The Faces of Comic Book Super Villainess Catwoman

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The first woman to bring the comic book bad girl Catwoman to life and set the bar was the sexy siren Julie Newmar. Her father was a former football player (Los Angeles Buccaneers) and her mother was a retired Ziegfeld dancer from the '20s. Newmar not only had beauty but the brains as well, graduating at the age of 15 can attest to that. Her first few movies were either uncredited or under the name Newmeyer most notable of this time was her appearance in Serpent of the Nile (1953) where she appeared in nothing but gold paint. Then her popularity rose even more in '54 with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. After this she hit Broadway with Ziegfeld's follies playing in Silk Stockings in '55 then in Lil Abner as Stupefying Jones in '56 and in The Marriage Go Round. Newmar also played in both film production of Lil Abner and The Marriage Go Round as well, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress. During the next few years Newmar appeared in a number of TV series such as Route 66 (1962), The Twilight Zone (1963), Beverly Hillbillies (1966) and Star Trek (1967). She also played Rhonda the robot in the cult classic My Living Doll from '64 - '65 but her real fame came when she became Catwoman in the 1966 version of Batman which she played till

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1968. After her run as Catwoman, her acting career took a downward motion only playing bit roles in a few shows such as Get Smart, Bewitched, The Bionic Woman, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Hart to Hart.

In '77 Julie Newmar married John Holt Smith and at the age of 48, she had her first child. The marriage lasted only until '83 and then in '92 she appeared in the music video Too Funky by George Michael.
During the '70s and '80s Julie came up with her own brand of pantyhose called Nudemar. In the early '80s she also returned to school for real estate and has since made quite the fortune from it. These days Julie is still busy participating in conventions and she's still as beautiful as she ever was. In '95 the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar was an homage to her altho she only made a few mintues appearance in it at the very end.

Who would have thought that the comic book Supervillainess, Catwoman would start out first as Miss America in 1955? Well Lee Meriweather did at least. And yes, I know what you're saying. Lee Meriwether wasn't the second Catwoman, Eartha Kitt was, but no she wasn't. Lee Meriwether played Catwoman aka Kitka in the Batman movie which came out in 1966 (prior commitments prevented Julie Newmar from playing in the movie) and Eartha Kitt wasn't Catwoman until the final season of the Batman series which was in 1967. Which made Kitt the third face for the Comic Book Supervillainess.

Meriwether's big film debut was in 1959 in 4D Man and she also did a lot of tv series as well such as Dragnet (1958), Leave It To Beaver (1961), Dr Kildare (1963 - 1965), The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1965), Perry Mason (1965), My Three Sons (1965 - 1966) and The Fugitive (1966) before playing Kitka (Catwoman) in the 1966 Batman movie. Meriwether never did play Catwoman in the tv series but she did play in a couple of episodes in the role of Lisa Carson in the series. Going from Catwoman to Time Tunnel in 1966 - '67. In '69 Meriwether also got the chance to play in The Undefeated with John Wayne and Rock Hudson as well as Angel In My Pocket with Andy Griffith.

Over the next couple of years Lee played in a few different tv series such as Mission: Impossible, The New Andy Griffith Show and The F.B.I.. Then in 1973 she teamed up with Buddy Ebsen to play Betty Jones, Ebsen's daughter-in-law doing a cross over episode with Cannon in 1975. The show continued until 1980. Meriwether went on to play bit parts in tv series during the '80s like The Love Boat ('81 - '84), Fantasy Island ('83) and Hotel ('89). Then from '87 - '91 Lee took over the role of Lily Munster in the remake of The Munsters Today, which made her popular in the UK. Along with more bit parts in series like Jake and The Fatman ('91), Murder, She Wrote ('85 - '95) and Touched By An Angel (2000). In '96 Meriwether entered the role of Ruth Martin in All My Children until '99 when negotiations with her agents broke down and ABC brought back Mary Fickett to play the role instead, until the end of 2000 when Fickett went into full retirement. In 2002 they wanted to revise the role of Ruth Martin and Fickett refused to come out of retirement, Meriwether was brought back and to the present day she continues to play the recurring role on All My Children.

