Farewell, Eartha Kitt

[filkertom]

Great sadness. Singer, actress, and sex goddess Eartha Kitt has passed away at the age of 81.

The three things I love her best for are:

• "Santa Baby" (the original, often covered, never ever even approached let alone duplicated)
• The third Catwoman
• Ysma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove

Thanks to twfarlan for the heads-up.

So, who were the icons that got you through puberty? No details necessary, obviously. Just... who did you think was sexy, when you were figuring out what "sexy" was? For me, Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Barbara Eden, Lola Falana, Nichelle Nichols, Joey Heatherton (okay, I was shallow), Teri Garr, Rita Moreno, Shirley Jones (especially in The Music Man, dayumm), Fay Wray. Velma Dinkley. (No relation to Roy Hinkley, as far as I know.) Raquel Welch, but it was (obviously) all in the boobs.

ETA: A few more names. Ahhh, nostalgia.

Comments

[coldironkiss.livejournal.com]

Right after Bettie. I was too young to see them in their prime, but both women have always seemed larger than life to me. I feel very small today.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Only one. Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel in The Avengers.

See, you have to take care of women. That's your assigned role if you're a man. Unlike every other woman I've ever met in my life, Mrs. Peel didn't need or require a man's assistance - moreso in the early black-and-white episodes than the later color ones, when too many people thought Mrs. Peel was a lesbian or something like that.

Mrs. Peel didn't have to be with Mr. Steed for protection. She just wanted to be with him. As I say, unlike every other woman on Earth.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I didn't encounter Mrs. Peel until later -- damn lack of reruns -- but she was phenomenal.

[bald-ruminant.livejournal.com]

I'd have to say Markie Post, Catherine Bach, Jan Smithers, and Kathleen Turner.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

When I was growing up, I didn't know any of their names, but I sure knew their looks. Teri Garr (from Assignment Earth), Rachel Welch from a few random movies (mmmm cavewoman fur bikini), Julie Newmar (she will always be *the* Catwoman to me), Barbara Eden (from I Dream of Jeanie), Dianna Riggs from The Avengers (which I only saw maybe six episodes of unfortunately). I am sure that I am forgetting others, and some shows I saw as late reruns rather than when they first aired so my time sense of them is off.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Farrah
Charlie's Angels
gotta second Catherine Bach
Olivia Neutron Bomb Newton-John
Sheena Easton
and, yeah, Raquel Welch, esp. in The Thornbirds.

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

The ones that come to mind just offhand:
Diana Rigg
Erin Gray
Olivia Newton-John (in particular, there was something about the poster for Xanadu that just got me. The movie itself, of course, was utter dreck...)

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

I love Xanadu; it's one of my favorite movies. It might not have much of a plot, but the music was (and still is) wonderful.

[poltr1]

Two words: Lynda Carter. She still looks hot!

[jenk]

Mm. Puberty, where things went from "Oh Shiny" to "Mmm". That mostly happened with people in person, but I recall a few...

Catherine Bach.
Toms Selleck, Cruise, and Wopat.
Marina Sirtis.
Jonathan Frakes.
Patti Scialfa & Clarence Clemmons

[n-e-star.livejournal.com]

Picks from a young'in.

Wil Wheaton aka the main reason I watched TNG.
Keven Costner aka the reason I still love Robin Hood in any form.
Jonathan Brandas aka the cover of the only Teen Beat I ever bought.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

And she was still hot.

[sffilk.livejournal.com]

DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We'll miss you, Earrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtha!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... thinking back to around 1967...

Ann-Margaret, the most beautiful woman in Hollywood with an intact hyphen, Brigette Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn, and Raquel Welch for the movie stars. Julie Newmar, Nichelle Nichols, Barbara Eden, and Elizabeth Montgomery on TV. There was also *something* about Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins... a sense of still waters that ran very deep.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I find both Audrey Hepburn and Julie Andrews incredibly beautiful... but, for some reason, I never got the resonant "sexy" vibe from them until much later. Same with Katherine Hepburn. Go fig.

[maikujaku.livejournal.com]

Aside from Miss Piggy, Eartha Kitt was my favorite version of Santa Baby. And not to mention I'm a Disney and DC comics fan, double ouch there.

[saganth.livejournal.com]

What's "ouch" about a lady who likes DC Comics?? :)

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

Debbie Harry. no one else was even close.

You know,

[capplor.livejournal.com]

my father used to go drinking with Shirley Jones. She IS old enough to be your mother.

Sigh. Sadly, the female equivalent of an answer would probably only be considered laughable today.

