Kitty Carlisle Hart, legendary actress, arts advocate and socialite, whose career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film, passed away today at the age of 96.
Christopher Hart said his mother “passed away peacefully” at home. “She had such a wonderful life, and a great long run, it was a blessing.”
An advocate for the arts, Hart served 20 years on the New York State Council on the Arts and in 1991 was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Arts from the first President Bush.
Hart was born September 3rd, 1910 in New Orleans, Louisiana and moved to New York in 1932 after being educated abroad.
She began her acting career on Broadway and her film roles include the classic Marx Brothers movie “A Night at the Opera,” “She Loves Me Not” and “Here Is My Heart,” opposite Bing Crosby, Woody Allen’s “Radio Days” and “Six Degrees of Separation.”
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.”
From 1956 to 1967, she appeared on the classic CBS prime-time game show “To Tell the Truth”. The popular show also had runs, in daytime and in syndicated versions.
Hart’s late husband was Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Moss Hart, who wrote “You Can’t Take It With You” and “The Man Who Came to Dinner” with George S. Kaufman and won a Tony for directing “My Fair Lady” on Broadway.
Source: Variety
