s. A museum was later constructed in Rio de Janeiro in her honor, and in 1995 she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business.
Cynthia Jeanette Myers (September 12, 1950 â November 4, 2011) was an American model and actress. She made waves as Playboy magazineâs Playmate of the Month for the December 1968 issue.
Chyna, born Joan Marie Laurer (December 27, 1969 â c. April 20, 2016), was an American professional wrestler, glamour model, pornographic film actress, and bodybuilder. Renowned for her groundbreaking role in professional wrestling, she became a prominent figure in the industry with her powerful presence and unique persona.
Suzanne Pleshette (January 31, 1937 â January 19, 2008) was an American actress and voice talent. She kicked off her career on the stage before jumpinâ into films in the late 1950s.
She starred in big-time movies like Rome Adventure (1962) and Alfred Hitchcockâs The Birds (1963). Later, she popped up in all sorts of TV gigs, often as a guest star, and played Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 to 1978, nabbinâ several Emmy nods for her work. She kept actinâ until 2004, just four years before she passed.