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

Michelle "Ensign Ro" Forbes. Barbara Bach, Famke Janssen, Michelle Yeoh. Karen Allen. Uma Thurman. Catharine Zeta-Jones.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Having grown up on reruns of Batman and Buck Rogers I have to say that I always though Ertha Kit was one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. But my biggest crush of all time was Erin Gray. I actually got the chance to meet her in person at Gen Con one year and she was very nice. :) Still beautiful too in my opinion.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar, and Yvonne Craig (Batgirl); both of the "unmarried" women on Gilligan's Island (Tina Louise as Ginger, and especially Dawn Wells as Maryann); Diana Rigg; Barbara Eden; Raquel Welch; the brunettes (Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith) in Charlie's Angels; Goldie Hawn...the list goes on, but this is a fair sprinkling up through the teen years.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Dawn Wells almost made it onto the list above. It took me awhile to equate her style of beauty with "sexy", possibly in her case because they made so much of how "sexy" Tina Louise was. More like intimidating/maddening....

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Ah yes... that Voice, Those legs, Those Eyes.

She was Purrrrr-fect

[mishboi.livejournal.com]

Audrey Hepburn and Katherine Hepburn.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

Leonard Nimoy.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[darrenzieger.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I think my earliest sex symbol was Bo Derek (I was 11 when "10" came out). Luckily, I quickly lost my taste for that kind of thing -- she is the precise opposite of what I find attractive as an adult. Add to that that she's an outspoken Republican (like anyone gives a shit what she says), and George Carlin's assessment of Marilyn Quayle, "I wouldn't fuck her with a stolen dick," comes to mind.

Generally, I didn't go in much for movie/tv stars, though I seem to recall digging most of the distaff contingent of the brat pack.

Mostly, I went for the oddballs and nerds among celebrities - or at least the ones whose roles/personae were on the odd side. Joan Cusak (going back to her small role in "My Bodyguard") was one. Cyndi Lauper did it for me (still does).

That's all I can think of at the moment, though there were several more.

Mostly I was much more interested in the girls next door - with a discouraging tendency (which persists today) to develop literally hopeless crushes on women who turned out to be (or I already knew were) lesbians. It was around then that I developed the habit of smiting my forehead, which is not a common gesture these days. Eventually, when I was in college, the exclamation "D'oh!" entered the American lexicon, which gave me the option of switching off between the two or, more often, combining them.

I seemed to have wandered way off the topic, so I'll just add that I too am quite saddened that we've lost Ms. Kitt. I was never particularly into her as a performer, but I appreciated her talents and her uniqueness. Truly, has there ever been anyone else like her in show business. Or, for that matter, the known universe?

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Ah, the women who shaped my life...

Barbara Eden, not in "Jeanie" but in "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lo". The scenes where she's hearing the pan flute... ahh, that "Prim on the outside" "wanton woman on the inside" thing

Diana Rigg: Emma was perfect. Funny, dangerous, hip, amazing to look at. Showed women on TV weren't all Harriot Nelson.

Julie Newmar: First, Stupidfy'n Jones, then "Catwoman". The grace, the height, those eyes, that body, and a delicious amoral streak.

But Number One: Rachel Welch, particularly in "Fantastic Voyage". Never wanted to be an antibody more in my life!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I just got Dr. Lao on DVD the other week. That is indeed one of the hottest scenes evar.

[voiceofkiki.livejournal.com]

Considering the odd mix of old and new stuff I watched as a kid, some of these may surprise you... (This covers about 10 years old through high school, btw.)

Alan Rickman - Seeing him for the first time was the exact moment my brain flipped from "boys are icky" to "HOT DAMN GIMME BOYS!" Still a fave.
Don Adams - I like humor. I thought he was sexy. What?
Ted Raimi - Still love him. Why do you think I became a linguist?
James Spader - The original Doctor Daniel Jackson. Again with the sexy screen linguists.
Jeffrey Combs - The eyes. The voice. And a cute butt, too. ;)
Geraint Wyn Davies - Started my fetish for Welshmen in waistcoats. Maybe vampires too...
David Yost - Billy, the original Blue Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Geeky and great bod.
Steve Burns - The original host of Blue's Clues. The only reason I watched insipid kid's tv in high school. Love his new indie rock persona, too.

That's enough for me. I appologize for nothing.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Don Adams? Oh, Kiki...I weep for you. I liked Get Smart as a kid. But later on, I asked someone at a dinner theater how it was when he did a couple of plays on the road. I was told he was a grouch and an egotist. (Well, if I was only known for doing one cliched voice I'd probably be grouchy too. He went to his grave as Maxwell Smart, and not even his stint on "The Movie Game" changed that.)

[vik_thor]

Sad to hear Eartha has left us... :_(

Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club.

Miss Cyndi Lauper! (I always thought she deserved to be more famous than Madonna)

I was pretty much in the closet during high school, so sadly 2 of my 'sex symbols' only exist on the printed page. Conan (well, yes, the Governator did portray him on screen, but the b/w comic is much better.) and Cosmic Boy / Rokk Krin (especially in his Mike Grell costume.)