Earth Kitt established herself in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television. By the time she was 20, Eartha was a featured dancer and vocalist in the Katherine Dunham Dance

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Troupe and touring Europe where she was seen my Orson Wells who was quoted as calling her "the most exciting woman in the world" and had hired her to play Helen of Troy in his production of Dr. Faust. When she got back to the States she was seen by Leonard Stillman, who included her in New Faces of 1952. Which lasted for a year and ended up leading her into recording contracts. Some of her more famous songs being Love for Sale, I Want to Be Evil and Santa Baby. Kitt made her film debut in 1957 in The Mark of the Hawk with Sidney Poitier. Other of her movies during this time were Anna Lucasta with Sammy Davis, Jr. and St Louis Blues with Nat King Cole. During this time Kitt also published her first autobiography called Thursday's Child. Then in 1967, Kitt became the second Catwoman after Julie Newmar was unable to continue for the third season of Batman.

During Lyndon Johnson administration, Eartha made her feelings well known on the Vietnam War while at a dinner in the White House. After which she was pretty much banned from performing in the United States and ended up having to travel overseas for work. Eartha didn't return to the States until 1974 with a concert in Carneige Hall. In '76 she published her second autobiography called Alone With Me. Her third autobiography was published in 1989 which is I'm Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten. In 2001 she released her fitness and positive attitude book called Rejuvenate (It's Never Too Late).

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Eartha's first love was always live theater so over the next few years she did a lot of Broadway shows such as George Wolfe's The Wild Party, National Tours The Wizard of Oz and Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella along with a few appearances in movies like Boomerange with Eddie Murphy and Harriet The Spy. Along with some voice over work in animated shows like The Emperor's New Groove, The Emperor's New Groove 2: Kronk's New Groove, The Emperor's New School, The Jungle Book and My Life As A Teenage Robot.

On December 25, 2008, Eartha Kitt passed away at home from colon cancer, leaving behind her daughter Kitt from her marriage to William MacDonald from 1960 - 1964 and 2 grandchildren.

My favorite Catwoman started out as a clerk in a grocery store, heading off to college with ambitions of being a stenographer but decided against that and get into acting instead. So she entered a beauty contest to meet one of the judges who happened to be an agent, low and behold she ended up being Miss Orange County and got a bit part on the tv series

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Fantasy Island. In '79 she got a part in the tv series Delta House (an Animal House inspired sitcom). During this time Michelle Pfeiffer met and married Peter Horton. Starting out in small bits in movies like Falling In Love (1980), The Children Nobody Wanted (1981), and Callie and Son (1981) got Pfeiffer noticed enough to land the lead role in the remake of Grease 2 (Young Artist nomination, altho the movie wasn't much of a hit, Pfeiffer managed to get even more noticed with not just her musical talents but enough to land the role of Al Pacino's wife in the movie Scarface. Brian De Palma who was the director for Scarface didn't want Pfeiffer in the movie after watching Grease 2 but after pressure from the producer, De Palms relented. A couple more low rated movies such as Into The Night and LadyHawke (nominated for Saturn Award for Best Actress) along with an afterschool special still didn't diminish Pfeiffer's talents. Then in 1987, she got to really show her talents opposite Jack Nicholson (who played the Joker in Batman with Michael Keaton), Cher and Susan Sarandon in The Witches of Eastwick. In '88 Pfeiffer and Horton ended their marriage but Pfeiffer's career was really starting to take off landing roles in movies like Married To The Mob (1988) which she got to show her comedic side in, Tequila Sunrise with Kurt Russell and Mel Gibson (one of my favorite movies), Dangerous Liasons with Glenn Close and John Malkovich and The Fabulous Baker Brothers ('89) with Jeff and Beau Bridges where once again she gets to show off her musical talents. In 1990 Pfeiffer adopted a Russian accent and landed the leading role in Russia House getting herself a third Golden Globe nomination. Her next role, reuniting her with her Scarface co-star Al Pacino was in Frankie and Johnny. Most didn't think she was suited for the role which is basically why she took the role. Once again earning another Golden Globe nomination. '92 brought two excellent roles for Pfeiffer. Love Fields which brought her, her third Academy Award nomination and fifth Golden Globe nomination. And the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns. While preparing for the role she trained in martial arts and kickboxing. It also brought her, her adopted daughter Claudia Rose. 1993 brought her sixth nomination for a Golden Globe award in Age of Innocence with Daniel Day Lewis and Winona Ryder. It also brought her a blind date in the form of David E Kelley, her present husband and by August of the next year she gave birth to their second child, son John Henry.

