By Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
Kitty Carlisle Hart, shown in 2004, sang in the 1935 classic "A Night at the Opera."
HOLLYWOOD — Kitty Carlisle Hart, an actress and singer who earned a niche in movie history by singing in the Marx Brothers' "A Night at the Opera" but who achieved her greatest fame as a panelist on television's "To Tell the Truth," has died. She was 96.
Ms. Carlisle, the widow of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Moss Hart and former longtime chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday night at her New York apartment, her son, Christopher Hart, said Wednesday. She had been in poor health since contracting pneumonia in December.
Kitty Carlisle, as she was known professionally, was a regular panelist on "To Tell the Truth" from 1956 to 1977 on both CBS and a syndicated version of the popular quiz show. The well-dressed, carefully coiffed Ms. Carlisle, who had an opera-trained voice and precise diction, brought an air of sophistication and Manhattan glamour to the show.
She was born Catherine Conn in New Orleans on Sept. 3, 1910. Her strong-minded mother played a crucial role in Ms. Carlisle's life, making her practice piano for two hours a day beginning at 6, and also taking her to concerts and to the opera.
"I was a shy, introverted child, and Mother educated me, kept pushing me and gave me discipline; but she was too hard on me," Ms. Carlisle told the Palm Beach Post in 2002. "She would say things like, 'Your performance was fine, but that F-sharp was a little too acid, don't you think?' Oh, boy! You know what that can do for you."
After her father, a physician, died when she was 10, Ms. Carlisle and her mother moved to Europe. She attended the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
She began her acting career on Broadway in "Champagne Sec" and went on to appear in many other Broadway productions, including the 1984 revival of "On Your Toes." In 1967 she made her operatic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in "Die Fledermaus" and created the role of Lucretia in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's "Rape of Lucretia."
Ms. Carlisle's film career began in 1934; in "Murder at the Vanities," she sang "Cocktails for Two," a song later made famous in a spoof by Spike Jones.
On loan to MGM, Ms. Carlisle played the ingenue part of the opera singer in the 1935 comedy "A Night at the Opera," which became one of the Marx Brothers' biggest hits.
She married Hart in 1946. They had two children, Catherine and Christopher. Catherine, a medical doctor, and Christopher, a director, writer and producer, survive her, along with three grandchildren.
Ms. Carlisle once described the death of her husband in 1961 as "the only real tragedy of my life." She never remarried.
In the ensuing years, she became a passionate advocate for the arts, serving as vice chairwoman of the New York State Council on the Arts from 1971 to 1976 when Gov. Hugh Carey appointed her chairwoman, a job she held for 20 years.
Over the decades, Ms. Carlisle continued to perform occasionally on stage, most notably in "Die Fledermaus" at New York City's Metropolitan Opera during the 1966-67 season; and she cropped up in an occasional movie, including Woody Allen's "Radio Days."
In 2002, at age 91, she was performing in her one-woman show, "My Life on the Wicked Stage," featuring songs and anecdotes about American musical theater. She was still performing until late last year.
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
1 comment:
Kitty had great hair dye.
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