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The next few years brought her mixed reviews with her movie choices. 1994 reunited her with Jack Nicholson in Wolf, in '95 it was Dangerous Minds (another of my fav movies), which was based on LouAnne Johnson's real life story, Up Close and Personal with Robert Redford in '96, which was suppose to be based on the real life of news reporter Jessica Savitch but by the time it was finished it was nothing like Savitch's life at all, (if you liked The Way We Were, you'll love this one even more), she also got a chance to produce as well as star in One Fine Day along with another Batman actor George Clooney. Then in 1999, Pfeiffer decided to try her hand at Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2000, she played in the thriller What Lies Beneath with Harrison Ford, if you like the "sit on the edge of your seat, make sure the lights are on" type movies this one would be perfect. From 2001 - 2003 Pfeiffer's movies included I Am Sam, White Oleander and doing a voice over in Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.
For the next 4 years Pfeiffer went on hiatus and pretty much disappeared from the public to concentrate on her husband and children. In 2007 her return was in I Could Never Be Your Woman, Hairspray and Stardust. Her present movies include Cheri and Personal Effects with Ashton Kurcher.

Pfeiffer has played with four different Batman actors over the years. With Michael Keaton in Batman Returns ('92), in the afternoon special ('72) and The Prince of Egypt ('98) with Val Kilmer, in One Fine Day with George Clooney ('96) and in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Christian Bale ('98). She also played in two different movies with Micheal Keaton's Joker, Jack Nicholson ('87 Witches of Eastwick and '94 Wolf).

After graduating from high school Halle Berry went on to work in a department in her home town of Cleveland, Ohio before heading off to college. From there she went on to beauty

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pagents and ended up winning Miss Teen All-American in 1985 and Miss Ohio USA in 1986. Also in 1986 she was also first runner up in Miss USA. From there Berry went onto Illinois to pursue a modeling and acting career and ended up on tv getting her first appearance in Living Dolls in 1989 and a recurring role in the nighttime soap opera Knots Landing from (1991 - 1992). Berry got her first big break through film in Jungle Fever ('91) as a drug addict. During that year she also got roles in Strictly Business and The Last Boy Scount (with Bruce Willis and Damon Wayan). In '92 she was matched as Eddie Murphy's love interest in Boomerang. Shortly after midnight on January 1 of '93 Berry married former baseball player David Justice, unfortunately it didn't last and they were divorced by '97. 1993 was another good year for Halle Berry first appearing in the tv miniseries Queen: The Story of an American Family, Fatherhood with Patrick Swayze and then in The Program with James Cann and then went on to play Sharon Stone in The Flintstones in '94. In the mid '90s, Berry started to turn toward more serious roles such as a drug addict who had lost her son in Losing Isiah opposite Jessica Lange, then in Excecutive Decision along with Kurt Russell and then playing in the true story of Sandra Beecher in Racing the Sun.

Also in '96, Berry became spokesperson for Revlon for the next seven years and then in

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2004 she renewed her contract with them. In '97 was also the year that Berry met musican Eric Benet, they married in 2001, seperated in '03 and divorced in '05. In 1999 played Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American to ever be nominated for Best Actress Academy Award and ironically enough in 2001 Berry was the first and still the only, African-American actress to actually win the Best Actress Academy Award for her work in Monster's Ball with Billy Bob Thornton. Halle Berry played her first comic book character in 2000 in X-Men as Storm and then revised it again in X2 (2003) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In 2002 she also became one of the bond girls along Pierce Brosnan who played Bond. In 2005 Berry received yet another award. The Razzie Award for the worst actress in her portrayal of Catwoman. A movie that had very little to do with Batman. The one good thing about 2005 for Berry was meeting her present love interest, French Canadian supermodel Gabriel Aubry and in 2008 she gave birth to their daughter, Nahla Ariela Aubry.

Adrienne Barbeau: was the first voice for the comic book supervillainess Catwoman in the animated series from 1992 - 1995 in Batman: The Animated Series, then from '97 - '98 in The New Batman. Then one more time in Gotham Girls in 2002. Most will remember Andrienne from the tv series Maude with Bea Arthur in 1978 and Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds and Dom Deluise in 1981.

Courtney Thorne Smith: most will remember her from Melrose Place (1992 - 1997), Ally McBeal (1997 - 2002) or According to Jim with James Belushi (2001 - 2009). But in 2005 she was the voice of Catwoman in Batman: New Times.

Gina Gershon: From 2005 - 2007 it was Gina Gershon's voice you heard as the voice of Catwoman in The Batman. Another actress from Melrose Place (1993). Or you may recognize her voice from Spider-Man (2003) she was Shikata.

And you can see more of the voices for the Comic Book Supervillainess, Catwomen in just one episode here and there.